[Commlist] call for papers: Comics strike back: digital comics, digital audiences, digital practices

/Comics strike back/: digital comics, digital audiences, digital practices

*Deadline for abstracts: 31 January 2022*

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Digital comics encompass a variety of works, ranging from print comics 
that are then digitised or pre-published online to e-comics that resist 
print publication and have stronger affinities with videogames, 
animations, and other digital products. Online or offline, static or 
animated, reproducing the page format or expanding beyond the borders of 
a screen, digital comics always imply some degree of adjustment of 
processes and habits, because comics are also cultural objects, creative 
practices as well as models of production and consumption.

Consequently, scholars have showcased a growing interest in the topic 
(some of the most interesting contributions include Robert 2016; Baudry 
2018; Kashtan 2018; Kirchoff and Cook 2019; Kleefeld 2020; Rauscher, 
Stein and Thon 2020). Despite this expanding critical attention, the 
fruitful convergence between comics production and consumption and 
digital cultures is still far to be exhaustively explored. Much 
attention has been paid to the many forms of digital comics. 
Nevertheless, the multifaceted phenomenon of digital comics, especially 
from a diachronic perspective, remains overlooked. Since the beginnings 
of the medium in the 1980s and the 1990s, comics authors have actively 
experimented with its affordances. However, even after more than thirty 
years digital comics continue to experiment with the medium’s 
possibilities and expand its potentialities. They remained a hybrid 
object in the process of becoming, with a heterogeneous and hardly 
definable status.

Going in search of what makes comics that crisscross media and supports 
still /comics/ (Frezza 2017: 19), then, implies a complex approach: as 
Benoît Crucifix and Björn-Olav Dozo affirm, productively adopting 
perspectives from media archaeology and media comparative theory, 
“understanding digital comics today requires us to take into account the 
larger history of intermedial dialogues between comics, film, and 
animation” (2018: 583). The complexity of this enterprise is perhaps 
exacerbated by the notorious lack of communication amongst different 
methodological traditions and languages. The current landscape thus 
calls for reframing digital comics in a more holistic perspective that 
accounts for the peculiarities of the medium while managing to place 
them in a broader context viewed from a multidisciplinary perspective.

In the light of the above, this conference aims to address theoretical 
shortcomings and bridge this disciplinary gap by focusing on the social, 
cultural and economic practices of digital comics. We seek contributions 
highlighting the semiotic innovations of digital comics, underlining 
their symbolic potential and their capacity to throw light on 
contemporary social dynamics and processes. Proposals analysing medial 
and cultural convergences, audience practices and the social impact they 
entail are especially welcome.

The conference will explore, without limiting itself to, the following 
lines of investigation:

The transformation caused and encouraged by digital comics concerning 
the production, distribution and consumption of comics;

Social and economic changes behind the processes of democratisation of 
artistic production in which digital comics often participate;

The materiality of digital objects;

The imaginaries that digital comics activate;Digital comics’ 
continuities with, and divergences from, analogue media;

Socially engaged, participative and activist practices connected to 
digital comics.

While we will thoroughly take into account the evolution of the Covid-19 
scenarios and plan the conference accordingly, at present we plan to 
organize the conference in person, at the *Faculty of Arts and 
Philosophy of Ghent University *(Blandijnberg 2, Ghent, Belgium). In 
order to guarantee accessibility for those who are unable to travel to 
Ghent, a *limited number of non-presential papers *will be accepted and 
one of the three days of the conference will be organized in a *blended 
format*. Please, do *mention your preference* and the reasons for which 
you propose a non-presential paper when submitting your abstract.

*The working languages are English and French*. Proposed abstracts 
should not exceed *350 words* (bibliographical references excluded) and 
be accompanied by a short biography; they should be sent in a single 
PDF/Word document (filename: author’s name and surname) to 
*(digitalcomics /at/ ugent.be) <mailto:(digitalcomics /at/ ugent.be)>* no later than 
*January 31*. The conference will result in a *special issue* in the 
international peer-reviewed journal/*Studies in Comics*/ (Intellect), 
which will be published by the first half of 2023.

For any further information, please feel free to write to 
(digitalcomics /at/ ugent.be) <mailto:(digitalcomics /at/ ugent.be)>.

*Location: Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Ghent University, Belgium*
*Date: 11-13 July 2022 *
*Website:* http://digitalcomics.ugent.be <http://digitalcomics.ugent.be>

*Organising committee*: Dr. Giorgio Busi Rizzi (Universiteit Gent), Dr. 
Simona Castellano (Università di Salerno), Dr. Lorenzo Di Paola 
(Università di Messina), Dr. Nicoletta Mandolini (Universidade do 
Minho), Dr. Mario Tirino (Università di Salerno)
*Scientific committee*: Prof. Maaheen Ahmed (Universiteit Gent), Prof. 
Raphael Baroni (Université de Lausanne), Prof. Bjorn-Olav Dozo 
(Université de Liège), Prof. Gino Frezza (Università di Salerno), Prof. 
Ivan Pintor Iranzo (Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Prof. Silvana Mandolessi 
(KU Leuven), Prof. Donata Meneghelli (Università di Bologna)

*Speakers*: Dr. Grace Gipson (Virginia Commonwealth University); Dr. 
Lukas Wilde (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen); Dr. Lucia Tralli 
(Università di Napoli Federico II; The American University of Rome); 
Ilan Manouach; Margarita Molina Fernandez; Lorenzo Ghetti and Carlo 
Trimarchi.


In collaboration with: COMICS <https://www.comics.ugent.be/>; SnIF 
<https://www.facebook.com/grupposnif>- Studying ‘n’ Investigating 
Fumetti <https://www.facebook.com/grupposnif>

*Lorenzo Di Paola PhD*
/Post-Doc Researcher/
Dipartimento di Civiltà Antiche e Moderne DICAM
University of Messina
/Adjunct Professor of Comics theories and sociologies/
Master's degree course in Entertainment Sciences and Multimedia Production
Department of Cultural Heritage Sciences, University of Salerno
*Mail: (lorenzodipaola85 /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(lorenzodipaola85 /at/ gmail.com)>*


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