Conference at BGSU ponders comic books
10/23/2008Superman turned 70 this year. To mark the Man of Steel s milestone, the Center for Popular Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University hosts a conference tomorrow and Saturday on The Comic Book in Popular Culture.
The conference s three general sessions will feature keynote addresses by cartoonist and theorist Scott McCloud, comic book artist and editor Jamal Igle, and Amy Kiste Nyberg of Seton Hall University. All general sessions are free and open to the public.
McCloud will give the first keynote address, Comics: A Medium in Transition, at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow in Room 206 of Bowen-Thompson Student Union. On Saturday, Igle will speak on Black in a Four-Color World at 11 a.m. in Room 204 of the Fine Arts Center. Nyberg will discuss The Death of the Comics Code at 5 p.m. in Room 308 of the student union.
Complementing the conference is an exhibition in the Fine Arts Center titled Graphic Language: The Art of the Comic Book. Opening Saturday and running through Nov. 19, the exhibit will include graphic novels by McCloud, Igle, and others. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday.
About 20 panel sessions featuring faculty, independent scholars and writers, and graduate students from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom will address research on topics related to comic books superheroic and nonsuperheroic in particular and comic art in general. Scholarly presentations will focus on such topics as the hero, race and ethnicity, history, theology, psychology, gender and sexuality, comic book audiences, and politics.
The cost of the conference for faculty, administrative staff, and professionals is $110; students with ID (graduate or undergraduate), retirees, and the unemployed may attend for $90.
To register, visit http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/popc/page55158.html; e-mail centerpopc@bgsu.edu; or call 419-372-0284.