[ecrea] The Ninth International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference - 'Retro! Time, Memory, Nostalgia'

*Retro! Time, Memory, Nostalgia*

*The Ninth International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference*

*Wednesday 27th June – Friday 29th June 2018*

*Bournemouth University Executive Business Centre, 89 Holdenhurst Road, 
Bournemouth, BH8 8EB*

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*Keynote speakers:*


Wednesday 27 June

Rozi Hathaway (/Cosmos, Njálla – /Breakout Talent Award Winner, Broken 
Frontier Awards 2016) speaking on ‘Retrospective Storytelling: From 
Childhood to Characterisation’

Anne Digby (writer for /School Friend, Girl, Tammy, Jinty /and the 
/Trebizon /children’s books), in conversation with Mel Gibson 
(University of Northumbria) (/Remembered Reading/) on ‘Writing Comics 
for Girls’


Thursday 28 June

Ian Gordon (National University of Singapore) (/Superman: the 
Persistence of an American Icon; Kid Comic Strips: A Genre Across Four 
Countries; /and /Comic Strips and Consumer Culture 1890—1945/) speaking 
on ‘Nostalgia and the Materiality of Comics’

Woodrow Phoenix (/Rumble Strip, The Sumo Family, Sugar Buzz, She 
Lives/) speaking on ‘The Intersection Between Memory And Possibility In 
Alternate Realities, Or: What If? Is The Past More Than Just A 
Story-Generating Machine?’ and exhibiting /She Lives /(2014)


Friday 29 June

David Roach (/2000AD, Masters of Spanish Comic Book Art/) speaking on 
‘The Spanish Masters’

Catherine Anyango Grünewald (Konstfack University College of Arts, 
Crafts and Design, Sweden) (/Heart of Darkness:/ Observer Graphic Novel 
of the Month 2010) speaking on ‘Committed To Memory: Remembering And 
Responsibility In Visual Storytelling’

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*Art exhibition:*

‘Retro! in Process: From Scripts to Comics’

Curated by Alexandra Alberda and Zuzanna Dominiak

Wednesday 13 June 2018 – Saturday 30 June 2018

Full programme of events and speakers now available at the conference 
website: www.internationalgraphicnovelandcomicsconference.com 
<http://www.internationalgraphicnovelandcomicsconference.com/>

**

*Registration open at:****https://theigncc2018.eventbrite.co.uk* 
<https://theigncc2018.eventbrite.co.uk/>

Daily charge: £50 / £40 (unwaged/student)

3-day discount: £125 / £100 (unwaged/student)

Retro – a looking to the past – is everywhere in contemporary culture. 
Cultural critics like Frederic Jameson argue that retro and nostalgia 
are symptoms of postmodernism – that we can pick and choose various 
items and cultural phenomena from different eras and place them together 
in a pastiche that means little and decontextualizes their historicity. 
However, as Henri Bergson argues in /Memory and Matter, /the senses 
evoke memories, and products of popular culture, like comics, can bring 
the past to life in many ways. The smell and feel of old paper can 
trigger memories just as easily as revisiting an old haunt or hearing a 
piece of music from one’s youth.

As fans and academics we often look to the past to tell us about the 
present. We may argue about the supposed “golden age” of comics. Our 
collecting habits may even define our lifestyles and who we are. But 
nostalgia has its dark side and this continuous looking to the past is 
regarded by some as a negative emotion in which we aim to restore a lost 
adolescence. In /Mediated Nostalgia/, Ryan Lizardi argues that the 
contemporary media fosters narcissistic nostalgia ‘to develop 
individualized pasts that are defined by idealized versions of beloved 
lost media texts’ (2). This argument suggests that fans are media dupes 
lost in a reverie of nostalgic melancholia; but is belied by the diverse 
responses of fandom to media texts. Moreover, ‘retro’ can be taken to 
imply an ironic appropriation. Whereas nostalgia suggests that we take 
comfort in an illusionary past, retro can suggest performance and an 
active use of the past to comment on the present. The Ninth 
International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference will investigate the 
complex relationship between time, memory, nostalgia and retro.


(TheIGNCC /at/ gmail.com)

#IGNCC18

@TheIGNCC

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*Supported by****/Studies in Comics/**//**(Intellect Books) and 
the****/Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics/**//**(Routledge), 
Bournemouth University, Dundee University, and Manchester Metropolitan 
University.*


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