Abstract
Over the last several decades there has been a steady rise in the number, size and frequency of scholarly comics conferences. The character and purpose of these gatherings has changed considerably during this time, in part due to the establishment of Comics Studies as an academic field, and partly due to their relationship with fan events, which have grown to huge proportions in recent years. This chapter will first set out a historical overview of the rise of scholarly comics conferences before offering a number of case studies of the key global events, with an emphasis on academic events, wider academic events with comics strands, and finally the emergence of scholarly comics strands within public and fan-based events. Surveying the history demonstrates that while the number of comics events has increased, this has come at the cost of some diversity and that the relationships between fans, practitioners and scholars are mutually beneficial but sometimes problematic.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | The Secret Origins of Comics Studies |
Editors | Matthew Smith, Randy Duncan |
Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 246-259 |
Number of pages | 14 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781315716039 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781138884519 |
Publication status | Published - 2017 |