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Design by Jim Woodring

ICAF 2017
​Conference Schedule
November 2 to 4, 2017
(Thursday to Saturday)


​University of Washington in Seattle

Location: Husky Union Building (HUB), University of Washington
Rooms 332, 337 and 340
4001 E Stevens Way NE
Seattle, WA 98195

Note: While most events will be held at the Husky Union Building (4001 E. Stevens Way), other locations are noted below.

Some times/events are subject to change.

​For Presenters: info on hotel, lodging, and registration fee is here.
 Thursday, November 2nd
 
9:00-9:15 AM: ICAF Chair’s Welcome
 
9:15-10:15 AM: Keynote Address by Prof. Ramzi Fawaz, University of Wisconsin: “Legions of Superheroes: Multiplicity, Diversity, and Collective Action Against Genocide in the Superhero Comic Book”
Location: HUB 332
 
10:30-11:50 AM: Concurrent Panel Session 1
                                   
Session 1A. Superheroes without Borders (Moderator: Osvaldo Oyola)
  • “The Prescriptive Futurity of the Hindu Past in the Ramayan 3392  Trilogy.” Anuja Madan, Kansas State University
  • “‘My Spanish is way better when I’m pissed off!’: Tensions between Puerto Rican and American identities in La Borinqueña and America.” Nicole Pizarro, Ohio State University
  • “Muslimah Superheroes in The 99.” Sarah Abdul Razak
Location: HUB 337
                                   
Session 1B. Comics off the Page (Moderator: Brannon Costello)
  • “A History that Erases Itself: Comics Scanners and the Discourse on Piracy.” Kalervo Sinervo, Concordia University
  • “From the General to the Grave: Activism as Monument in Joe Sacco’s The Great War.” Zachary Abram, McGill Writing Center
  • "Visual Rhetoric as Performance: Shakespeare in Comics." Anelise Farris, Idaho State University
Location: HUB 340
 
11:50-1:20 PM: LUNCH BREAK
  • Luncheon Sponsored by CSS Grad Caucus
 
1:20-2:45 PM: Concurrent Panel Session 2
          
2A. Comics’ Queer Contexts (Moderator: Qiana Whitted)
  • “Diverse Anthologies: The Future of Comics is International and Queer.” Jeremy Stoll, Columbus College of Art and Design
  • “Servants to What Cause: Illustrating Queer Movement Culture through Grassroots Periodicals.” Margaret Galvan, University of Florida
  • “‘Only the Insider Would Know’: The Representation and Legibility of Mainstream Comics’ First Lesbian Character.” Joshua Zirl, Ohio State University
Location: HUB 337
 
Session 2B. Abstraction, Fragmentation, and Transformation (Moderator: Frank Bramlett)
  • “Abstract Comics – A Creative Iconoclasm." Allen Haverholm, University of Lund (Sweden)
  • “Both/and: Fragmentation and Realism in Modern Danish Comics.” Felix Paulsen, Aarhaus University (Denmark)
  • “‘Wrong on the Internet’: xkcd and the Comics Panel." C.W. (Toph) Marshall, University of British Columbia
Location: HUB 340
 
           
3:00-3:50 PM: John A. Lent Award Lecture
  • "(Re)covering Mouly's Materiality." Colin Beineke, University of Missouri
Location: HUB 332
 
4:00-5:15 PM: Comics Studies Society Pedagogy Roundtable featuring Professor Nick Sousanis, San Francisco State University
Location: HUB 332
 
 5:15-7:00 PM: DINNER BREAK
 
7:00-8:30 PM: Artist’s Talk: Moto Hagio
Location: The Henry Art Gallery 4100 15th Avenue NE
 
Friday, November 3rd

8:30-10:00 AM: Concurrent Panel Session 3
                                  
Session 3A. Comics’ Visionary Forms (Moderator: Josh Kopin)
  • “Giizhodibaa’iganeg: Indigenous Land/Water Lifeways in Comics Form.” Jeremy Carnes, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
  • “Post-Rapture Visionaries: Anarcho-Surrealist Ethics in Munro and Sam’s Therefore Repent!” Mike Borkent, University of Calgary
  • “An Anatomy of Facelessness: Halfdan Pisket’s Dansker Trilogy.” Øyvind Vågnes, University of Bergen (Norway)
Location: HUB 337
   
Session 3B. New Perspectives on Asian Comics (Moderator: Andréa Gilroy)
  • “A Forgotten Master from China: Zhang Guangyu and His Comic Decoration Aesthetics.” Hongyan Sun, Communication University of China
  • “Plasmatic Iconicity: Indexing the Self in 1950s East Asian Comics.” Evelyn Shih, University of California, Berkeley
  • “Resistance by Design: Kim Songwhan’s ‘Mr. Kobau’ and the Rise of the Editorial Cartoonists in South Korea.” Emily Marie Anderson Hall, University of Washington
Location: HUB 340
 
10:15-11:45 AM: Concurrent Panel Session 4

Session 4A. What Are We Reading, and How? (Moderator: Andréa Gilroy)                                       
  • “What Weren’t Comics? Issues in the Empirical Study of the American Comic Book.” Bart Beaty, University of Calgary
  • “What Is Comics Theory For?” Benjamin Woo, Carleton University
  • “Who’s Your Mama? The Comics Canon and the Missing Matrilineage.” Alisia Chase, State University of New York, Brockport
Location: HUB 337
                                   
Session 4B. Seeing and Being Seen: The Gaze of Comics (Moderator: Qiana Whitted)
  • “‘A Grotesque, Incurable Disease’: Whiteness as Illness in Gabby Schulz’s Sick.” Frederik Byrn Køhlert, University of East Anglia
  • “Eyes of Conscience, Eyes of Consciousness: Steve Ditko’s Incredible Hulk versus the Shōjo Manga of Ariyoshi Kyōko’s SWAN.” Jon Holt, Portland State University
  • “The Game of Gaze: The Importance of Looking in Autobiographical Comics.”  Cynthia Laborde, University of Texas, Arlington
Location: HUB 340
 
11:45-1:15 PM            LUNCH BREAK
  • CSS Graduate Caucus Meeting, HUB 337.
 
1:15-2:45 PM:  Concurrent Panel Session 5
 
Session 5A. Rethinking Comics History (Moderator: Brannon Costello)
  •  “Dell Comics and the Comics Code: The Case of The 87th  Precinct.” Andrew Kunka, University of South Carolina – Sumter
  • “‘#1 in a 4-Issue Limited Series’: Marvel Goes Mini.” Blair Davis, DePaul University
  • “‘Those Aren’t Really Comics’: Raina Telgemeier and the Limitations of Direct-Market Centrism.” Aaron Kashtan, University of North Carolina – Charlotte
Location: HUB 337

B. Witnessing and Testifying in Latin American Comics (Moderator: Brittany Tullis)
  • “To Tell the Tale: Argentine and South American Comics as Documents, Weapons, and Tools.”  Pablo Turnes, Universidad de Buenos Aires/CONICET
  • “Reading Between the Lines: Drawing on the Horrors of Disappearance in ‘Un Asesino anda suelto.’” Janis Breckenridge, Whitman College
  • “History and the Self: Testimonial and Autobiographical Perspectives in Cuban-American Graphic Novels: Cuba, My Revolution by Inverna Lockpez and Sexile by Jaime Cortez.” Tania Pérez-Cano, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
 Location: HUB 340

 
3:00-4:20 PM: Concurrent Panel Session 6
                                   
Session 6A. The Global and the Local (Moderator: Frank Bramlett)
  • “On Being Stuck: Dwelling in the Impasse in Wilfred Santiago’s In My Darkest Hour.” William Orchard, Queens College
  • “Dwelling and Dislodging in Paco Roca’s La Casa.” Kathy Korcheck, Central College
  • “G.B. Tran’s Vietnamerica: Blending America and Vietnam by Unintentionally Discovering Eastern Philosophy” Clifford Marks, University of Wyoming
 Location: HUB 337

Session 6B. Historicizing Women’s Representation in Comics (Moderator: Brittany Tullis)
  • “Splitting the Difference: Crafting a Genealogy of Feminist Media Through Comics.” Leah Misemer, Georgia Institute of Technology
  •  “Eisner’s Cheesecake Feminist: Early Connie Rodd as Exemplar and Cautionary Tale.” Robert Watkins, Idaho State University
  •  “Proletarian Girls: A Shōjo Take on The Crab Cannery Boat.” Benjamin Burton, Portland State University
 Location: HUB 340

4:30-5:30 PM: Artist’s Talk: Jesús Cossio
Location: HUB 332
 
5:30-7:30 PM: DINNER BREAK / Bus Ride to Georgetown (south Seattle)*

7:30-9:00 PM: History of Fantagraphics featuring Gary Groth, Jim Woodring, and Emil Ferris
Location: The Stables, 980 S. Nebraska Street

*ICAF attendees are also encouraged to attend the Short Run Comix & Art Festival’s Pre-Party and Marathon Art Show at the Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery (1201 S. Vale Street), beginning at 6 PM. The store is very near dining establishments and The Stables.

Saturday, November 4th

8:30-10:00 AM: Concurrent Panel Session 7
           
Session 7A. The Comics of Kelly Sue DeConnick (Moderator: Susan Kirtley)
Sponsored by the Comics Studies Society
  • “#BlackGirlMagic, Body-Positive Narratives, and the Non-Compliance of Bitch Planet.” Nick Miller, Hollins University
  • “The AmBIGuous Penny Rolle from Bitch Planet.” Meshell Sturgis, University of Washington
  • “Genre Beauty: Pretty Deadly’s Metaphysical Historicism.” Daniel Worden, Rochester Institute of Technology
Location: HUB 337

 
Session 7B. History, Ephemerality, and Memory (Moderator: José Alaniz)
  • “Comics’ Ephemerality as Queer Enterprise in Chris Ware’s Building Stories.” Maite Urcaregui, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • “The Anachronistic Aesthetic: Seth and the Contemporary Forms of the Past.” Matthew Levay, Idaho State University
  • “History Returns: Comics Designed for the Classroom.” Rachel Kunert-Graf, University of Washington
Location: HUB 340

10:15-11:35 AM: Concurrent Panel Session 8
 
Session 8A. Genre Comics and Social Justice (Moderator: Andréa Gilroy)
  •  “A Place for Every Woman and Every Woman in Her Place: Bitch Planet as a Forum for Geek Feminism.” Nancy White Iff, University of Washington
  • “The Color of Future Pasts: Polychromatic Resistance in Bitch Planet and Nighthawk.” Joshua Plencner, Union College
  • “Parents, Counterpublics, and Sexual Identity in Young Avengers.” Keith Friedlander, Olds College
 Location: HUB 337

 Session 8B. Comics and the Culture Wars (Moderator: José Alaniz)
  •  “Herblock, the Culture Wars, and the Collapse of Postwar Liberalism.” Simon Appleford, Creighton University
  • “Inventing the Lonely Machine: Jules Feiffer and Hugh Hefner’s Collaboration in the Pages of Playboy.” Paul Morton, University of Washington
  • “Sylvia, Satire, and the Culture Wars: The Strip that Challenged the Status Quo.” Susan Kirtley, Portland State University           
 Location: HUB 340

11:40-11:50 AM: ICAF Announcements
Location: HUB 332
 
11:50-2:00 PM: LUNCH BREAK / Transition to Seattle Center for ICAF/Short Run Comix & Art Festival Programming
 
2:00-3:00 PM: Artist’s Panel: Emil Ferris and Leela Corman (Moderated by Paul Constant)
Location: The Vera Project, Seattle Center
 
3:15-4:15 PM: Comics Journalism: Jesús Cossio and Joe Sacco (Moderated by Sarah Glidden)
Location: The Vera Project, Seattle Center
 
4:30-5:30 PM: Artist’s Talk: Kelly Sue DeConnick (Moderated by Qiana Whitted)
Location: The Vera Project, Seattle Center