From panels and gutters to speech balloons and narrative boxes, comics are famously marked by graphic borders. Yet, with their inherent mixing of words and images, they are equally about the defiance of borders, offering a literary stage for artists and narratives that challenge graphic, national, and cultural frontiers. Echoing a similar act of academic border defiance, the conference gathers esteemed artists and scholars from around the globe who produce and study such texts.
The keynote event will feature Pulitzer Prize–winning comic artist Art Spiegelman, author of the groundbreaking graphic memoirs Maus (1980–1991) and In the Shadow of No Towers (2004). In addition, architect and past Wortham Fellow in the Rice School of Architecture Amelyn Ng will present on experimental graphic narratives and the intersection of architectural theory and comics.
This opening event will be followed by three days of presentations, exhibitions, and comics-making workshops in locations across the Rice campus. A volume of papers and art will be collected in the graphic anthology š!, published by Riga-based comics publisher kuš!, available at the conference.
The symposium is organized by Christopher Sperandio, associate professor of art, through The Comic Art Teaching and Study Workshop (CATS) in the Department of Art at Rice University, with support from the Rice School of Architecture.
Join us for an international, interdisciplinary, and cross-campus dialog on a form whose relevance to 21st-century communication and literacy is constantly growing.
All events are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.