Origin Stories seeks to explore the political and social situations that are the basis for creativity within comics, the creative spark that leads to the creation of comics and the influence comics have on the wider creative industries and culture. Comics are a diverse creative playground for ideas and narratives that are frequently developed into other creative disciplines, film, television and games, giving them impact far beyond their origins.

Comics create value and we intend to celebrate it!

Our Speakers Will Include

• Dave Gibbons, one of the UK’s most respective comic artists and creator of the influential Watchmen series of comics.
• Karrie Fransman, Creative Director of positivenegative an organisation dedicated to amplifying academic research through engaging in visual story telling.
• Steven Appleby, absurdist cartoonist and illustrator. She has worked for the Times, Sunday Telegraph and Guardian and her most recent graphic novel is Dragman

Call for Academic Papers

The concept of ‘origin stories’ is open to interpretation in many different and creative ways.

We invite you to consider this in proposing one of the three options:

• Active workshops (30 minutes) — To be delivered live on the day. Please state ideal number and maximum participants
• Presentation (15 minutes) — Live presentation with slides face to face
• Pre-recorded Presentation (15 minutes, available asynchronously online)

Please submit your proposal by Sunday 19th November midnight.

Successful proposals will be notified by 1st December. If you are successful you will be asked to confirm attendance/or delivery of materials shortly after. Successful proposals will receive free conference access. We will not be able to inform you if you are unsuccessful. You may submit more than 1 proposal.

The conference takes place on: Comics Up Close Feb 21st 2024

Background Image: Ode to Day & Kirby / @pkwr