The 2007 Festival of Cartoon Art: GRAPHIC STORYTELLING

[John Weeks]

October 25-27, 2007 at the Columbus Renaissance Hotel


Registrations are now being accepted for the ninth triennial Festival
of Cartoon Art organized by the Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library. Attendees will enjoy presentations by top cartoonists from around the country and the world focusing on the art of graphic storytelling. Registration is $150 (only $25 for students and seniors 65 and over!) and includes admission to all Festival of Cartoon Art Forum presentations, the exhibit catalogue for Milton Caniff: American Master and School of Caniff, morning refreshments and lunch at the Renaissance Hotel on both Forum days, a special exhibit reception at The Ohio State University, and a souvenir tote bag. Registration is limited to 275 participants and will be accepted in the order received.


A downloadable registration form is available at the 2007 Festival of
Cartoon Art Web site: http://cartoons.osu.edu/FCA2007/site/. The site also features additional information about related events taking place in conjunction with the Festival including an academic pre-conference at the Blackwell Hotel and a special cartoon exhibition and reception at the Thurber House on Thursday, October 25 and a banquet on Saturday evening, October 27.


The year 2007 marks the centennial of the birth of master storyteller
Milton Caniff, whose papers and art formed the founding collection of the Cartoon Research Library. The conference will begin with a celebration of Caniff's life and legacy. Leading contemporary cartoonists will then explore the craft of storytelling in newspapers, comic books, and graphic novels throughout the two-day festival.


Speakers include:


* Jessica Abel, creator of Artbabe and La Perdida

* Nick Anderson, Pulitzer-Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for
the Houston Chronicle

* Alison Bechdel, creator of Fun Home, Time Magazine's best book
of the year in 2006

* Ray Billingsley, creator of Curtis, which appears in more than
250 newspapers

* Guy Delisle, creator of Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea

* Jules Feiffer, Pulitzer-Prize winning cartoonist, playwright,
author and illustrator

* Gary Groth, co-founder of Fantagraphics Books

* R. C. Harvey, cartoonist, historian and author of Meanwhile: A
Biography of Milton Caniff

* Mike Peters, creator of Mother Goose and Grimm and
Pulitzer-Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for the Dayton Daily News

* Peter Poplaski, author of The Sketchbook Adventures of Peter
Poplaski and co-author of the R. Crumb Handbook

* Ted Rall, alternative weekly editorial cartoonist and author of
Silk Road to Ruin

* P. Craig Russell, comic book creator of over 80 titles including
the Ring of Nibelung and Neil Gaiman's Sandman: Ramadan and Murder Mysteries

* Diana Schutz, Senior Editor at Dark Horse Comics
* Mark Siegel, Editorial Director of First Second Books

* Frank Stack, underground cartoonist and illustrator of Our
Cancer Year by Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner

* Brian Walker, comics historian and curator, and writer of Hi and
Lois.

* Mort Walker, creator of Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois, and six
other comic strips


The academic pre-conference on October 25, co-sponsored by OSU's
Project Narrative and Department of English, includes:

Contemporary Graphic Storytelling


* Theresa Tensuan (Haverford College), "Breaking the Frame:
Reviewing Disabilities in Epileptic, Cuckoo, and The Spiral Cage"

* Rebecca Wanzo (Ohio State University), "It's a Hero?: Black
Comics and Satirizing Subjection" * Julia Watson (Ohio State University), "Reading Pleasures in Alison Bechdel's Fun Home: Translating Literature into "Life"

* Nicole McDaniel (Texas A&M), "Seriality and Collections of `Old
Comic Strips' in Art Spiegelman's In the Shadow of No Towers"

* Chair: Jared Gardner (Ohio State University)
History & Time: Graphic Storytelling

* Sean Connors (Ohio State University), "Portrait of the
Cartoonist: An Examinaton of Milton Caniff's Growth Between 1933 and 1935."

* Daniel Yezbick (Peninsula College), "Pie-faced Panels and
Arthrological Antics: Semiotic Reversals and Jingle-Jandled Narrative in George Carlson's `Pie-faced Prince of Pretzelberg"

* David Olsen (St. Louis University), "Who Watches the Watch?:
Keeping Time in Graphic Narratives,"

* John Jennings & Damian Duffy (University of Illinois, Chicago),
"Virtual Unreality and the Shape of Time: Virtual Comics, Postmodern Self-referentiality, and the Fourth Dimension"

* Chair: Jared Gardner (Ohio State University)
Graphic Storytelling and Narrative Theory

* Kai Mikkonen (University of Tampere), "The Narrative Agent in
Graphic Storytelling" * David Herman (Ohio State University), "Multimodal Storytelling and Identity Construction in Graphic Narratives"

* Frederick Aldama (Ohio State University) "Your Brain on Latino
Comics"

* David FitzSimmons (Ashland University), "Picture Books and
Graphic Novels: An Undergraduate Introduction to Narrative Theory"

* Chair: James Phelan (Ohio State University)


The full schedule and additional information about the Festival is
posted at http://cartoons.osu.edu/FCA2007/site/. For further information, contact [e-mail] or telephone [phone].