Call for Papers

ImageTexT Special Issue: The Hernandez Brothers

http://www.derekroyal.com/CFP-Hernandez.pdf

Guest Editors, Christopher Gonzalez and Derek Parker Royal

For nearly thirty years the Hernandez brothers (Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario) have created comics that have expanded beyond superhero and sci-fi, bringing so-called "alternative" comics to the fore. Their fictive worlds are as sprawling and complex as Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County, and more scholars are beginning to take a closer look at their comics, specifically Love and Rockets. In keeping with this interest, ImageTexT will devote a special issue to the works of the Hernandez Brothers. This volume will seek to explore a multitude of theoretical perspectives that may further illuminate the brothers' oeuvre. Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Their influence on other graphic novelists, alternative comics, or mainstream comics
• Representations of the Latino/a subject
• Depictions of violence and trauma in their work
• Issues of gender, the body, and the sexual subject
• The act of consuming (eating, addiction, pornography, etc.)
• The significance of the telenovela as a metaphor for reading their comics and as a possible stylistic influence
• Any aspect of the non-Love and Rockets stories, e.g., their work with larger publishers such as DC and Dark Horse
• Their uses, or deconstruction, of Magical Realism
• The growth or evolution of prominent characters (Luba, Fritzi, Hopey, Maggie, etc.)
• Their possible influences on text-only authors such as Junot Díaz
• Comics and the political subject
• Narrative theory, narration, and narrative techniques of the Hernandez Brothers
• The Hernandez Brothers' place and/or legacy (either as individuals or collectively) in the comics medium

All essay submissions should not exceed 10,000 words, including notes. Contributors should format submissions based on the MLA Style Manual, 3rd edition, and use endnotes. Authors will be responsible for securing copyright permission for all images used.

Address all inquiries, and submit all completed manuscripts, to the guest editors at gonzalez.283@osu.edu. Please include the words "Hernandez Special Issue" in the subject heading.

Deadline for final manuscript submission is
December 31, 2010.
Abstracts and queries submitted by November 19 are highly recommended.

ImageTexT is a peer-reviewed, open access journal dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of comics and related media published by the English Department at the University of Florida with support from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. For more information on ImageTexT, please visit http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/.