The Medieval Comics Project

The Medieval Comics Project, sponsored by The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, is an ongoing effort conducted by a small (but dedicated) group of comics scholars, Arthurian enthusiasts, and medievalists to compile a comprehensive listing of the representations of the medieval in the comics medium. The corpus is international in scope and extends as far back as (at least) the 1920s. We welcome your help in achieving our goal.

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

CFP Medieval + Monsters in Comics (3/15/2025; online session 10/17-18/2025)

Medieval + Monsters in Comics

Online Sponsored Session Proposed for Medieval + Monsters: Medieval Association of the Midwest (MAM), Mid-America Medieval Association (MAMA), Illinois Medieval Association (IMA) Joint Conference with The Newberry Library
Hosted at Dominican University & the Newberry Library
17-18 October 2025

The Medieval Comics Project and the Monsters & the Monstrous Area of the Northeast Popular/American Culture Association seek proposals of 250 words for a proposed online panel devoted to the theme of the medieval and the monstrous in sequential art, comics, manga, and related media.

Topics might include:

Adaptations of medieval monsters in modern comics/manga/related media
Monsters in sequential art of the medieval era
Monsters in marginalia in medieval manuscripts (akin to modern panel comics)
New monsters in comics/manga/related media set in the medieval era
The use of horror in comics/manga/related media set in the medieval era
The use of monstrosity to represent issues of class/gender/race in comic/manga versions of the Middle Ages

Please send submissions (250-word proposal plus a short biographical statement) to the session organizers (Michael A. Torregrossa, Karen Casey Casebier, and Benjamin H. Hoover) at Comics.Get.Medieval@gmail.com by 15 March 2025.

For more information on the Medieval Comics Project, please see our blog at https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/.

For more information on the Monsters & the Monstrous Area of the Northeast Popular/American Culture Association, please see our blog at https://popularpreternaturaliana.blogspot.com/.

Further details on the conference itself can be accessed at https://www.dom.edu/medieval-monsters-conference.

Sunday, February 9, 2025

Thursday, Mar 6 - Track 4 (02:15-04:15 PM)

4.12 Saving the Day for Medieval Studies: Using Comics for Teaching the Middle Ages (Roundtable)
Chair: Michael Torregrossa, Bristol Community College
Chair: Karen Casebier, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga
Location: 402 (Media Equipped)
Pedagogy & Professional & Cultural Studies and Media Studies

"The Medieval Comics Project: Ongoing Efforts to Expand the Field of Medieval Comics Scholarship" Michael Torregrossa, Bristol Community College

"From Borders to Panels: Integrating Comic Books into Medieval Studies Pedagogy" Rachael Warmington, Seton Hall University

"Reshaping Literary Canon: Graphic Novels as the Future of Classics" Derek Castle, University of New Hampshire

"Marvel 1602 and its Connection to the Scientific Enlightenment" Madison Cothern, University of Memphis

Sunday, Mar 9 - Track 22 (08:15-10:15 AM)

22.20 (Re)Animating the Middle Ages: Adapting the Medieval in Animated Media (Seminar)
Chair: Michael Torregrossa, Bristol Community College
Chair: Karen Casebier, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga
Location: 410 (Media Equipped)
Cultural Studies and Media Studies & Interdisciplinary Humanities

"Animating Marie de France : Emile Mercier’s Bisclavret (2011)" Karen Casebier, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga

"Possibilities and Pitfalls in Arthurian Animation: An Exploration of the Darkstalkers Series (1995)" Michael Torregrossa, Bristol Community College

"The Black Knight: Women “Passing” as Knights in Children’s Entertainment" Megan Arnott, Lakehead University

"Cartoon Saloon's Wild Women: Monstrous Genders in Irish Animated Medievalism" Colin Wheeler, Kennesaw State University

"A Modern Look at Late Medieval Religion and Literacy in Obsidian Entertainment’s Pentiment" Olivia Mathers, Lehigh University

"Heresy and Crusades: How Modern Fascists Appropriated the Medieval Aesthetics of Warhammer 40k" William Weiss, Independent Scholar

Saturday, January 18, 2025

CFP From Villain To Variant: Marvel Studios' Loki (12/31/2014)

Sorry to have missed this. Posting here to archive the call.

CFP: From Villain To Variant: Marvel Studios' Loki

deadline for submissions:

December 31, 2024

full name / name of organization:

Mary Ellen Iatropoulos, SUNY Dutchess

contact email:

maryiatrop@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/11/18/cfp-from-villain-to-variant-marvel-studios-loki.

Trickster. Traitor. Villain. Variant.

Hero?

Marvel Studios' Loki, the charismatic and compelling God of Mischief portrayed by Tom Hiddleston, first strode across screens in 2011’s Thor. Five films and a veritable multiverse later, the television show Loki debuted as part of Marvel Studios' foray into televisually expanding upon the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to show characters' post-Endgame exploits. The show Loki tackles tough topics over the course of its two seasons, from reframing the grand heroics of the MCU through the banality of bureaucracy at the Time Variance Authority to tracing the title character's arc from power-hungry despot to self-sacrificial [anti]hero. Through recurring themes of power, identity, duplicity, and control, both Loki and Loki concern themselves with multiversal moral dilemmas and quantum physics-inspired quandaries—-what happens to a God when no one’s left to worship him? How does one successfully subvert a corrupt system to enact positive social change? Who is responsible for the pattern of our lives? Which matters more, fate or free will?

Whereas the MCU overall and certain Marvel characters (such as Black Widow) have received scholarly treatment, no critical volume yet exists devoted solely to study of Loki and Loki. The mischievous malcontent’s redemptive narrative journey, and the insight such exploits unveil about the human condition, remain academically under-explored.

I am excited to invite submissions for a new volume which aims to fill that gap, entitled From Villain to Variant: Critical Perspectives on Marvel Studios' Loki. Essays may critically engage with Loki the character, Loki the televisual media property, and/or the role of Loki and Loki within the larger context of the MCU and other Marvel Studios properties. I seek between eight and ten original essays of around 6,000 words each rooted in various fields and schools of criticism that offer original ideas, arguments, and interpretations concerning what Loki and Loki mean in our modern media landscape.

Contributor chapters may approach the televisual series as its own entity, facets of Loki’s character arc across MCU properties, or Loki-adjacent characters and narratives from a variety of critical perspectives. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

Gender and sexuality studies
Toxic masculinity
Memory and trauma studies
Religion, faith, and eschatology
Wardrobe, aesthetics, and material culture
Genre and metaphor
Post-modernity and (anti-)heroism
Quantum mechanics, astrophysics, and time paradoxes
Identity and philosophy
Camp and comedy
Power, leadership, and ethics

Submissions engaging Loki's history within the world of Marvel Comics may be considered. However, as this volume focuses on 21st-century digital media properties, submissions must have as their primary focus generating and sustaining scholarly discourse around Marvel Studios' cinematic and televisual versions of Loki.

Inquiries regarding the suitability of specific chapter ideas are welcome.

Please submit abstracts of 300-500 words and 100-word author bios as PDF attachments to: [maryiatrop] at [gmail] [dot] [com]

Submissions will be accepted through December 31st, 2024.

Final drafts for accepted proposals will be due by August 1st, 2025. Each essay will be subject to editorial review, and successful contributors should expect to undertake at least one round of revisions before publication.