Women in Comics Conference
On the 25th October, a one day conference entitled, 'Women in Comics' took place at the New Hall Art Collection, Murray Edwards College. With its unique collection of 20th Century Women's Art, The New Hall Art Collection was seen to provide the perfect venue for a gathering of practitioners, academics, curators and enthusiasts. Women comic artists gave talks about their work, and broader discussion included the representation of women in comics. The event ran as part of The Cambridge Festival of Ideas week.
The conference is organised by Dr. Laurence Grove, Sarah Lightman and Catriona MacLeod (from the University of Glasgow).
Funded by the Graduate School of the Arts and Humanities, University of Glasgow
Recorded talks:
As the event was so successful and with so many enquiries about the speakers, we have recordings of the talks available to promote the work of women comic artists and to encourage contiunued discussion about womens role in this revealing art form. Please be patient with us as we upload these recordings and do keep checking this page for updates. To listen to a speaker, please click on their name to open, or right click to save as an mp3.
With a special thank you to Alex Fitch for all his recording and technical assistance.
If you have any queries about the event, or the information provided on this page, please do contact Amanda Rigler on 01223 769404, art@newhall.cam.ac.uk
Session 1: Vivian Stewart Room |
Session 1: Jocelyn Bell Burnell Room |
Plenary I
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Session 2: Vivian Stewart Room |
Session 2: Jocelyn Bell Burnell Room
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Plenary II |
A full time-table of the event can be viewed:
Speaker Information
Melinda Gebbie: Lost Girls
Melinda Gebbie was born in San Francisco and contributed to 'Wimmen's Comics' and created her own comic, 'Fresca Zizis'. She is renowned for her exquisite illustrations for 'Lost Girls', an erotic graphic novel that took her 16 years to complete, and was made in collaboration with Alan Moore.
Copyright Melinda Gebbie
Dominique Goblet in Conversation with Paul Gravett
Dominique Goblet works in Belgium and her paintings and books explore the art of the complex narrative. She published 'Faire semblant c'est mentir' ('Pretending is Lying') (L'Association 2007), which has been translated in Spanish and Flemish, and is considered one of the greatest achievement of visual autobiographical narrative.
Copyright Dominique Goblet
from Eddie Campbell's 'Alec: How To Be An Artist'
Nicknamed "The Man at the Crossroads" by Eddie Campbell, Paul Gravett co-founded the British comics culture magazine Escape, creates books and exhibitions about international comic art, and directs the annual festival and year-round programme of Comica based at the ICA, London. www.paulgravett.com www.comicafestival.com
Woodrow Phoenix and Corinne Pearlman: Is Autobiography a Trap?
Woodrow, a comics artist and writer, is the author of Rumble Strip, described by The Times as "One utterly original work of genius. It should be made mandatory reading for everyone, everywhere".
Corinne is a designer and illustrator who works in publishing with Comic Company and Myriad Editions. Her most recent comics appeared in The Jewish Quarterly.
Copyright Corrine Pearlman
Dr Ann Miller : Persepolis: Eluding the Frame
Ann is a senior lecturer in French at the University of Leicester, author of 'Reading Bande Dessinée', and joint editor of European Comic Art. She will discuss the way that Satrapi positions herself in relation to artistic heritages, Western and Eastern, male and female.
Image copyright Marjane Satrapi
Rikke Platz Cortsen: Contemporary female comics artists in Sweden
Rikke is a PhD student at the University of Copenhagen with a project on time and space in comics.
Image copyright Nina Hemmingsson, 2006
The girl says: "You are the only one I have now...snif...At least we are having a cosy time...ooohhh...yes you like to be scratched there...cuddle...cuddle...just you and me Greypaw". The bunny thinks: "Better to let the soul leave the body until the nightmare is over".
Kate Evans: Making the Political Personal.
Kate has been combining words and pictures for political effect for the past fifteen years. She is the author of the groundbreaking works Copse, Funny Weather and The Food of Love.
Image copyright Kate Evans
View her work at www.funnyweather.org, www.cartoonkate.co.uk, www.thefoodoflove.org
Dr Laurence Grove: Every Home Should Have One: French Women in 1950s Comics.
Laurence is Senior Lecturer and Head of French at the University of Glasgow. His research centres on text/image forms from the Renaissance to the present day, in particular emblem books and bandes dessinees.
Catriona MacLeod: Gazing at the Female in French-Language Comic Strips
Catriona is currently in the first year of her PhD at the University of Glasgow, specialising in the representation of women in French-language comic strips.
Image copyright Jean-Claude Forest
Sarah McIntyre : Comics and Picture Books: women bridging the gap
Sarah strip 'Vern and Lettuce' was published weekly by the DFC and appeared in the Guardian Comic section. Her picture book with Giles Andreae, 'Morris the Mankiest Monster', launches Oct 1st, and is officially the most disgusting book of the year.
Image copyright Sarah McIntyre
Nicola Streeten: Gender and the AutoGraphic Novel in the Twenty-First Century
Nicola has been an illustrator since 1996, and is presently working on a graphic novel as part of an MRes at Lincoln University. She launched Liquorice in 2008.
www.streetenillustration.com, www.liquoricemag.com
Copyright Nicola Streeten
Sarah Zaidan
Sarah Zaidan is a sequential artist in the third year of a practice-based PhD in Illustration from Kingston University that deconstructs the superhero genre of comics via interactive comic panels.
Asia Alfasi: The Importance of Women Comic Artists
Asia is a Libyan-British manga-influenced comic writer and artist. She will be dipping into her personal experience of what its like being a female comic artist and the pressing reasons that convinced her to step up and begin relaying comic stories, especially from a female point of view. This is an extension and extrapolation on the theme of cultural dialogue and taking responsibility for self-representation.
Image copyright Asia Alfasi