Comics and Magazines: An (Italian) Phenomenon

deadline for submissions: 
September 30, 2018
full name / name of organization: 
NeMLA
contact email: 

Since its inception in 1908, the development of the comics medium in Italy has been marked by a profound symbiosis with magazines. Throughout the decades, the magazine as a container of cartoon strips and children’s stories (e.g. Corriere dei Piccoli) has evolved into different forms to cater to a broader and more varied readership. From the 1960s, family and adventure weeklies for children and adolescents (e.g. Il Giornalino, Intrepido, Lanciostory, etc.) coexisted with the so-called auteur comics magazines, which provided adults with both classic Anglo-Saxon comic strips and the latest comics stories by renowned Franco-Belgian, Argentinian, and Italian authors. Following the model established by Linus (1965), these auteur magazines contributed to dignifying the medium of comics itself, but also somehow igniting the debate on popular vs. auteur comics. Of course, comics magazines from the early 1900s up to the 1990s presented notable differences in format, content, scope, genre, target, and influences, making the history of the relationships between the comics and the magazine a particularly complicated and multifaceted one.

This panel seeks new scholarly work on the relationship between comics and (weekly and monthly) magazines, with particular attention to its socio-cultural and aesthetic implications. Papers should focus on Italian products but may adopt a comparative approach that investigates possible links with non-Italian comics magazine traditions (namely, Anglo-Saxon, Franco-Belgian and Latin-American).

in order to explore the influence that transnational experiences had on Italian comics culture. Please, send your abstract at: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/login