Comic Studies Association

Comic Studies Association
Name	Comic Studies Association
Formation	2012
Type	Learned society
Headquarters	United States
Region served	International
Language	English
Leader title	President

Comic Studies Association is an international scholarly organization devoted to the study of comics, graphic novels, sequential art, and related media. It brings together researchers, librarians, archivists, educators, critics, and artists who work on topics ranging from superhero narratives to manga, bande dessinée, underground comix, and webcomics. The association fosters interdisciplinary dialogue among scholars from fields such as Medieval studies, Cultural studies, Literary criticism, Art history, and Media studies while engaging with institutions like the Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, and university presses.

History

Founded in the early 2010s by a coalition of scholars and practitioners active at conferences such as the Modern Language Association, Popular Culture Association, and American Comparative Literature Association, the organization emerged from growing interest in periodicals like The Comics Journal, journals such as ImageTexT, and book-length studies published by the University of Mississippi Press and Rutgers University Press. Early leadership included faculty with affiliations to institutions like University of California, Berkeley, University of Toronto, University of Chicago, and University of Florida, and drew on precedents set by groups around the International Comic Arts Forum and the National Cartoonists Society. Milestones include the formal constitution at a founding meeting, the establishment of annual conferences parallel to panels at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies and American Studies Association, and the creation of awards patterned after prizes like the Eisner Awards and Ignatz Awards.

Mission and Activities

The association's stated mission emphasizes scholarly rigor, public outreach, and archival preservation, collaborating with entities such as the Library of Congress, British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and university archives at Princeton University and Columbia University. Activities include fostering research on creators like Will Eisner, Art Spiegelman, Osamu Tezuka, Moebius, Gosh!, and Stan Lee, encouraging comparative studies involving works by Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Hergé, Julio Cortázar, and Naoki Urasawa, and promoting methodological exchange with centers such as the Center for Cartoon Studies and the Comic Art Collection at the Ohio State University. The group also liaises with festivals and institutions like San Diego Comic-Con, Angoulême International Comics Festival, Small Press Expo, and museums that host exhibitions about creators like Krazy Kat artist George Herriman.

Conferences and Events

Annual conferences rotate across campuses and cities that have hosted panels at venues including New York University, University of Michigan, University of British Columbia, Kingston University, and University of Sydney. Conference themes have engaged with topics tied to works such as Watchmen, Persepolis, Maus, Akira, and The Sandman, and invited keynote speakers who are scholars or practitioners associated with institutions like Yale University, Columbia University, Harvard University, and the Tate Modern. The association organizes preconference workshops in partnership with archives like the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, offers mentorship sessions modeled on initiatives of the Modern Humanities Research Association, and co-sponsors panels with societies including the Renaissance Society of America and the Society for Cinema and Media Studies.

Publications and Awards

The association supports publication outlets and prizes to recognize excellence in scholarship, pedagogy, and creative practice. It endorses or collaborates with journals and publishers such as Studies in Comics, ImageTexT, McFarland & Company, University of Chicago Press, and Bloomsbury Academic. Awards honor work on topics ranging from historiography to visual narratology, invoking precedents like the Pulitzer Prize in terms of visibility and the Eisner Awards in terms of community recognition. Prize recipients have produced monographs on creators like Charles M. Schulz, Jack Kirby, Tove Jansson, Katsuhiro Otomo, and Yoshihiro Tatsumi, and articles about movements such as underground comix and fumetti appear in edited collections and special journal issues.

Organizational Structure

Governance typically comprises an elected Executive Board with roles such as President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, and Communications Officer, drawing governance practices similar to those used by the Modern Language Association and the American Historical Association. Committees handle programming, awards, nominations, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and archival partnerships with institutions like MoMA, the National Portrait Gallery, and university special collections at University of Texas at Austin. Advisory boards have included senior scholars affiliated with departments at Yale University, University of California, Los Angeles, King's College London, and University College Dublin.

Membership and Chapters

Membership is open to scholars, students, librarians, independent researchers, and artists from regions represented by chapters and networks that mirror local groups such as the British Association for Comic Art, campus-based reading groups at Columbia University and University of Toronto, and informal communities tied to festivals like Angoulême and San Diego Comic-Con. Members benefit from reduced conference fees, access to mentorship programs, and voting rights in elections; they also collaborate on special interest working groups focused on areas including comics historiography, translation studies, digital humanities, and pedagogy for courses modeled after syllabi at Stanford University and University of Chicago.

Category:Learned societies