November 2020, Online
Conference Lead: Olivia Hicks
Call for Contributions
In White, Richard Dyer argues that race is
something which is only applied to non-white people; and thus white people are
allowed to speak from a non-racialised, normalised position of power.1 In
Unstable Masks, Sean Guynes and Martin Lund state that whiteness is a set of
malleable historical, geographical and cultural values, that is ‘one of the key
historical formations of power, surveillance and control’ in the West.2 Drawing
attention to whiteness is drawing attention to what is naturalised and/or normally
invisible.
The title of this conference comes from
Tracy D. Morgan’s essay ‘Pages of Whiteness’, which explores white supremacy in
the erotic fantasies of the queer physical culture movement in the American
post-war period.3 The essay title refers both to the white paper used to
produce physical culture magazines, but also the overwhelming presence of white
bodies within, and the suffocating racist fantasies which inform the rare
appearances of Black or Latino models. The phrase suggests an intersection of
identity, materiality and (comics) production. This essay is one of many
exposing how whiteness shapes the media we create and consume. The idea of
whiteness as a ‘norm’ and the backdrop against which all other identities are
contrasted and controlled, filters into
every facet of the comics we read and
study; from the over-abundance of white characters and storylines, the
privileging of white editorial and creative voices, to the ‘whiteness’ of the
comic’s pages, suggesting a white, blank default, to the inks which are used in
production, which privilege white skin tones. As Zoe D. Smith notes in her
essay ‘Four Color-ism’, ‘Brown skin in comics of this period fails in part
because there’s too much ink. The layers of cyan, magenta, and yellow are
unreliable and painfully noticeable. White skin, by contrast, is thoughtlessly
stable.’4
Maintaining the status quo of Western
society is a thoughtless action; challenging the structuring logic of our
worlds is a task which requires engagement and action. This conference is calling
for a critical examining of whiteness and the structuring systems of comics and
comics scholarship. One could respond to this theme by exploring whiteness
within comics and/or comics academia. One could also choose to examine those
identities which are marginalised or excluded; exploring creators and
characters with marginalised identities. This call also encourages work on the
production and materiality of comics; submissions on colouring (which is an
underappreciated part of comics production) and zine culture, where creators
often deliberately choose colourful paper or a collage effect which disrupts
the notion of the white page being the norm.
Some ways Pages of Whiteness could be
interpreted are as follows:
Whiteness and Comics
Comics and Race
Comics and Identity
Comics and Activism/Protest
Queering Comics
Comics Production (including colouring)
Zine Culture
Colour and Comics
Comics scholarship; new approaches to
studying comics
Comics Practice as research
Digital “Page-less” Comics
Formats
Comics Forum 2020 will take place online.
We invite contributors to submit proposals in the following formats, but we are
open to other suggestions if speakers are in a position to offer them:
Pre-recorded videos: This may be a single
speaker talk of 10-15 minutes, or a 20-minute conversation between two or more
speakers. These can be followed by live Q&As either in a video call and/or
via Twitter (please specify which you wish to use when you submit your
proposal).
Live Events: These may be workshops, reading
groups, demonstrations of practice or research methods etc. Events will be
hosted on relevant openly-accessible platforms suitable for large-scale live
video calls – if you would like to use a particular platform please specify
this, otherwise make clear in your proposal what the format of your proposed
event is so we can ensure we have access to a platform that will support it.
Please note that time-zones mean that live events can be geographically
exclusive, so if you can run your event in a way that includes some
asynchronous content this will enable more people to participate.
Digital Zines: Zines on the conference
theme can be submitted in PDF format for inclusion in the event via Issuu.
Proposals of up to 250 words in length for
contributions in the formats detailed above are now being accepted at the
following link: https://tiny.cc/comicsforum20. The deadline
for submissions is the 1st of September 2020 and you will be notified of
acceptance by or before the 14th of September 2020. Please include a short (100
word) biography with your proposal.
Comics Forum 2020 is part of the Thought
Bubble Sequential Art Festival. Find out more about Thought Bubble at: https://www.thoughtbubblefestival.com/.
Note: The Comics Forum organising
committee asked Olivia Hicks to be a co-organiser for the 2020 conference in
2019. In January 2020, Olivia proposed the call ‘Pages of Whiteness’ which as
accepted by the team immediately. The call was an urgent call to action in
comics scholarship in January, and recent events have only served to further
highlight how necessary this work is.
1: Richard Dyer, White, (London:
Routledge, 1997), p.2.
2: Sean Guynes and Martin Lund,
‘Introduction’ in: Unstable Masks: Whiteness and American Superhero Comics
(Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2019), p.2.
3: Tracy D. Morgan, ‘Pages of Whiteness:
Race, Physique Magazines, and the Emergence of Gay Culture’ in Queer Studies: A
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Anthology, edited by Brett Beemyn and
Mickey Eliason (New York and London: New York University Press, 1996),
pp.280-297.
4: Zoe D. Smith, ‘4 Colorism, or, the
Ashiness of it all’, Women Write About Comics (24 May 2019), <https://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/2019/05/4-colorism-or-the-ashiness-of-it-all/>
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