Want to go in depth with a comics scholar? Or a whole room of comics scholars? Rather than presenting from the stage, the Poster Session scholars will be ranged around the room to discuss their presentations in small-group and one-on-one discussions.
Marko Head and
Nicole Smith (Henderson State University) present "The Workday Comic," an 8-hour student-project variation on Scott McCloud's 24-Hour Comic, including the daunting task of painting original art drawn by special guest contributor
Kabuki artist David Mack.
Real-World Consequences Poster Group-
Kalani Largusa (School of the Art Institute of Chicago) explores the significance of Kato in his role as the Green Hornet's sidekick and the shaping of Asian identity;
Nathan Wilson (graphic novel reporter) looks at the real-world consequences of the representation of Native Americans in comics.
Medical Issues Poster Group-
Erica Ash (Henderson State University) traces the history of addiction and drug use in comics in the context of the Comics Code;
Brian Lott (Henderson State University) outlines how Harvey Dent/Two-Face changed to meet criteria for dissociative identity when he became The Judge.
Adaptation Poster Group-
Joyce Havstad (University of California, San Diego) charts the role of comics as a hybrid medium in facilitating adaptation to and from other media;
David Mitchell (School of the Art Institute of Chicago) critically reads Enki Bilal's epic
Nikopol Trilogy and its film adaptation
Immortal to consider how the comic seamlessly integrates the unreal with the real, whereas the film separates the real and unreal between live action and CGI.
Superheroes Poster Group-
Renee Lynn Couey and
Lauren Penick (Henderson State University) surveyed college students, prison inmates, and fan convention attendees to examine correlations between respondents' self-concepts and their character preferences;
Evan Moreno-Davis (University of Southern California) examines the assumptions of the genre that drive role-playing game designers;
Dana Anderson (Maine Maritime Academy) defines the superhero phenomenologically through the visceral experience of "superheroness" in the world.
Comics History Poster Group-
Adriana Estrada (University of Houston) uses moral panic theory and labeling theory to investigate the social construction of deviance that became associated with comic books in the anti-comics crusade of the 1940s and 1950s;
Sam Doerge (School of the Art Institute of Chicago) finds Marvel's creation of the anti-heroic superhero rooted in the national identity crisis of the Cold War era.
Queer Poster Group-
Courtney Schneider (School of the Art Institute of Chicago) compares the treatment of homosexuality in mainstream and nonmainstream serialized media;
Ashley Pitcock (Henderson State University) asks whether Buffy the Vampire Slayer's movement into bisexuality was a sign of the times or a gimmick to sell Season Eight comics;
Michael Harrison (Monmouth College) investigates how Spanish comics authors La Penya in
Mondo Lirondo and Ivan Garcia in
Capitan Eclipse use fantasy in distinct ways to communicate a 21st century queer Spanish identity.
Gender Poster Group-
April Murphy (University of North Texas) seeks to examine how fears of female power, depicted in the new Batwoman and the relaunched Wonder Woman, are tied to a pattern of historical uneasiness with same-sex bonding; Independent scholar
Ariel Schudson argues that the figure of Hit-Girl in
Kick Ass maintains more positive iconography than negative and is really only behaving in a kind of "teen superhero normalcy," even if it does seem a bit violent.
Manga Poster Group-
George Tsouris (Touro College) examines shared features of Yokoyama's manga and interviews to imagine what his manifesto for neomanga might look like;
Kotaro Nakagaki (Daito Bunka University) focuses on the viewpoints of shojo in Sirato Sanpei's
A Vanishing Girl and Kono Fumiyo
At the Corner of This World to examine war representations, reconstruction and economic growth, and racial/social minorities and discriminations in war manga.
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