This directory contains the responses to the New Subscriber Questionnaire for the Comics Scholars Discussion List. Entries may be found under each scholar's surname; please browse the sub-lists below. The complete list of names may be found at the Directory Main Page. Note that not everyone listed here may be currently a member of the discussion list, due to periodic un-subscribing. The date an entry was submitted or revised is found at the end of each entry.
If there are any questions, or if you would like to revise your entry, please contact Leonard Rifas
· "Catwoman vs. Hothead Paisan: Heroes in a Man's World?"
· "Comic Books: Visions of Utopias?"
· "The Spectre: A Deconstruction of Male Heroism?"
· "Batman's Perversity: Heroism as Self-involvement"
· "The Spectre: An Inward Quest Toward Heroism"
· "The Stereotyping of Women and Men in Comics"
· "Batman's Perversity: Sadism, Masochism, or Just Plain American Do-Goodism?"
· "Comic Books: Women, Abuse, and Pornography"
· "Omaha the Cat Dancer: A Comic Book Beast Fable"
· "Comics: Religion, Myth and Fable"
· "Women and Men in Tales of Terror: Exaggerated Stereotypes"
Teaching--Non-Comics: Composition, Renaissance, Milton, Backgrounds of Western Lit Research Interests, Current Projects (Comics and Otherwise): Currently working on a paper about the movie Tank Girl and the use of comics in it. 12 February 1998· NB: I use the generic word "comics" in the meaning of "graphic novels", that are much more popular in Europe than american comics. Everything is in French.
· From 1972 to 1979: Editor of the comics fanzine Skblllz. Articles and critics in various fanzines (BD 70, Vitriol).
· From 1980 to 1984: Dessine-moi un mouton, first radio broadcast dedicated to comics in Belgium (two weekly hours). Some short publications in Dimanche Presse.
· 1983: Critics in Impressions, daily newspaper published by Brussel's book Fair.
· 1982: "Le Petit Prince rencontre la jeune generation", exhibition dedicated to new talents (Schuiten, Renard, Sokal, Berthet, Foerster, Tome et Janry, Frederic Jannin, Hislaire, Servais). Article about Hergé in (A suivre). Publisher of a serie of ten audio cassettes in tribute to Hergé for his 75th birthday : "Hergé, miroir du XXe siecle".
· 1985 - 1987: "Passeport pour le Reve", weekly broadcast about books. ÒClap BDÓ, daily radio critics about comics. Publications in "Les Cahiers de la Bande dessinée.
· 1986: Production of a special TV broadcats "Carrefours" (RTBF) dedicated to the "Prix Saint Michel de la bande dessinée", animated by G.Pradez.
· 1986-1993: Publications in Spirou and Le Journal de Gaston (Special issue of Spirou dedicated to Gaston Lagaffe for his 30th birthday).
· 1988 to 1992: "Bouquin, Bouquine", daily radio critics about books.
· 1993 - 1996: "Funnythéque", daily radio critics and interviews about comics.
· 1996: "Centenaire de la BD". Internet site dedicated to comics' History. URL: http://www.imaginet.fr/BD
· From December 1996 Univers BD. Monthly E-zine dedicated to comics: books, news, interviews, games and quizz, etc. URL: http://www.universbd.com/
Other publications: Free-lance journalist in two weekly belgian magazines: "Le Ligueur" and "Coup d'Oeil". Some Psychology scientific publications at the beginning of the eighties. Research Interests, Current Projects (Comics and Otherwise): COMICS: Hergé and Tintin, Franquin; OTHER: Multimedia Other Comments: I'm not an educator but a journalist, but I will be interested by your discussions. 26 November 1997Books Co-edited:
Critical Paths: Blake and the Argument of Method. Co-edited with Mark Bracher and Dan Miller. Durham, NC.:
Duke University Press, 1987. 382 pp.
Book
Reprints::
Visionary Physics: Blake's Response to Newton. Chicago and London:
University of Chicago Press, 1974. Reissued as a Midway Reprint, 1975. xvi + 230 pp. Three successive editions.
Essays in
Refereed Journals and Books:
"Librorum Comicorum Explicatio." Occident 1 (2nd Series) (1973):
84-88.
"Comic Art and How to Read It." California Monthly 86, No. 4
(1976): 13-14.
"Incommensurability and Interconnection in Blake's Anti-Newtonian
Text." Studies in Romanticism, 16, No. 3 (1977): 277-303.
"Blake and Newton." In Epochen der Naturmystik: Hermetische Tradition im Wissenschaftlichen Fortschritt,
ed. Antoine Faivre and Rolf K. Zimmerman. Berlin:
Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1979: 277-303.
"The Tuber Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Tele-Leisure."
With Will Tomlinson. The Tuber's Voice, 1, No. 2 (1982): 8.
"In Perilous Paths." The Carl Barks Library of Walt Disney's
Donald Duck, Vol. 8. Scottsdale, AZ: Another Rainbow Publishing, 1983:
733-741.
"An Essential Detour." The Carl Barks Library of Walt Disney's
Donald Duck, Vol 1. Scottsdale, AZ: Another
Rainbow Publishing, 1984: 379-384, 418.
"The Mental Travellers." The Carl
Barks Library of Walt Disney's Donald Duck, Vol. 3. Scottsdale, AZ:
Another Rainbow Publishing, 1984.
"Educating the Imagination." The Carl Barks Library of Walt
Disney's Donald Duck, Vol. 9. Scottsdale, AZ: Another Rainbow Publishing,
1985: 251-252, 409-410, 443.
"Introduction." The Carl Barks Library of Walt Disney's Donald
Duck, Vol 4. Scottsdale, AZ: Another Rainbow
Publishing, 1985: 7-8.
"Re-Visioning The Four Zoas." In Unnam'd Forms: Blake and Textuality.
Ed. Nelson Hilton and Thomas Vogler. Berkeley, Los
Angeles and London: Univ. of California Press, 1986: 105-39.
"Introduction." The Carl Barks Library of Walt Disney's Donald
Duck, Vol. 2. Scottsdale, AZ: Another Rainbow Publishing, 1986: 5-6.
"Luck's Labor's Lost." The Carl Barks Library of Walt Disney's
Donald Duck, Vol. 2. Scottsdale, AZ: 1986: 525-28, 640.
"Blake's De-formation of Neo-Aristotelianism."
In Critical Paths: Blake and the Argument of Method. Ed. Dan Miller,
Mark Bracher, and Donald Ault. Durham, NC: Duke
University Press, 1987: 111-138.
"Comic Karma." The Carl Barks Library of Walt Disney's Donald
Duck, Vol. 7. Scottsdale, AZ: Another Rainbow Publications, 1988: 89-90,
151-152.
"Uncle Scrooge in the Global Village." The Carl Barks Library of
Walt Disney's Donald Duck, Vol. 5. Prescott, AZ: Another Rainbow
Publishing, 1989: 185-186, 224-226.
"Un-Reading 'London.'" Approaches to Teaching Blake's Songs
of Innocence and Experience. Ed. Robert F. Gleckner and
Mark Greenberg. New York, NY: Modern Language Association of America, 1989:
132-136.
"Where's Poppa: Or the Defeminization of
Blake's 'Little Black Boy.'" Out of Bounds: Male Writers and
Gender(ed) Criticism. Amherst, MA: Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 1990:
126-153.
"Introduction." The Carl Barks Library of Walt Disney's Donald
Duck, Vol. 6. Prescott AZ: Another Rainbow Publications,
1990: 7-8.
"Visual Narrative in 'Vacation Time.'" The Carl Barks Library of
Walt Disney's Donald Duck, Vol. 6. Prescott, AZ: Another
Rainbow Publications, 1990: 765-768.
"Foreword." Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner": An
Experimental Edition of Texts and Revisions, 1798-1828. Ed. Martin Wallen. Barrytown, N.Y.:
Station Hill Press, 1993: vii-xv.
"Notes Toward and Aesthetics of Underground Comics," What's Up
Underground Catalogue (1996)
"'Cutting Up' Again: Lacan on Barks on Lacan." Indy 17 (1997):30-33.
Reviews:
Nancy Bogen, ed. William Blake: The Book of Thel: A Facsimile and a Critical Text. Providence,
RI and New York, NY: Brown Univ. Press and the New York Public Library, 1971.
In Modern Philology, 71 (1973): 218-21.
D. G. Gillham. William Blake. Cambridge:
Cambridge Univ. Press, 1973. In Philological Quarterly, "The
Eighteenth Century: A Current Bibliography," 53 (1974): 647-649.
Thomas R. Frosch. The Awakening of Albion: The
Renovation of the Body in the Poetry of William Blake. Cornell Univ.
Press, 1974. In MOdern Philology, 72 (1975-76):
428-431.
Bryan Wilkie and Mary Lynn Johnson. Blake's Four
Zoas: The Design of a Dream. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard Univ. Press, 1978. In Eighteenth-Century Studies, 13 (1980):
352-356.
Nelson Hilton. Literal Imagination: Blake's Vision of Words. Berkeley
and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press, 1984. In The Wordsworth Circle
(1984): 163-165.
Peter Otto, Constructive Vision and Visionary Deconstruction (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1991. In The Wordsworth Circle (1993): 24, 4: 212-15.
Vincent De Luca, Words of Eternity (Princeton University Press, 1991) and
Peter Otto, Constructive Vision and Visionary Deconstruction. In Modern
Philology ((1994): 9: 526-34.
Laura Claridge. Romantic Potency (Cornell
University Press, 1992). In The Keats-Shelley Journal (1993): 42:
215-17.
· The Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1st edition, 4 vol. published about 20 years ago. (1973-76)
· The Collector's Guide: The First Heroic Age (1969) Howard Keltner's Index to Golden Age Comic Books (1976) Alter-Ego #1-4 (1961)
· Comicollector #1-12 (1961)
· The Comic Reader (1961)
· The Authoritative Index to DC Comics (c1962)
· Numerous articles in fan magazines
· Introduction to All-Star Comics Archives #2
Publications--Other: Coming Clean: The Impact on the Biosphere of Technologies of Domination; other texts in science; Television series on Evolution: Changing Life on Earth Conference Papers--Non-Comics-Related: Various in science and technology Teaching: I retired in 1996 after 36 years of teaching Science & Technology at Wayne State University's Interdisciplinary Studies Program. Research Interests, Current Projects (Comics and Otherwise):1. Making the 2nd edition of The Who's Who of American Comic Books available on my Web site
2. A participant in the Grand Comics Database, a collective dedicated to indexing all comic books
3. Continued research into the impact of technology on society
Other Comments: My interests are primarily in identifying all art & writing in comic books. 6 October 1998PO Box 507 Fremont NE
68026-0507; beerbohm@teknetwork.com;
List Owner:PlatinumAgeComics@yahoogroups.com
Phone/Fax: 402 727 4071
Publications--About Comics:
A partial list
OVERSTREET COMIC BOOK PRICE GUIDE by Robert Overstreet. I am listed in the
acknowledgement credits for index data submission in #11 thru #19 and then
again from #27 to present. This is still the most in-depth reference book on
the subject.
OVERSTREET COMIC BOOK PRICE GUIDE #27 (1997, Gemstone Publishing
, Maryland), "The American Comic Book 1897-1932. the Beginning:
The Platinum Age" pages 1-15 which is an origin of American comics centering
on Popular Story Weeklies, Dime Novels, Pulps, Pulitzer, Hearst, Bennett and
how the American Comic Strip and Comic Book
evolved from other media. Numerous examples cited from primary
research.
OVERSTREET COMIC BOOK PRICE GUIDE #29, (1999, Gemstone Publishing, Maryland)
with Richard D. Olson, PhD, "The American
Comic Book: 1897-1932. In The Beginning: The Platinum Age" expands from
the previous 1997 article mentioning the earliest known American comic book,
The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck by Rudolph Töpffer, Sept 1842 plus many direct amazing Palmer
Cox/Richard Outcault connections as well as other
expansions from my 1997 article.
OVERSTREET COMIC BOOK PRICE GUIDE #29 (1999, Gemstone Publishing, Maryland)
with Richard D. Olson. PhD, "The American Comic Book:
1933-Present. The Golden Age and Beyond: The Origin of The Modern Comic
Book: pages 226-233 providing "new" information not previously in
any other history tome on the subject.
OVERSTREET COMIC BOOK PRICE GUIDE #30 (2000, Gemstone Publishing, Maryland)
with Richard Olson, PhD, "The American Comic Book: 1842-1933: Beyond the
Platinum Age" provides further details of American comic books dating
back to 1842 as well as many significant rediscoveries during the past year
of heretofore unknown comic strip
compilations dating before World War One along with "The American Comic
Book: "1933-Present The Golden Age And Beyond: Origins of the Modern
Comic Book" co-written with Richard Olson PhD Published March
2000.
OVERSTREET COMIC BOOK PRICE GUIDE #31 (2001, Gemstone) section now 32 pages
OVERSTREET COMIC BOOK PRICE GUIDE #32 (2002, Gemstone) section now 51 pages
OVERSTREET COMIC BOOK PRICE GUIDE #33 (2003, Gemstone) section now 62 pages
THE BIG LITTLE BOOK PRICE GUIDE by Larry Lowrey;
1981; the most complete reference book on the old Big Little's
of yesteryear 1928-1960; I sold Larry his first BLB's
Christmas 1972 which got him back into collecting. I also helped fact
check portions of his original mss. My understanding is his 2nd edition
is finally coming out soon - one can only hope - still the best guide to this
format.
THE UNDERGROUND AND NEW WAVE COMIX PRICE GUIDE by Jay Kennedy; Crown Books
(1981); again, the most complete index reference guide to the many myriad
printings of the underground and alternative comic books
that basically started with Robert
Crumb's ZAP COMICS. I am listed in the book's acknowledgement page having
supplied many pieces of data.
THE UNDERGROUND COMIX FAMILY ALBUM Photographs by Clay Geerdes,
annotated by Malcolm Whyte. (1998, WordPlay, San Francisco), photo page 82 - I was one of
the organizing hosts for the world's first alternative independent comix
convention centered on royalty-paying, creator-owned comix held in the Pauley
Ballroom of the ASUC Building, UC-Berkeley, California campus, April,
1973. First "comics as culture" event in the San Francisco
Bay Area.
BERKELEY CON 1973 program book; Rick Griffin cover; first creator-owned
oriented comics convention ever held as well as the first Comicon
ever held in the Bay Area. Virtually every alternative comix creator
& publisher attended this ground-breaking event on the UC Berkeley
campus. Virtually every underground comix creator showed up. Prof. Don Ault
also gave a wonderful talk on early Carl Barks.
MUCH ADO OVER NOTHING by Mark Burnstein; Eclipse
Books (1987); This is a trivia book centered on the famous newspaper comic
strip, Pogo, by the late Walt Kelley. I sold Mark his first Pogo
material, helped him out a lot on aspects of the book and am one of two Pogo
fans mentioned by name inside (Steve Thompson being the other). I identified
four distinctly different "first" printings of the first Pogo book
and which one is the "true" first printing. Pogo remains one
of my favorite strips of all time.
NEMO, the classic comics library #2; edited by Richard Marschall;
Fantagraphics Books, Inc (1983); I engineered and paid all the expenses on
the last in-depth interview ever conducted with Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel,
the creators of Superman. I also set up the reprinting of The Superman
story from Science Fiction #3 1999. The piece says "special thanks to
Bob Beerbohm". Late delivery to my distribution company Common
Ground for that week's new comics shipment due to a mud-slide outside Los Angeles in the mountains near the Grapevine I-5 burying
the truck with all the comics for northern
California precluded my pre-planned
attendance at that historic interview.
THE PHOTO JOURNAL GUIDE TO COMIC BOOKS by Ernie Gerber; 1985; see credits in
Volume One; A two volume set printing 22,000 covers of most of
the major comics from the 1930s through the 1960s. Much of my
collection was photographed along with input of data
COMICS VALUE MONTHLY: Superman Memorial Issue; Attic Books (1992) Special
in-depth issue listing every Superman piece of memorabilia ever made from
1938 on up along with a suggested value. I was asked to be the main
pricing consultant; also fact checked mss.
BATMAN AND ME By Bob Kane with Tom Andrae (1989,
Eclipse) an autobiography by Bob Kane; I am
mentioned in the credits as helping out with this book.
Biographical/historical research is my first love.
SAN DIEGO COMIC CON 25th Anniversary Program book , page 79 (1994);
"Comic-Con Reminiscences" wherein I give a couple memories of
the first time the Comicon was held at the
legendary El Cortez Hotel back in 1972 when most of the dealers were still
collectors. Have been to every San Diego Comicon
since the first one except 1998 when I was a guest of Lucca
FANZATION #1-5 (1969-70) my self-published dittoed comics history fanzine
with contributions from Jerry Bails, Steve Ditko,
Reed Crandall, Bob Weinberg, Ted White, Jack Promo, Bill Wallace, Scott Stewart, Steve Johnson, Deryl
Skelton & others; mainly an article zine with a couple amateur
strips. Copies housed with Michigan State University Special
Collections.
THE WORLD OF FANZINES by Fredric Wertham MD (1974). My fanzine Fanzation is directly referenced at least 9 times - only
2 of which made it into his woefully incomplete index and of these references,
one is to a wrong page. This author of Seduction of the Innocent had a
subscription and we conversed on the phone as well as exchanged numerous
letters until he died.
THE GOLDEN AGE OF COMICS FANDOM by Bill Schelly
(1998, revised); A superb history of how comics
fandom circa 1961-1973 grew and who was involved with the early battles to
preserve this great art form. I supplied numerous data items including the
data & visual aid concerning the first comics
fanzine PHANTASY WORLD by David Kyle (1936-37).
COMIC BOOK MARKETPLACE July 1996 Gemstone Publishing, "The First
Superman Cover," detailing my efforts at saving, restoration &
preservation of Joe Shuster's original 1933 cover for Humor Publishing
Company in 1971 which languished lost for decades till I had it published for
the first time.
COMIC BOOK MARKETPLACE #46 April 1997 Gemstone Publishing "The
Atomic Genre" detailing perceptions and depictions of atomic energy and
atomic bomb explosions in American comic books 1939-1960s with a lot of depth
in the few years right after World War Two and then again when the first
H-Bomb was exploded in 1953.
COMIC BOOK MARKETPLACE #50 August, 1997 Gemstone Publishing, "The Big
Bang Theory of Comic Book History," pages 50-60, a 12,000 word look at
Hugo Gernsback's enormous influence on Jerry
Siegel, Joe Shuster, Julius Schwartz and Mort Weisinger
and the origins of Superman when the boys were still teenagers.
FROM GIRLS TO GRRLZ by Trina Robbins, (1998, Chronicle Books) provided requested
data and charts on the comics business dating back into the 1940s.
THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #25, August, 1999, "The Mainline Comics Story:
An Initial Examination" pages 86-95 looking at how Joe Simon and Jack
Kirby went into self-publishing their own comic books in 1954, just in time
for the market crash then which wiped them out. The collapse of Leader News
due to backlash against EC comics brought them down.
COMIC BOOK ARTIST #6, Fall, 1999, "Secret Origins of the Direct Market.
Part One: 'Affidavit Returns' - The Scourge of Distribution" which
begins a series of essays on how distribution of comic books evolved in
America beginning in the 1920s through the 1980s excerpted out of a history
book I have been working on for a few years now.
COMIC BOOK ARTIST #7, Winter, 1999, Part Two of "Secret Origins of the
Direct Market" picks up from CBA #6. Parts One and two total 25,000
words. Part Three will be completed one of these days.
COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE #1147, November, 1995
with a very long piece from me explaining statistics from Newsdealer
magazine that started in 1946 with a multitude of articles from (then)
industry notables on how to sell more comics, who bought them and why.
COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE #1029, August, 1993 contains the
earliest incarnations of my "History of the Direct Sales Market" as
dubbed by Don Thompson - took up the entire letters section. Became the basis
for the first research of a book.
9e ART #6, January, 2001, "Töpffer in
America" co-written with Doug Wheeler, published by the Musée de la Bande Dessinée, Angoulême, France)
about pre-Yellow Kid comic strips and books origins coming from Europe
beginning with The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck"
in 1842.
THE ADVENTURES OF OBADIAH OLDBUCK: THE FIRST AMERICAN COMIC BOOK edited
Alfredo Castelli. I wrote the introduction
documenting how I rediscovered my first copy of this comic book and what I
did with it afterwards; Napoli Comicon,
Italy, March 2003. (English-Italian bilingual edition completely reprinting
the 1842 American Obadiah Oldbuck first printing.
Also has a Martin Mystère story and a reprint of
the New York World Sunday supplement for May 5, 1895, with the first
appearance of the Yellow Kid)
COMIC ART #1 Fall 2002,
"The Illustrated Books of Frank King," a loving 11 page look at the
Reilly & Lee SKEEZIX illustrated book series issued at Christmas time
1924 1925 1926 1928 plus further Gasoline Alley items from 1929-1933. This
was all new art created for these books. King's SKEEZIX OUT WEST contains
hundreds of beautiful drawings and is one of my favorite books.
Publications--Other:
THE ART OF ROCK by Paul Grushkin (Tiny Folio
format); Abbeyville Press (1993); special book
picturing 300 of the best Rock & Roll concert posters ever done. I
helped pick them out, listed in the credits thusly.
CHEROKEE MIST: The Lost Writings of Jimi Hendrix by
Bill Nitopi; HarperCollins (1993). I am listed in
the credits supplying original hand written Hendrix letters from my
collection. Spent many an hour talking with Nitopi
as the book developed and the hunt was on tracking down originals.
ROLLING STONE, November 14, 1991; page 110, third column; I was asked by one
of the judges to comment on George Hunter' wonderful IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY
album cover from 1969 as part of their "100 Best Album covers of all
time" article. The comix and poster artists overlapped a lot back
then.
OFF THE WALL #8, Sept, 1994. Published by Wes Wilson; devoted to the
concert posters of the late 1960s. There is a special box this issue
commenting on the work I did helping make this issue come
together. I personally paid for the printing for #1 back when I had spare
dollars. The copies were handed out for free during the grand opening of my
Rick Griffin art gallery in The Cannery, Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, June, 1991.
Teaching--Comics Related:
Something I do almost every day of the week for more than 30 years - inside
my Bay Area stores from 1972 thru 1994, now on the net, at shows, catalogs
and phone; graduated PhD from The School of Hard Knocks, I have bought and
sold millions of comic books and related items. After awhile the giant jigsaw
puzzle comes coherently together.
Research Interests, Current Projects (Comics and Otherwise):
Short Term
COMIC ART #3 (May 2003) Töpffer in America by Robert Beerbohm, Doug Wheeler and Leonardo De Sá,.(updated and revised article from the first
version in the magazine 9e ART #6, January 2001,. Also contains an in-depth
look at almost every English language comics history book while we dissemble
The Yellow Kid Myth and who mentioned Töpffer and
who did not beginning as far back as 1865. The mission is to firmly
re-establish Töpffer's rightful place in America's comics pantheon.
ALTER EGO #26 (July 2003) with an 18,000 word interview with Irwin Donenfeld, whose father Harry Donenfeld
owned DC comics. Irwin ran the company from 1953 until 1968, when it was
merged with Kinney Corporation. Debuts San Diego Comicon.
Long Term
COMIC BOOK STORE WARS: working title to a 700+ page work-in-progress 160+
year history book on the "business" of comics along with
sociological impact of this great art form permeating American society for a
long time - comics are a way of life. Have assembled a great deal of research
now.
Other Comments:
SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT: Berkeley, California, Superior Court, 1973.
Thirty years ago I was the first person in the state of California court
system declared an "expert of the court" in comic books by an
Alameda County Superior Court Judge with a clear mandate to render
"expert" testimony on all things comics. This was involving a
$25,000 felony burglary case wherein I was grilled for over 6 hours by the
prosecutor, the defense attorney, members of the jury and finally the judge
himself fielding innumerable questions. I was a witness for the victim and
prosecution. The concept which was initially raised was whether or not EC
comic books were worth 10 cents or had tangible value over cover price. After
awhile it became a nostalgia fest when the judge next door got done with his
cases and joined in the questioning. I have since appeared as an expert
witness in various insurance loss cases.
Publications & Exhibitions -- About Comics:
BOOKS Guardians of the North: The National Superhero in Canadian Comic-Book Art. Ottawa: National Archives of Canada, 1992. Protecteurs du Nord: Le superhéros national dans la bande dessinée canadienne. Ottawa: Archives nationales du Canada, 1992. Main author, Canuck Comics: A Guide to Comic Books Published in Canada. Montreal: Matrix Books, 1986. CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOOKS "Comic Books in English Canada," The Canadian Encyclopedia 2001. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 2000 [revised and updated essay]. "Comic Books in English Canada," The Canadian Encyclopedia Plus. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1995 [reprinted annually in all subsequent editions, 1996-1999]. "Foreword," Northguard; Book One -- Manifest Destiny. Westland, MI: Caliber Press, 1990. WEBSITES Co-author (with Michel Viau), Beyond the Funnies: The History of Comics in English Canada and Quebec (National Library of Canada, 2002) [http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/comics/index.html]. Guardians of the North: The National Superhero in Canadian Comic-Book Art (National Library of Canada, 2001) [http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/superheroes/]. CONTRIBUTIONS TO PERIODICALS "Kipling in U.S. Comic Books," Kipling Journal 66, no. 264 (Dec. 1992). "A New Day Dawning: An Interview with Dan Day," The Comics Journal no. 111 (Sep. 1986). "Gene Day," Locus 15, no. 12 (Dec. 1982). INTERVIEWS Comics F/X, no. 9 (Jun. 1989). It’s a Fanzine, no. 41 (Spring 1989). EXHIBITIONS Contested Graphics: Comic Books in English Canada, 1941-200 (Ottawa: National Library, 2000). Guardians of the North: The National Superhero in Canadian Comic-Book Art /Protecteurs du Nord: Le superhéros national dans la bande dessinée canadienne (Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Caricature, 1992). OTHER Text: Superheroes/Superhéros postage stamps booklet (Canada Post, 1995). Text and image selection: Guardians of the North/Protecteurs du Nord trading cards (Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Caricature, 1992). COMICS Script and art: Loup-Garou. Ottawa: Dead Centre Graphics, 1988. Script: "Captain Canduck: The Towering Imbroglio," Orion no. 2 (1982).Publications--Other:
Published widely in the fields of Canadian popular culture and Atlantic Canadian literary history. Other book publications include Confederate Seadog: John Taylor Wood in War and Exile (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2002), The Far North and Beyond: An Index to Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy in Genre Magazines and Other Selected Periodicals of the Pulp Era, 1896-1955 (Halifax, NS & London, England: Dalhousie University School of Library and Information Studies/Vine Press, 1998), (editor) The Grand-Slam Book of Canadian Baseball Writing (Lawrencetown, NS: Pottersfield Press, 1993), and (editor) Halifax: A Literary Portrait (Porters Lake, NS: Pottersfield Press, 1990). Also contributed to numerous periodicals, including Science-Fiction Studies, Books in Canada, Arts Atlantic, The Literary Review of Canada, Canadian Children’s Literature, Black American Literature Forum, Archivaria, Quarry, This Magazine, The Pulp Collector, and Northern Mariner.
Papers--About Comics:
"Beyond the Funnies: The History of Comics in English Canada and Quebec," Savoir Faire lecture series, National Library of Canada (Sep. 2002).
Research Interests, Current Projects (Comics and Otherwise):
Currently completing work on a book that will combine a history of English Canadian comics with a comprehensive listing of comic books published in English Canada from 1941 to 1988.
25 October 2002
· "Shady Art Lamp" (artist auction/fundraiser) '98
· "Another Tale Retold" (cartoon art exhibit) '98
· "Imagining The Melanin-Free-Zone" (installation exhibit) '97
· "Brother-Story" (online art exhibit) '97
· "African Tales" (weekly comic ship) '93
Conference Papers--About Comics:· "African Tales: an Ethnography of Cartoon Images" (Popular Culture Assn. Meetings in Orlando)
· "Comics & Anthropology at The Crossroads" (Institut fur Etnologie und Afrika-Studien, Mainz<, Germany)
· "Culture Genre & Alterity: a Conversation with Stanford Carpenter" (Museo de Populares de Petare, Caracas, Venezuela)
Teaching--Other: The Multicultural Alliance; Summerbridge Houston; Allen Art Museum -- education assistant; The Carnegie Museum -- teacher's assistant; Portland Museum of Art -- teacher's assistant Research Interests, Current Projects (Comics and Otherwise): Life histories of African-American cartoonists, the circulation of cartoon images of Africa, the archival images that cartoonists use in their works. 25 June 1998A curiosity: back in 1966 I wrote for the then very popular magazine "Linus" an article about the American Fandom, that was widely reviewed in the American fanzines of those days. It dealt with the Thompson brothers, John McGeehan, Biljo White, the late Ed April, Bob Latona of "Vanguard", Mike Barrier of Funnyworld (who was so kind to supply me with the names of the American Disney artists, such as Floyd Gottfredson and Carl Barks, who at the time were completely unknown in Italy) and many others "pioneers" of the field.
Publications--Other I'm a "professional" journalist (I added the adjective "professional" because, absurdly enough, in Italy you have to pass a State exam to be a journalist) since 1974, and have worked in various magazines. But my main job - the one I live of - is writing, mainly for comics, a little for TV; so, since 1965, I continued many series created by others, and created many new characters some of which are still alive and well in Italy. My main character at the moment is "Martin Mystère", I write and edit the series (96 monthly B&W pages, plus a lot of "specials") since 1982 for Sergio Bonelli Editore; it's not Italy's main hit, but it does work fine (around 80,000 copies monthly, plus reprints etc.) You can meet Martin at his site http://www.bvzm.com/ or wait for the American edition which will pe published by Dark Horse beginning in March, 1998. If, for unknown reasons, you want to know more on my career as comic writer, you can goto http://www.fumetti.org/autori/castelli.htm or search for "martin mystere" or "alfredo castelli" in Alta Vista or some search engine.*** Books: Martin Mystère generated an array of books not in comic form, i.e. essays, companions, novels, an "Enciclopedia of Mystery" etc, entirely or partially written by me. Outside comic books and books on comic related subjects,years ago I wrote a book about the history and iconography of playing cards, and - to my shame - one on Italian bawdy Ballads that (to my shame again) many still remember.
Conference Papers--About Comics: As a part of my job, I have lectures on comics at each and every Comic Convention in Italy --- that means once a week or something like this. The only lecture that may interest some of you is "America on my mind: Italian Comics and the Industry of Imagination", I held at the New York University. You can find the full English text at: http://www.bvzm.com/english/eng_set.html. Teaching--Comics Related: Sometimes I'm invited at Comics schools to keep lessons on writing. I like it, but I usually encourage students to become plumbers or dentists: alas, comics aren't living a particularly good moment in Italy. Current Projects (Comics and Otherwise):· I'm currently finishing a project titled "Here We Are Again - 1895-1919, the first 25 Years of American comics. In short, it's a 500+ pages book listing alphabetically over 1,100 American newspaper series published between the given dates, with a story of the newspapers which first published them, a very rich "mediagraphy", some computer generated databases (i.e. the titles by date of their first publications, the titles by authors, by syndicate, etc), and hundreds of illustrations. I and my publisher think that at least four copies will be sold: his wife and his mother, my wife and my mother. But both think it will be very interesting, and the first book of his kind.
· For this year's edition of the San Diego Comic Con (1998), Gianni Bono, Mario Gomboli, Nessim Vaturi and myself organized a massive partecipation of Italian Comics in a special exhibit called "THAT'S FUMETTI". There will be an Italian space, with Italian comics and artwork for sale, a 64-page, all-in-color, catalog featuring a capsule story of Italian Comics (in English), and an art exhibition called "Cielo di piombo" ("Lead sky"), with anti-pollution drawings by the top Italian cartoonists. The "Cielo di Piombo" exhibition will probably travel other California towns for three months, care of the Los Angeles Italian Institute of Culture. See: http://www.hotsites.net/ComicCon/exhibits.html#ITALIAN Contacts: nessim@ats.it
5 July 1998· Conversaciones con la industria (A talk with the industry). Perspectives for the spanish comics industry in a free european market. Department of Culture, Valencian Community, Spain, 1994.
· Historia del tebeo Valenciano (A History of Valencian Comics). Department of Culture, Valencian Community, 1994.
· El Maquinista. Editor of a Monthly magazine about comics. In-depth Interviews, articles. 7 issues. Awarded with the best publication about comics in Barcelona's International Comics Festival. 1992.
· EMM. Editor of a Monthly magazine about comics. In-depth Interviews, articles. 14 issues. Awarded with the best publication about comics in Barcelona's International Comics Festival. 1993.
· Global. Publisher of a line of books exclusively dedicated to the comic' form. Books about Alan Moore, Harold Foster... 1995-present.
· Comics writer. Several works, two of them published in album format: Altamiro Rupestre (with Manel Gimeno), and Moon Gang (with Sergio Melia)
· Since 1997, I'm writing a weekly comics column named Tebeos que nunca te dije (Comics I never told you) for the magazine Cartelera Turia (Valencia, Spain). More than 50 columns have been published until now.
Publications--Other: Lots of them. Usually about popular culture, for Spanish magazines and newspapers. Books. Conference Papers--About Comics:· Sci-Fi and comics: how are we inventing the future?. Hispacon (Spanish Sci-Fi Festival). 1996. Cadiz, Spain.
· Small Publishers: Gathering small resources. Ourense Comics Festival. 1995. Orense, Spain.
· Is there a comics industry in Spain?. University of Valencia, 1997. Valencia, Spain.
· Working for foreign publishers: the spanish experience. University of Valencia. 1998. Valencia, Spain.
Teaching--Comics Related: Weekly magazine about comics in the Valencian Cultural Radio Station. 1992-1997. Research Interests, Current Projects (Comics and Otherwise): I'm fighting for a Research centre for the study of valencian comics; I keep on publishing books about comics (three different collections, about comic strips, comic-books and portfolios) 8 September 19995145-B Avenida Encinas
Carlsbad, CA 92008
neilcohn@emaki.net , http://www.emaki.net
Publications--About Comics:
Early Writings on Visual Language (Emaki Productions, 2003)
"A Time Frame of Mind: Visual Language and Buddhist Dharma Theory." (Berkeley Undergraduate Journal, Vol. 31. Berkeley, CA, 2003) "Dissolving Comics' Boundaries." (http://www.comixpedia.com. January, 2004)
Various essays about visual language at my website http://www.emaki.net
Publications--Other:
We the People: A Call to Take Back America, with Thom Hartmann (CoreWay Media, 2004, books' site: http://www.we-the-people-book.com)
UC Berkeley First Year Japanese Textbook (in preparation, I did many of the images and served as a graphics consultant, 2000-2002)
Conference Papers--About Comics:
"Beyond Panel Transitions: A New Look at Sequentiality" (Comic Arts
Conference 2003, San Diego CA)
"Introduction to Visual Language" (Comic Arts Conference 2002, San
Diego CA)
Teaching--Comics Related:
Guest lecturer for UC Berkeley's "Craft of Comics" class 2001-2003 Taught "How to draw comics" class for Longfellow Arts Middle School, Berkeley CA, 2002-2003
Research Interests, Current Projects (Comics and Otherwise):
Theoretical and empirical research into visual language– i.e. the internal structure of the "comic medium," and the role(s) it plays
culturally and socially; Linguistics and Cognitive Science; Creation of visual language software
February 28 2004
Kinkel Center, Fontbonne University
6800 Wydown Blvd.
Clayton MO 63105-3098
pcoogan@fontbonne.edu , coomics@hotmail.com
http://www.hsu.edu/faculty/duncanr/cac_past_presentations.htm
314-889-4571 work; 314-962-7939 home; 314-719-3614 fax
Publications--About Comics:
The Secret Origin of the Superhero: The Emergence of the Superhero Genre in America from Daniel Boone to Batman. Michigan State University, 2002.
Review of Reading Comics: Language, Culture, and the Concept of the Superhero in Comic Books by Mila Bongco. International Journal of Comic Art. 3:1. Spring 2001.
“Science Fiction Comics.” Anatomy of Wonder 4: A Critical Guide to Science Fiction. Ed. Neil Barron. New Providence, NJ: Bowker, 1995. 673-689.
Review of Mage: The Hero Discovered by Matt Wagner. Extrapolation 29 (1988): 36.
Conference Papers--About Comics:
Comics Arts Conference. Co-Founder and Co-Chair.
Delivered presentations annually, 1992-present.
Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association.
Delivered papers annually, 1988-1996, 1998-2000.
Midwestern Popular Culture Association. Chair: Comics and Comic Art Area,
1993-1994. Delivered papers 1988, 1989, 1993, 1994.
Star Clipper Comics Summer Lecture Series.
Delivered three talks on the superhero, June, July, and August, 1999
Teaching--Comics Related:
Freshman Seminar, The Superhero. Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri