Author: Ryan Claytor
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Due to popular demand, the Women Comics Professionals exhibit, housed in the MSU Main Library Special Collections exhibit cases on the first floor as well as the 4th floor exhibit cases near the Fine Arts Library, will be on display through June 2018 (contrary to their announced end date in March 2018). Click here for MSU Main Library hours of operation to visit the exhibition.
//Both of our 2018 Michigan State University Comics Forum keynote addresses have now been archived. You can access them both below, or via the link on each presenter’s name.
//We’re proud to announce our 2019 MSU Comics Forum event dates, location, keynote speakers, availability of our artist and scholar submission forms, and our event artwork:
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Seth is the award-winning cartoonist behind the comic book series Palookaville, a semi-annual hardcover. His comics have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Best American Comics, and McSweeney’s Quarterly. His illustrations have appeared in numerous publications including the cover of the New Yorker, The Walrus, and Canadian Notes & Queries. He is also the designer for several classic comics reprint series, notably the collections of work by Charles Schulz, John Stanley, and Doug Wright. Seth has exhibited throughout the world in a variety of group and solo shows including exhibitions of his model city Dominion, which toured Galleries in Eastern and Central Canada as well as select galleries the world over. He was also the subject of the National Film Board documentary entitled Seth’s Dominion.
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Qiana Whitted is Associate Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of South Carolina. A graduate of Hampton University with a PhD from Yale University, her research focuses on African-American literary studies and American comic books. Her publications include the edited collection, Comics and the U.S. South (Mississippi, 2012) and the book “A God of Justice?”: The Problem of Evil in Twentieth-Century Black Literature (Virginia, 2009). She is an associate editor of INKS: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society and Chair of the International Comic Arts Forum. Her most recently published articles and book chapters explore race, genre, and comics in representations of historical figures such as Nat Turner, Stagger Lee, and Emmett Till. Her forthcoming book on race and social protest in 1950s EC comics will be published by Rutgers University Press in 2019.
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We look forward to seeing you again next year!
Sincerely,
The MSU Comics Forum Core Committee
//Saturday, Feb 24th, 2018, started with back-to-back behind-the-scenes tours of the Michigan State University Special Collections Library (the largest public collection of comic books in the world) guided by MSU Comics Bibliographer, Randy Scott, whose life’s work has grown the collection to over 300,000 copies:
Academic panel discussions and Artist Alley started promptly at 11am:
Diana Schutz delivered the 2018 MSU Comics Forum scholar keynote address at 12:30pm to a packed crowd:
A shot of her title slide:
MSU Comics Forum Director, Ryan Claytor, talks with local news stations about the event:
Artist Alley continues to draw a crowd throughout the day:
Two rooms of Academic Panel discussions ran concurrently all day Saturday, doubling the usual count of our panels:
Arie Koelewyn offered attendees the chance to personally print their own custom letterpressed bookmarks…
…which could then be taken to the next table to have Lucy Knisley and Diana Schutz sign them:
Many thanks to all the scholars, creators, and attendees who made the 2018 MSU Comics Forum such a successful year.
Stay tuned for an announcement about our 2019 event!
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This evening, Lucy Knisley delivered a well-attended keynote address.
She gave insights into her past, present, and future work and showed a number of never before seen illustrations, including an animated, narrated comic created specifically for this presentation as well as a poignant and unreleased excerpt from her upcoming graphic novel, Kid Gloves.
Thanks to all who attended.
Both our keynote speakers, Lucy Knisley and Diana Schutz, will be available in our Artist Alley tomorrow from 11am-5pm on the MSU Main Library’s 3rd floor West, along with several dozen other comics artists. Panel discussions will also be running throughout the day. For more detailed information you can reference our Panel Discussions and Artist Alley pages.
All events associated with the MSU Comics Forum are free and open to the public.
//Women Comics Professionals is the first exhibition in the newly installed MSU Special Collections Library exhibit cases. It opened this past week as part of the 2018 MSU Comics Forum.
All of the selections from this exhibit are part of the MSU Special Collections Library, home of the world’s largest public collection of comic books. Women Comics Professionals was curated by MSU Special Collections Comics Bibliographer, Randy Scott, and runs through March 2nd, 2018.
The first event of our main weekend was Thursday’s co-sponsored lecutre and book discussion with Muslim Studies, and was well received last night.
This event was part of “Muslim Journeys” series of events on campus.
Thanks to Muslim Studies for their sponsorship, to Deborah Margolis for spearheading this event and to @ranti for her photography of the book discussion.
Events continue throughout this weekend. See our Schedule page for more information.
All events are free and open to the public.
//As our main events approach, we wanted to make a brief announcement that our Location Page has been updated with parking information that might prove helpful when visiting campus.
See you at the end of the month,
Ryan Claytor
MSU Comics Forum – Director
//Our first presentation of the 2018 MSU Comics Forum took place on the first of the month and is now available for viewing online:
Audio improves around the 5:30 mark. Thanks to Zack Kruse for an informed and engaging lecture.
//If you’re unable to attend the 2018 MSU Comics Forum, each of our keynote speakers’ presentations will be liveStreamed at:
And here are the times that you’ll be able to watch (remember, times are in Eastern Standard Timezone):
Lucy Knisley
Fri., Feb 23rd, 2018
7pm EST
Diana Schutz
Sat., Feb 24th, 2018
12:15pm EST
//The 2018 MSU Comics Forum schedule featuring our Keynote Speakers, Artist Alley participants, Panel Discusions, and more are completely up-to-date for this year’s event, all of which take place at various times, days and locations surrounding the final weekend of February. We’ve tried to top ourselves in terms of programming yet again, so I hope you’ll take a moment to familiarize yourself with our keynote speakers and event line-up.
Finally, I’d like to make a brief mention that our venue has changed to the MSU Library and as usual all events are free and open to the public.
Looking forward to seeing you next month,
Ryan Claytor
MSU Comics Forum – Director