Literacy

Confession: I did not know the name of the editor of the University Press of Mississippi's excellent line of books about comics—spanning scholarly works on Chris Ware, Alan Moore, Osamu Tezuka and everyone in between—but his name is Walter Biggins and now he's leaving. But luckily Jeet Heer, who wrote several books for the line, catches up with him first —hopefully USM's strong comics list will continue:

Wow did we miss the boat on this. Two days in and we finally link to it. Shameful. On the other hand, it's a sign of comics ongoing academic respectability that a three day comics symposium featuring Nick Bertozzi, Josh Neufeld, Erin Polgreen and more could be taking place and there would be so much other comics stuff going on that it would only be the most serious of six or seven other top notch events. Anyway read all about it here, and there's still time to get in on the fun with tonight's keynote and tomorrows panels:

In this week's PW Comics World, I interviewed Jeremy Short—creator of the study on comics comprehension referenced here—about that study and a general overview...

The early award season for books is here, and earlier this week the American Library association handed out a slew of literary awards. As has been the recent trend, several graphic novels were recognized among the pictureless books:

If there's one trend we've noticed growing over the years its the use of graphic novels as teaching tools—on the must basic level, comics are now recognized as a way to get reluctant readers to get started reading. On a larger level, comics are being used as a general teaching tool. Josh Elder's Reading with Pictures organization has been promoting this idea and cataloging the use of comics in the classroom. It's not just the visceral appeal of colorful pictures that puts comics over—some think that the verbal-visual blend is the future of literacy, and comics could potentially be on the forefront of that.

Okay, it’s not a comic. But it is a lavishly illustrated and pleasingly offbeat childrens’ book by the great comics and prose writer Neil...

Dr. Neil Cohn may soon become one of the most quoted people in the comics world. That's because he's a scientist who has been...

Here's an event that snuck up on us: An comics symposium organized by New Uork University's Gallatin School of Independent study called GallaCon: A...

Columbus Ohio's Columbus College of Art and Design is throwing yet another awesome comics symposium called Mix 2012: Comics Symposium -- there are two...

New Yorkers who are are still in withdrawal from the amazing SPX just concluded, rejoice—this weekend's Brooklyn Book Festival features a full line-up of comics programming, and some comics-focused programs during the week that will keep you in comics nirvana. The festival takes place all day Sunday, September 23rd, but there are satellite events listed below.

On the 14th of September, in a satellite event leading up to the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland, comics creator Dean Haspiel took the podium in the James Madison building of the Library of Congress to make a little history on the basis of a subject small in size but impressive in cultural impact: mini comics. Haspiel had previously announced his personal 600 item donation of the comics, self-published and often diminutive in size, to the LoC via Warren Bernard, Executive Director of the Small Press Expo, who helped to arrange and conduct the donation. Haspiel’s donation will be part of a sub-grouping within the newly established Small Press Expo collection at the LoC. The collection will contain, among other worthy selections, past and future Ignatz Award nominated works. Haspiel was particularly appropriate to take the stage and explain the role of indie comics to his audience because his work has appeared in both mainstream comics like Marvel and DC as well as creator-owned and small press publications. As such, his works are actually filed under more than one category at the LoC: mainstream comics and mini comics.

In New York City, an active community of professionals working in comics and image-text combinations hopes to share their knowledge and benefit from the experience of others in the field. The New York Comics and Picture-story Symposium is a collective for trading stories, tips, critiques, and encouragement in a fresh setting by combining the social with the educational.