As in previous years, the editorial team of the Society for Comics Studies (ComFor) will take a brief holiday break. We wish a Happy New Year to all of our friends and members and hope that 2019 will be a successful year full of exciting reading experiences for all of us. We will be back on 7 January 2019 with regular news on comics studies. As usual, we will begin the new year with some reading recommendations by our ComFor members.

Happy holidays,
Robin-M. Aust, Alexandra Hentschel, Julia Ingold, Laura Oehme, Katharina Serles, Natalie Veith & Lukas R.A. Wilde

Twice already, in 2013 and 2015, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom organised the International Comic Competition “Animate Europe”. End of February, a seven-head strong international expert jury will again select seven comic artists who will then be asked to finish an eight-page graphic short story by Monday, 22. May 2017. The finalists will receive a grant of 800€. Their entries will be published in an anthology at the end of the competition and they will travel around Europe in form of a travelling exhibition. The winner will be announced at an award ceremony on 11 July 2017 at the Belgian Comic Strip Center in Brussels and will receive a prize of 500€.

Organizer’s announcement:
“We’re thrilled to announce that “Animate Europe” will be running for a third round, starting now! This time, we’re looking for your creative ideas to „Re-Animate Europe“! After many external crises and internal shake-ups, from the migration crisis to Brexit to a lack of trust, the once strong and confident body of the European Union seems tattered and tired. The European heartbeat has lost its rhythm. How can we help to get Europe back on its feet? Who or what will be the healer, who can find the magic potion for Europe’s ailing heart? Share your vision with us – send us your „medication“ for a healthy European heartbeat!”

Continue to the organizer’s page

10. Annual Conference of the „Gesellschaft für Comicforschung“ (ComFor)
04/09/2015 – 06/09/2015
Goethe-University Frankfurt, Campus Westend

As the title indicates, the contributions and discussions of the conference will focus on comics and graphic literature with a double perspective: One field of interest will consist of the historical topics and subjects, ranging from antiquity to contemporary history, that are depicted in works of sequential art from all over the world and attract the attention of a broad readership. Contributing considerably to an international archive of cultural memory, comics play an important role in academic research as both historical source material and as depictions and interpretations of historical events. This provides a fertile ground for interdisciplinary research that combines approaches from academic disciplines such as literature, art, media, and cultural studies and history in particular.

Another field of interest – closely linked to and in correspondence with the aspects mentioned above – consists of the historicisation of the phenomenon ‘comic’, its contemporary varieties and its readership(s) as well as the analysis of its international developments. Focusing on history and the historical in picture stories, it is adequate and relevant to ask about the lines of tradition of the medium and their preconditions: not least since the debates on new (or seemingly new) trends such as manga and graphic novel, seriality, media culture, the relation of comics and picture books, comics in traditional and modern media, etc. raise questions on the nature of graphic literature. Continue Reading

Welcome to the new ComFor homepage!
At present, it is still under construction. If you see something that needs improvement, please write to comfor@comicgesellschaft.de