The University of Florida's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and =20
the Department of English are pleased to announce the 2007 UF =20
Conference on Comics: "World Building: Seriality and History which =20
will be held in Gainesville, Florida, on March 3-4, 2007, in =20
conjunction with the annual Game and Digital Media Studies =20
Conference, which will be March 1-2.

This fifth annual conference on comics will focus on the construction =20=

of narrative worlds in comics, with particular emphasis on the =20
various temporalities of the medium. We are especially interested in =20
the ways temporality informs the status of comics as a serial medium =20
(both in terms of serial publication as well as the serialization of =20
time within the page) and the ways temporality relates to the =20
representation of history and memory within the narrative. This =20
could be in terms of personal and social history, as in Maus and =20
Persepolis, or in terms of internal narrative histories like =20
superhero retcons and crossovers.

Our keynote speakers for this year include Jeff Smith (Bone), Bryan =20
Talbot (The Tale of One Bad Rat, The Adventures of Luther Arkwright), =20=

Dylan Horrocks (Hicksville), and Gail Simone (Birds of Prey, Action =20
Comics).

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

Rewriting the world (Crisis on Infinite Earths, Infinite Crisis, =20
Grant Morrison's X-Men run, etc)

Multiple and collaborative authorship, and its role in the =20
development of long-running titles and strips

  Autobiography and personal history (Maus, Blankets, etc)

Alternate histories (Elseworlds, What If=85, fanfiction, etc.)

Depictions of "real" history (Vaughan's Pride of Bagdad, Joe Sacco's =20
work, Miller's 300)

Retcons (Gwen Stacy and Green Goblin's lovechild, X-Men: The Hidden =20
Years, etc)

Writers' time, artists' time, readers' time, and the comics page

Comics as ephemeral objects

Intersections and divergences of comics and history (Superheroes and =20
World War II, Millar's Superman: Red Son, etc)

The history of non-existent places (Bone, Elfquest, Cerebus, etc)

The history of the future in comics (Flash Gordon, Superman as Man of =20=

Tomorrow, etc)

Visual style and technique as world-building (Cages, Promethea, Bone, =20=

etc)

World-merging (DC buying Charlton and Fawcett, Alan Moore's merging =20
of Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan, etc)

Cliffhangers and serialization (Dick Tracy, Terry and the Pirates, etc)

Retellings of "classic" stories (Origin stories, Marvel's Ultimate =20
line, the iconic status of coming-of-age narratives in graphic =20
novels, etc)

Comics and (im)maturity ("When are you going to grow up and stop =20
reading comics?")

Non-standard serialization (Annuals, weeklies, Amazing Fantasy #16, =20
released in the 1990s, etc)

Depictions of trauma and repetition in comics (Persepolis, Stuck =20
Rubber Baby, Diary of a Young Girl, etc)

The transition of Marvel and DC from "lines" to "universes," and =20
universes created as such (Valiant, Milestone, Wildstorm, etc)

Political cartoons and the dialectic of history

We also encourage submissions that cross over with the Game and =20
Digital Media Studies conference, on the topic of "World Building: =20
Space and Community," particularly those that consider the role of =20
time and space across multiple media. We will also consider two-part =20
submissions on related topics to be presented across the two =20
conferences, and other proposals that push the formal constraints of =20
a conference presentation.

Abstract submissions should be approximately 250-500 words in length.
Presentations will be 15 minutes with 5 minutes of question and answer.
The deadline for abstract submissions is January 1st, 2007. Abstracts =20=

should be submitted via our online conference system, which is on the =20=

conference website at http://www.english.ufl.edu/worlds . Please =20
direct all questions to sandifer_at_english.ufl.edu.

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                         Full Information at
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         or write Jennifer Higginbotham: higginbj_at_english.upenn.edu
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Received on Thu Oct 12 2006 - 11:19:17 EDT