Category Archives: academic

academic, events

Jews & Comics NYC panel: “Might Makes Right?”

Concurrent with this year’s New York Comic-Con, a “Comics and the Jews” panel was hosted at the Center for Jewish History’s auditorium by the American Jewish Historical Society, Forward magazine reports. The discussion featured Karen Green  of Columbia University, Paul Kupperberg formerly of DC Comics, From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books‘s Arie Kaplan, Danny Fingeroth formerly of Marvel Comics and author of Dressed as Clark Kent, and former publisher of DC Comics Paul Levitz. The familiar origins of American comics as a urban Jewish product were recounted, as was a compelling intercultural anecdote:

“I got into a discussion some years ago with a group of Arab editorial cartoonists who were probably as liberal a group as you can have in the Arab world,” said Levitz. They were visiting a State Department thingamaboby and one of them asked: ‘Aren’t all these super heroes just about the American belief that might makes right.’ I can see it, but I believe these [cartoonists] believe the American principle that we are born with gifts and talents and it’s what we choose to do with our gifts and talent….” Fingeroth interjected: “…is to use that power wisely and justly.”

Read more about Forward‘s 2013 coverage of Karen Green’s work on cartoonist Al Jaffee and the Columbia library here.

academic, online

Comics and Religious Education in “Studies in Comics”

The latest issue of the Studies in Comics journal from UK-based publisher Intellect features an article by Rae Hancock entitled, “More Credo, Less Capes: Why and How We Should Use Comics in the Religious Education Classroom.” The abstract, copied below, promises for lively debate among related scholars; look for responses and further coverage to come.

Research into religion and comics is flourishing and has called attention to the various ways in which religion features across the medium. However, consideration has not yet been given to the role of comics with religious dimensions in the Religious Education (RE) classroom despite significant attention having been paid to their use in schools through subjects such as English. Nonetheless comics are being used outside the classroom to communicate religious ideas and references to the medium are beginning to appear on exam specifications with the intention that candidates engage with religious representations in the media and popular culture. As such, seeking ways to bring comics with religious dimensions into a subject that concerns itself with ‘learning about’ and ‘learning from’ religion allows comic scholarship the potential to be genuinely impactful. A compulsory subject without a strict, prescriptive curriculum, RE is at once accused of indoctrination and called upon to be at the forefront of the battle against extremism. This article presents an overview of the contemporary RE climate in English state secondary schools, then builds on the rationale of why we should use more comics in RE and suggests approaches to using selected comics. The examples considered are necessarily broader than those typically discussed by scholars as they are chosen based on their pedagogical appropriateness. Consideration is given to the theoretical and practical challenges facing the rationale and it is concluded that in order to continue to explore, refine and validate the usefulness of comics in RE the body of sources used needs to expand and become representative in its breadth. Further, continuing to examine why and how we should use comics in the classroom has the potential to deepen and improve the quality of RE and provide comics scholarship opportunities to examine practical applications of the medium.

Hancock, Rae. “More Credo, Less Capes: Why and How We Should Use Comics in the Religious Education Classroom.” Studies in Comics 6.1 (July 2015): 25-41. Print.

academic, articles and essays, contributors, reviews

Religious Revivals and the Great Awakening of Religion & Comics

[Part Two of “What Makes a Scholar’s Pull-List?”]

Panel from _Manifest Destiny_, art by Matthew Roberts
Panel from _Manifest Destiny_ by Chris Dingess with art by Matthew Roberts

American historians sometimes call the waves of religious fervor in the 18th and 19th century our country’s “Great Awakening.” It is a powerful image–convinced that God’s spirit was calling Christians to renew their commitments–Americans flocked to open-air revivals to hear fiery sermons by orators like George Whitefield. Among the innovations of this era was what would become evangelicalism, that variety of Christianity that emphasized the individual, emotional “born again” experience of admitting one’s sinful nature and accepting Jesus’ offer of redemption.

Why this historical introduction? I have tried to consider various explanations for how my assortment of monthly comics came to be.  Are my subscriptions simply the products of obscure personal quirks? Am I distracted by certain styles of art or attracted to certain writers? No matter how I tried to explain why I had certain comics on my list to be set aside monthly when they arrive, I found that the list defied me.

Continue reading Religious Revivals and the Great Awakening of Religion & Comics →

academic, events

Jewish Women’s Confessional Comics Wins Eisner Award

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Last Friday at the San Diego Comic Con International, the winners of the 2015 Eisner Awards were announced. We at Sacred & Sequential would like to offer our congratulations to editor Sarah Lightman who took home the Eisner Award for “Best Scholarly/Academic Work” with her book Graphic Details: Jewish Women’s Confessional Comics in Essays and Interviews, published by McFarland. It’s a treat to see academics at the intersection of comics and religion take home such a prestigious industry award for their scholarship. We look forward to following such achievements as scholars delve ever further into the worlds of Jewish culture, of autobiographical comics, and of the women who make them.

On behalf of Sacred & Sequential, we wish the contributors to Graphic Details all the best and, again: Congratulations!

academic, articles and essays, events, from the Internet

CFP – Sacred Texts and Comics: Religion, Faith, and Graphic Narratives

(NOTE: The following announcement can be found in full here.)

Sacred Texts and Comics: Religion, Faith, and Graphic Narratives
Edited by Ken Koltun-Fromm and Assaf Gamzou
Proposed volume for the “Critical Approaches to Comics Artists” series, University Press of Mississippi
In addition: Symposium on “Sacred Texts and Comics” at Haverford College, May 5th and 6th, 2016 (workshops for contributors to this proposed volume are included)

The last decade has produced critical and expressive studies in sacred canonical texts and comics. Witness, for example, the artistic works from R. Crumb’s The Book of Genesis (2009) and JT Waldman’s Megillat Esther (2005), as well as scholarly publications from Karline McLain’s India’s Immortal Comic Books (2009), A. David Lewis’s edited volume Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books & Graphic Novels (2010), and Samantha Baskind’s and Ranen Omer-Sherman’s editorial work for The Jewish Graphic Novel: Critical Approaches (2010).

Sacred Texts and Comics: Religion, Faith, and Graphic Narratives is a proposed volume for the “Critical Approaches to Comics Artists” series at the University Press of Mississippi that builds upon, but also beyond, Western or “major” religious traditions to develop a broader landscape of religious graphic mediums. We encourage submissions that engage Islamic, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Native American, African Diaspora traditions, or other religious communities from a variety of disciplinary or cross-disciplinary perspectives. Such critical approaches may include studies in religion, literature, theology, art history, culture, anthropology, political science, or other disciplines that work with the multi-dimensional features of graphic narratives.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

  • Depictions of the sacred in comics.
  • The place of historical exegesis and critical, religious interpretation in graphic narratives.
  • Comics as a form and method of interpretation.
  • The ways in which the graphic, formal features engage notions of the sacred.
  • The modes by which graphic narratives represent the sacred or conceptions of religion.
  • The ways in which religious identity and belief are represented and explored in graphic mediums.
  • The multiple ways that visual culture informs religious practice.

Please send a 500-1000 word abstract, CV, and contact information to Ken Koltun-Fromm (kkoltunf@haverford.edu) and Assaf Gamzou (assaf@cartoon.org.il) by August 21, 2015.

Haverford College will host a symposium on “Sacred Texts and Comics” on May 5th and 6th, 2016 that will include workshops for contributors to this proposed volume. Please indicate your interest in and availability to participate in the symposium (all expenses will be paid, including a small stipend).