CFP UPDATE Comics Get Medieval 2023: New Work on the Comics Medium in Medieval Studies (virtual) (9/15/2023; ICSM 10/26-28/2023)

Comics Get Medieval 2023: New Work on the Comics Medium in Medieval Studies (virtual)

Call for Papers (UPDATED) - Please Submit Proposals by 15 September 2023

The Medieval in Cyberspace: 2023 International Conference for the Study of Medievalism

The UNICORN Castle (https://unicorn-castle.org/)

Online event: Thursday, 26 October, through Saturday, 28 October, 2023

Comics Get Medieval 2023: New Work on the Comics Medium in Medieval Studies (virtual)

Sponsoring Organization: Medieval Comics Project

Organizers: Michael A. Torregrossa, Richard Scott Nokes, and Carl Sell




The comics medium offers a wealth of material of relevance to medievalists from comic-like art and illustrations created during the Middle Ages to cartoons, comics, and related media designed in post-medieval times.

Comics from the medieval era present unique insights into the past and allow us to forge a connection with those that lived and worked then through a now-familiar artform.

Meanwhile, modern comics with medieval themes adapt, appropriate, and transform the medieval, allowing present-day creators to bring history, legends, literature, myths, and personages to life through disparate formats and genres presented for audiences across the globe.




In this session, we seek to celebrate and explore the variety and vitality of medieval comics (both those from the medieval past as well as more contemporary ones) and to share that material with our colleagues to promote further debate, discussion, and inquiry and to, hopefully, inspire future research and teaching.




Topics might include:

• Creating medieval or medieval-themed comics
• Sharing resources for accessing medieval or medieval-themed comics
• Study of a particular character across a series or variety of comics
• Study of a particular comic or series of comics
• Study of a particular creator (artist, writer, etc.) of comics
• Using medieval comics in the classroom or for research
• Using medieval-themed comics in the classroom or for research

We are especially seeking coverage on comics from outside the United States. We also welcome assistance through bibliographies, interviews, and/or resource guides that can be shared with our audience.




All proposals for the session must be submitted directly to the organizers, at Comics.Get.Medieval@gmail.com, by 15 September 2023.





Please check out our growing resources on medieval-themed comics at the Medieval Comics Project (https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/) and the Arthurian Comics Project (https://arthur-of-the-comics-project.blogspot.com/) websites. We also maintain two listservs of relevance–both the Medieval Comics Discussion List (at https://groups.io/g/medieval-comixlist) and the Arthurian Comics Discussion List (at https://groups.io/g/arthurian-comixlist)--and welcome new members. :




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

New Book: Beowulf in Comic Books and Graphic Novels

Cross-posted from Beowulf Transformed: Adaptations and Appropriations of the Beowulf Story.

Just released this week. Congratulations to Scott Nokes:

Beowulf in Comic Books and Graphic Novels

Richard Scott Nokes

(Full details and ordering information from the publisher are available from this link.)

Bibliographic Details

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 209
Bibliographic Info: 25 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2023
pISBN: 978-1-4766-8778-0 ($49.95)
eISBN: 978-1-4766-4842-2
Imprint: McFarland

About the Book

The legendary story of Beowulf comes to us in only one medieval manuscript with no illustrations. Modern comic book and graphic novel artists have created visual interpretations of Beowulf for decades, both illustrating and altering the classic story to pull out new themes.
This book examines the growing canon of Beowulf comic books and graphic novels since the 1940s, and shows the remarkable emergence of new traditions—from re-envisioning the medieval look, to creating new plotlines, and even to transforming his identity. While placing Beowulf in a fantastical medieval setting, a techno-dystopia of the future, or modern-day America, artists have appropriated the tale to comment on social issues such as war, environmental issues, masculinity, and consumerism. Whether Beowulf is fighting new monsters or allying with popular comic book superheroes, these artists are creating a new canon of illustration that redefines Beowulf’s place in our culture.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vi
Timeline of Beowulf Comic Books and Graphic Novels ix
Note on Citations xi
Preface 1
Introduction 5
1. The Artist as Manuscript Illustrator 13
2. The Further Adventures of Beowulf 74
3. Beowulf as Storyteller 96
4. Beowulf Transformed 107
5. Beowulf for Younger Readers 129
Conclusion 172
Chapter Notes 177
Bibliography 189
Index 193

About the Author(s)

Richard Scott Nokes is a professor of medieval literature at Troy University in Troy, Alabama. His previous published research has focused on popular medievalism and manuscript culture.

Kalamazoo 2020 Update

This year's International Congress on Medieval Studies has been cancelled due to the coronavirus. Full details (and a request for donations) at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress.

The Medieval Institute has offered to accept any cancelled session for the 2021 congress.

The Medieval Comics Project was set to run a two-session roundtable this year.

News of CFP Saving the Day for Medievalists: Accessing Medieval-Themed Comics in the Twenty-first Century (Roundtable) (9/15/19; Kalamazoo 5/7-10/2020)

The Medieval Comics Project is sponsoring a session for next year's International Congress on Medieval Studies. The full details on the call for paper can be found on the Making Medievalisms Matter site at https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com/2019/08/cfpsaving-day-for-medievalists.html.

Paper proposals are due by 15 September 2019.

Thanks for your support of our endeavors.

Comics Get Medieval at Kalamazoo 2020!

I am pleased to announce that the organizers of the International Congress on Medieval Studies have approved part of our proposal for sessions on medieval-themed comics for their 2020 assembly.

Details on our session, "Saving the Day for Medievalists: Accessing Medieval-Themed Comics in the Twenty-first Century (Roundtable),", will be forthcoming.

Michael Torregrossa
Founder, Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Beowulf in Comics

I've begun a project collecting representations of Beowulf in comic format as a resource for teaching the text. If you have any suggestions please contact me at MedievalinPopularCulture@gmail.com (I'm in that account more often than the Medieval Comics Project one). I'm also looking for works of scholarship (or reviews and/or interviews) on these adaptations and will eventually add my findings to the blog.

One interesting text, I have discovered so far is a story in Jumbo Comics No. 50 (Apr. 1943). It looks to be the first adaptation of the work into American comics. The story is sort of a version of the Connecticut Yankee narrative with a hot-headed, twentieth-century young man trying to one-up Beowulf with varied results. I am hoping to present on the comic this fall at our MAPACA roundtable, and I include here the second page of the story where the youth faces Grendel for the first time. I've also added an image of Beowulf's arrival at Heorot to the main page of the blog.

Michael Torregrosa
Founder and Blog Editor

Update 6/24/17

Sorry to not have kept things up to date this past year.

Our session in honor of the eightieth anniversary of Prince Valiant on American medievalisms was not accepted for the 2017 ALA conference.

Michael Torregrossa
Founder and Blog Editor

Web Links Updates

Please be advised, as neither The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain nor The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture has funds for operating expenses, we will no longer be renewing our domain names effective January 2016.

The Arthur of the Comics Project can now only be accessed at http://arthur-of-the-comics-project.blogspot.com/, and The Medieval Comics Project accessed at http://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/.

Please update your links.

Michael A. Torregrossa
Founder, The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain
Founder, The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture