Kalamazoo 2027 Updates

I am sorry to report that our proposed sponsored session on "The Lives and Legacies of Medieval Comics: A Commemoration of Ninety Years of Hal Foster's Prince Valiant (Hybrid)" for the 2027 International Congress on Medieval Studies did not receive enough submissions to be a viable session.

More Comics Sessions for Kalamazoo (9/15/2026)

Shared from the Medieval Comics Discussion List.

My thanks to organizer Andy Hartzell for the reminder.

CFP–Graphic Novel Antecedents: Sequential Art in the Premodern Era

Please consider submitting a presentation to this poster session at the ICMS next May!

Before mass literacy, creators leveraged imagery to communicate stories. The era is characterized by sophisticated compositions and interplay of image and text.

This poster session will highlight novel and noteworthy examples of serial imagery from the Medieval era. Subjects can be drawn from any form, from manuscript to tapestry to altarpiece, as long as they demonstrate narrative progression. Each display will highlight the methods by which sequence and meaning are encoded and the ways in which contemporary viewers would have unpacked this content. Discussion might focus on how time and change were perceived and communicated in the Medieval age.

CFP – The Medieval Turn and Contemporary Comics Creators

This roundtable is also on the schedule for the next Kalamazoo Medieval Congress. Please consider submitting a paper!

Comics have long drawn inspiration from the Middle Ages, echoing medieval storytelling styles and values such as chivalry and honor. Like illuminated manuscripts, comics emphasize the creator’s hand, preserving individual style and immediacy. Today, many creators actively revisit medieval themes and practices, finding fresh ways to integrate them into contemporary works. This panel will showcase comics and graphic novelists who look to the medieval past for creative inspiration.

CFP The Lives and Legacies of Medieval Comics: A Commemoration of Ninety Years of Hal Foster's Prince Valiant (Hybrid) (9/15/2026; ICMS Kalamazoo/Online 5/13-15/2027)

The Lives and Legacies of Medieval Comics: A Commemoration of Ninety Years of Hal Foster's Prince Valiant (Hybrid)

62nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI), Thursday, 13 May, through Saturday, 15 May, 2026

Co-sponsored by Medieval Comics Project, Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Co-organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Bristol Community College, and Carl B Sell, University of Pittsburgh

Rationale

The comics have a long history of adapting aspects of the Middle Ages, and, while many series and characters have disappeared over time, Hal Foster’s comic strip Prince Valiant has persevered, continuing under a series of writers and artists over nine decades.


In commemoration of the ninetieth anniversary of Foster’s comic in 2027, we’d like to assess the ways that comics (and their adaptations across media) have contributed to the public’s understanding of the medieval past and to illuminate strategies for expanding knowledge of and interest in this corpus as creators, researchers, and teachers.

Submissions that look directly at Prince Valiant (or any of its adaptations) are especially encouraged; however, we will also consider proposals devoted to other characters, creators, and/or series that make use of medieval themes.


Do check out our expanding resource, the Medieval Comics Project Bibliographies, at https://tinyurl.com/MedievalComicsProjectBiblios, for information on prior studies of medievalist comics.

Submission Information

Please post paper submissions into the Confex site using the direct link https://icms.confex.com/icms/2027/prelim.cgi/Session/8806.

Do send any questions to the organizers at comics.get.medieval@gmail.com. Submissions are due no later than 15 September 2026.


For this event, individuals are invited to make ONE paper proposal to ONE session of papers: either the sponsored or special sessions OR the general sessions. You may propose an unlimited number of contributions to roundtables, but you will not be scheduled to actively participate (as paper presenter, roundtable discussant, poster author, presider, respondent, workshop leader, demonstrator, or performer) in more than six sessions. See the conference’s policies page for more information at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/policies-guidelines.


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 Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, do check out our website, Mass Mediævalisms: The Middle Ages of Popular Culture: https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com/.

CFP Using Comics to Build Community: Approaches to Teaching Comics (Roundtable) (Virtual) (9/30/2026; NeMLA 3/6-9/2027)

Using Comics to Build Community: Approaches to Teaching Comics (Roundtable) (Virtual)

Co-organizers Michael A. Torregrossa and Carl B. Sell

Sponsored by Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Call for Papers - Please Submit Proposals by 30 September 2026

58th Annual Convention of Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)

Salve Regina University (Newport, RI)/Online.

Hybrid event: 6-9 March 2027


This session’s modality is Virtual Only, meaning all presentations will be delivered via Zoom regardless of whether the presenters are in-person.

Rationale

Teaching with comics offers many ways to engage with the conference theme of Empowering Communities.

Comics, through their interplay of text and image, can support and/or supplement the reading of traditional texts and help all students to engage equally with a story. In addition, comics, by themselves, offer unique examples and models of a wide array of literary genres, both as fiction and non-fiction, spurring conversations and debate within the classroom. Lastly, the creation of comics as an activity forges a third type of community as creators work together to produce and (often) publish their work.

In this session, we seek to highlight innovative ways that instructors are using comics in their classrooms, either through one of the strategies we’ve outlined or through something unique to their own teaching.

We welcome submissions from instructors of all disciplines and experiences.

 

Submission Instructions

All proposals must be submitted into the CFPList system at https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/22574 by 30 September 2026. You will be prompted to create an account with NeMLA (if you do not already have one) and, then, to complete sections on Title, Abstract, Brief Bio, Media Needs, and Modality. This session’s modality is Virtual Only, meaning all presentations will be delivered via Zoom regardless of whether the presenters are in-person.


Notification on the status of your submission will be made by 16 October 2026. If accepted, NeMLA asks you to confirm your participation with the session chairs by accepting their invitation and by registering for the event. The deadline for Registration/Membership is 9 December 2026. For the 2027 Convention, registration will be the same for in-person and remote attendance. (See NeMLA’s Membership and Registration page, at https://www.nemla.org/about/members.html, for full details.)


Be advised of the following policies for the Convention: All participants must be members of NeMLA for the year of the conference. Participants may present on up to two sessions of any type. Registrants at NeMLA may not present the same abstract/paper on two different sessions. (See NeMLA’s Presenter Policies page, at https://www.nemla.org/convention/policies.html, for further details. Information on Session Types can be found at https://www.nemla.org/convention/sessions.html.)


NeMLA offers limited funding for travel to graduate students and to contingent faculty, adjunct instructors, independent scholars, and two-year college faculty. Details can be found at NeMLA’s Travel Awards page at https://www.nemla.org/awards/travel.html.


Thank you for your interest in our session. Please address questions and/or concerns to the organizers at MedievalinPopularCulture@gmail.com.


For more information on the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, please visit our blog, Mass Mediævalisms: The Middle Ages of Popular Culture, at https://MedievalinPopularCulture.blogspot.com/.

Kalamazoo 2026 Sponsored Session - Medieval Classics (Re)Illustrated

Here are the details on our sponsored session at this year's International Congress on Medieval Studies:

Medieval Classics (Re)Illustrated: A Medieval Comics Project Teamup (Hybrid)

61st International Congress on Medieval Studies

Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, Michigan)/Online through Confex

Session 369: Saturday, 16 May 2026, 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM EDT

Sangren Hall 3110 (hybrid)


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

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


Presider: Rachael Warmington, Seton Hall University (rkw2111@gmail.com)



1 - What Makes a Hero? (In-Person)

Jehan Parker, Independent scholar

A focused genealogy of "hero" as an archetype in the chronology of Western Canon, seeking to explore the central question of "what makes a hero?" and grappling with the enormous and frenetic variance in the virtues embodied therein.

Jehan Parker is an independent scholar—this is their first presentation! It’s part of a larger project on the genealogy of hero mythology more broadly.



2 - Trans Thinking: Exploring the Productive Consonances between Medieval Arthurian and Contemporary Superhero Comics Storytelling through the Lens of Camelot 3000 (Remote)

Adrian McClure, Independent Scholar

The 1980s limited series Camelot 3000, with its ground-breaking transgender content, provides a useful jumping-off point to explore the myriad and mutually illuminating connections between the generic universe of contemporary superhero comics and Arthurian chivalric romance, especially with regard to gender binaries and the interrelationship of embodiment and personal identity.

Adrian McClure is an autistic independent scholar whose research focuses on the intersection of gender and religious identity in medieval literature. They published an article in Speculum on the Chanson de Roland as a multi-layered, theologically inflected text, and an article in Arthuriana's special comics issue on trans Arthurian themes in Grant Morrison's Shining Knight and Luda. They are finishing a book on the thirteenth-century Perlesvaus as a work of trauma fiction tied to the Albigensian Crusade. Their new book project explores nonbinary gender in Arthurian literature, from Chrétien de Troyes through present-day Marvel and DC comics.



3 - An Unlikely Heroine: The Challenges of Depicting Joan of Arc in Bandes Dessinées (In-Person)

Deborah L. McGrady, Univ. of Virginia

This presentation examines the representation of Joan of Arc in French comics from the 1890s through 2023 with specific attention given to how the Maid's story, her appearance and her expression are constrained by misogynistic and conservative values that hold enduring influence in the comic world.

Deborah McGrady, professor of French and Director of Medieval Studies at the University of Virginia. She published a monograph last May on Joan of Arc: The life of a French Cultural Icon. The work she is presenting today is a spinoff of that work.



4 - Hermetic Text as Metafictional Artifact: Medieval Arcana in Recent Graphic Novels (In-Person)

Andrew Hartzell, Independent Scholar

This paper will highlight contemporary graphic novels that feature arcane Medieval texts as framing devices or nested narratives. We will explore the ways in which these cartoonists retrieve and/or subvert premodern mystical genres toward postmodern ends.

Andy Hartzell is a cartoonist, designer, independent scholar and recent transplant to Kalamazoo. He’s contributed to several award-winning anthologies, and his most recent graphic novels are available through Uncivilized Books. In a previous life he designed video games, educational toys and VR experiences at Google and elsewhere.

Kalamazoo 2026 Workshop : The Medieval Comics Project Bibliographies

We're sponsoring another workshop session this year at the International Congress on Medieval Studies. Here are the details:

The Medieval Comics Project Bibliographies: Resources for Finding and Accessing Comics and Critiques (Workshop) (Virtual)

61st International Congress on Medieval Studies

Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, Michigan)/Online through Confex

Session 421: Saturday, 16 May 2026, 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM EDT

Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Bristol Community College, and Carl B. Sell, University of Pittsburgh

Co-sponsored by Medieval Comics Project, Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Workshop Leader: Michael A. Torregrossa, Bristol Community College

This workshop session will highlight the recently launched Medieval Comics Project Bibliographies (https://tinyurl.com/MedievalComicsProjectBiblios), an open-access resource devoted to spreading knowledge of comics based on medieval subjects and furthering discussion and debate of this material. Presentations will include support in finding and accessing comics themselves, a review of how to find and access criticism of this corpus, and a walkthrough of the Medieval Comics Project Bibliographies’ site and its various components devoted to specific elements of the medieval in comics and related media. Making use of the unique nature of the workshop format, time will be allowed for participants to explore the resource, ask questions, and offer feedback. 

Out Now - Medieval Spaces in Comics: Affect and Ideology

I seem to have missed posting on this. My apologies.

Medieval Spaces in Comics: Affect and Ideology

Elizabeth Allyn Woock

Full details and ordering information at https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-66493-9. 

Explores the communicative possibilities of the comics format

Brings a comics-based research methodology to the study of space, atmosphere, affect and mood in comics

Layers in a nuanced approach to the depiction of medieval environments

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels (PSCGN)

About this book

This book proposes a conceptual framework for analyzing and discussing narrative space in comics. Building on Mieke Bal’s phenomenological approach to cultural analysis (2002), Gaston Bachelard’s Poetics of Space (1996), and Geraint D’Arcy’s use of the mise en scène to describe space in the comics format (2020), this book layers in a nuanced approach to the depiction of medieval environments through affect theory and poetics to interrogate the staging of ideas which are associated with the medieval period. Considering the action, setting, and story – as well as affect, atmosphere, and mood – medieval space is contextualized as an ethically complex poetic image. This book also explores the communicative possibilities of the comics format, and seeks to show rather than just tell the methodologies of space in comics-based research through illustrating key sections of the text.

About the author

Elizabeth Allyn Woock is an assistant professor in the Department of English and American Studies at Palacký University in Olomouc, Czech Republic. Her work focuses on medieval history and medievalisms, as well as comics studies and comics-based research. She is interested in exploring how the comics format can be harnessed for academic writing and takes every opportunity to explore this methodology.

Coming Soon - Medievalism in Japanese Manga: From Vikings to Samurai

Came across this by accident today. Looks like an exciting collection.

Medievalism in Japanese Manga: From Vikings to Samurai

Edited by Minjie Su

Series: Medievalism

Series Vol. Number: 33

Imprint: D.S.Brewer

Hardcover

9781843848196

Out 01 September 2026

Available to pre-order 03 July 2026

$130.00

(Also available as an ebook.)

Full details and ordering information at https://boydellandbrewer.com/book/medievalism-in-japanese-manga-9781843848196/. 

Description

Examines how the Middle Ages is reimagined in Japanese manga and related media, from berserkr and Bushidōbaseball to Arthurian knights and Valkyries.

While the modern fascination with the Middle Ages has long been observed and discussed in medieval and medievalism studies, the medium of Japanese manga has only recently begun to attract scholarly attention as a rich repertoire of (neo)medievalist imaginative worlds. Given Japan’s geographical, cultural, and historical distance from medieval Europe, this phenomenon raises several questions. What allure does the era hold for Japanese pop culture creators – and why? And in what ways are the Middle Ages reimagined to resonate with different audiences?

This volume addresses these questions through close readings of a selection of globally popular and influential manga and related media, including Vinland Saga, Berserk, ONE PIECE, Attack on Titan, and Fate. Beginning with manga inspired by Old Norse-Icelandic materials, the essays then move on to examine those incorporating medieval(ist) motifs in a broader sense and those merging medieval(ist) Europe with the so-called “medieval” Japan. In doing so, this volume not only examines how individual stories or elements from the Middle Ages are adopted and adapted within Japanese manga media, but also contextualises them within the reception history of the Middle Ages in Japan, highlighting its far-reaching impact on Japan’s perception of its own past.

The introduction and chapter 7 are available as Open Access under the Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-ND.

Contents

List of Illustrations

List of Contributors

Acknowledgements

Citation Practice

Introduction: Medieval, Medievalism, and Manga

Minjie Su, Maxime Danesin

1 The Translation Movement of Medieval Icelandic Literature in Post-war Japan: From Shizuka Yamamuro to the Present

Minoru Ozawa

2 Rewriting Norse Myths and Culture in Japanese Manga: The Viking’s Violence in ONE PIECE and Vinland Saga

Sayaka Matsumoto

3 War, Peace, and Performance in Jómsvíkinga saga and Vinland Saga

Þórdís Edda Jóhannesdóttir

4 Go Beyond Iceland to the End of the Edge of the World – The Genuine Adventurer Thorfinn Thorsson

Makoto Yukimura, Yao Sun (trans.)

5 The Valkyries and Fenrir in the Mangaesque Imaginationscape

Maxime Danesin

6 ‘Ymir’s Wicked Blood’: About the Uses of Nordic Medievalism in Attack on Titan

Gaïa Perreaut

7 A Berserkr in Shining Armour: Berserk Fury, Werewolf, and Mental Trauma in Kentaro Miura’s Manga Berserk

Minjie Su

8 Berserker Knight and the Problem of Anger in Fate

John Lance Griffith

9 Arthurian Legends and Gawain’s Reception in Japan

Hiroki Okamoto

10 Die Like a Warrior in Vain? The Limits of Medievalisation, Counter-gentlemanification, and the Reinscription of Bushidō Baseball in Samurai Giants

Chiharu Hasegawa

Afterword

Minjie Su

Bibliography

Index

About the Editor

MINJIE SU is a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Oslo.

CFP Comics Session for Keene State Medieval and Renaissance Forum (1/15/2026; Keene, NH 4/10-11-2026)

The Medieval Comics Project would like to organize a session on comics for the 46th Annual Medieval and Renaissance Forum to be held at Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire, on Friday and Saturday, 10-11 April 2026.


Presentations can be in-person or remote.

Possible topics might include

• “comics” of the medieval and/or Renaissance eras
• comics adaptations of medieval and/or Renaissance literary texts
• comics depictions of medieval and/or Renaissance historical events
• approaches to using comics to teach about the Middle Ages and/or Renaissance
• reception of Comics Studies with the disciplines of Medieval Studies and/or Renaissance Studies

Please send a brief proposal and academic biographical statement to comics.get.medieval@gmail.com by 15 January 2026.



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

We also welcome individuals to join our moderated discussion list at https://groups.io/g/medieval-comixlist.