[ecrea] CFP: Comics, Picturebooks and Childhood.

CFP: Comics, Picturebooks and Childhood.

Special issue Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 
(http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcom20/current)

Special Issue Editors: Dr. Mel Gibson (University of Northumbria), Dr. 
Kay Sambell (University of Northumbria), Dr. Golnar Nabizadeh (The 
University of Western Australia).

This special edition will explore links between these two media in 
relation to childhood. Both have been studied in relation to how they 
work (key examples being Maria Nikoljeva and Carole Scott (2001) How 
Picturebooks Work and Thierry Groensteen (2007) The System of Comics). 
The history, specific creators, culture and audiences for these media 
have also been areas of research. Focussing on the links across 
illustration, graphic narratives and visual culture, this special issue 
offers critical interventions on the field of comics and picturebooks.

They are not typically considered together, although some research has 
done so, for example Mel Gibson (2010) 'Graphic Novels, Comics and 
Picturebooks' in David Rudd (ed) Routledge Companion to Children's 
Literature (pp.100-111) and David Lewis (1998) ‘Oops!: Colin McNaughton 
and “Knowingness”’ in Children’s Literature in Education, 29 (2), pp. 59-68.

In relation to audience (a focus in Lewis, above), comics and 
picturebooks have frequently been associated with younger readers, 
despite the two being very flexible media which can be used to address 
readers of all ages on any topic. When such assumptions are dominant, 
this is usually related to perceptions of what might be ‘appropriate’ 
content.
Sometimes controversy is about an entire medium as outlined by John A. 
Lent (1999), in ‘Comics Controversies and Codes: Reverberations in Asia’ 
This chapter in Pulp Demons: International Dimensions of the Postwar 
Anti-Comics Campaign flagged up ways in manga were seen as having an 
impact upon the health and morals of young people in South Korea, Japan, 
the Philippines and Taiwan between the 1940s and the 1980s (pp179-214).

Equally, controversy might focus on a single text, as was the case in 
relation to the British publication of Jenny lives with Eric and Martin 
by Suzanne Bösche (originally published in Denmark as Mette bor hos 
Morten og Erik), one of the first picturebooks focusing on homosexuality 
and family structure. This single text was a key element in Britain in 
the introduction of the Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 
which forbade the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality by local government.


In both these cases, what may be seen to underpin controversy relating 
to these media are social constructions of childhood, a concept 
developed within Childhood Studies and perhaps best illustrated by 
Allison James and Alan Prout (eds.) (1990) Constructing and 
Reconstructing Childhood.

This issue also constitutes an attempt to extend the scope of 
scholarship on the comic and the picturebook beyond US/UK and European 
critical frameworks by highlighting Asian and Australian visual cultures 
and contexts.

Proposals are sought on, but not limited to the following;

- Creators who work with both these media, such as Raymond Briggs and 
Shaun Tan.

- Picturebook creators who are influenced by comics. For example, the 
ways in which the work of Maurice Sendak is influenced by that of Winsor 
McCay

- Comics for children and constructions of childhood

- Controversies around comics, picturebooks, childhood and child readers

- Defining the borders and emerging areas in comic book scholarship

- Manga, comics and picturebooks

- Comic book conventions and avant-garde innovations

- Divergences and intersections between comic books and picturebooks

- When and how does a comic book creator become perceived as a picture 
book creator?

- In what ways do constructions of childhood as innocent and vulnerable 
impact upon what is considered suitable content in a comic or a picture 
book?



Deadline for proposals for 5000-7000 word articles is March 31st 2013 
(for issue 5:1, June/July 2014 of the Journal of Graphic Novels and 
Comics http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcom20/current ). Send proposals 
to Dr Mel Gibson at (mel.gibson /at/ northumbria.ac.uk)





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