CFP Medieval Classics (Re)Illustrated: A Medieval Comics Project Team-up (Hybrid) (9/15/2025; ICMS Kalamazoo/Online 5/14-16/2026)

Medieval Classics (Re)Illustrated: A Medieval Comics Project Team-up (Hybrid)

61st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI), Thursday, 14 May, through Saturday, 16 May, 2026

Co-sponsored by Medieval Comics Project, International Arthurian Society/North American Branch, International Society for the Study of Medievalism 

Co-organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Bristol Community College, and Siân Echard, University of British Columbia

There is a rich tradition of illustrating medieval literary texts that stretches from the Middle Ages to the present, and the comics medium has been an important contributor to this continuum. Medieval literature has long been popular with comics creators as the source for stories and characters, which have been adapted, appropriated, and/or transformed within a variety of comics published for readers of all ages across the globe. Despite the wealth of the corpus, there has been limited attention paid by medievalists to this work, with the notable exception of scholars in Beowulf Studies and Dante Studies. 

In this co-sponsored session, we seek, primarily, to unite the disciplines of Comics Studies and Medieval(ism) Studies at large to explore the history of comics adaptations, appropriations, and transformations of medieval literature for their value to our teaching and research. In addition, we hope panelists will also address how these comics can shed insight into a creator’s personal connections to the medieval past and/or their readers’ reception of the content either at their contemporary moment or as relics of our recent past. 

Possible topics for exploration might include specific texts like Book of Kells, Cantar de mio Cid, Canterbury Tales, History of the Kings of Britain, Lais of Marie de France, Le Morte Darthur, Nibelungenlied, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Song of Roland, Volsung Saga, and Yvain as well as the Arthurian and Robin Hood traditions. The work of cartoonist Jodie Troutman on Lit Brick also warrants some attention. Further insights into adaptations of Beowulf or Dante’s Commedia (which have been the subject of much prior study) would also be welcome. (Do check out expanding resource, the Medieval Comics Project Bibliographies at https://tinyurl.com/MedievalComicsProjectBiblios, for information on prior studies of medievalist comics.)

Please post paper submissions into the Confex site using the direct link https://icms.confex.com/icms/2026/prelim.cgi/Session/7242.  

Do send any questions to the organizers at comics.get.medieval@gmail.com. Submissions are due no later than 15 September 2025.

Please be aware that those accepted to the panel must register for the conference in order to present. Past registration costs can be viewed at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/registration. The International Congress on Medieval Studies does offer limited funding as travel awards and subsidized registration costs; details are available at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/awards.   

For more information about the Medieval Comics Project, do check out our website at https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/ and consider signing up for our listserv, The Medieval Comics Project Discussion List, at https://groups.io/g/medieval-comixlist. 

For more information about the International Arthurian Society/North American Branch, do check out our website at https://www.international-arthurian-society-nab.org/ and consider becoming a member of our organization.

For more information about the International Society for the Study of Medievalism, do check out our website at https://medievalisms.org/ and consider signing up for our listserv (details at https://medievalisms.org/issm-listserv/).