The fall 2008 International Journal of Comic Art

Ok, back to the fall 2008 International Journal of Comic Art issue that clocks in at 872 pages. Editor & publisher John Lent wrote an introduction to it in which he highlighted the current issue and also looked back at the past 10 years of publishing. Here's some of John's introduction:

This issue marks the tenth anniversary of the International Journal of Comic Art, and fitting the occasion, is packed with informative, entertaining, and even some provocative articles and reviews. Two symposia are offered, one of 14 articles on women and cartooning worldwide; another, the fifth installment of the “Pioneers of Comic Art Scholarship Series,” featuring Seetha Srinivasan of University Press of Mississippi and Bi Keguan of China.

A couple of granddaughters of famous cartooning personnel provide insights gleaned from primary sources about their grandfathers. Nicky Heron Brown (nee Wheeler-Nicholson) refutes statements made by David Hajdu about her grandfather, Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, one of the “inventors” of the modern American comic book in the 1930s. Her article is especially welcomed as perhaps the first of a number of expected published accounts of the Major’s career planned by his family. Carolyn Wong contributes a second article on her grandfather, Huang Yao, a Chinese cartoonist who worked throughout East and Southeast Asia for decades; she unearthed new findings about his World War II work which supplement the article on World War II Chinese cartooning Xu Ying and I wrote in 10:1.

This anniversary issue is also enriched by an interview with Nakazawa Keiji of Barefoot Gen; a comprehensive “family tree” of educational comics by Sol M. Davidson (with help from his wife, Penny), many of which are culled from their collection; an analysis of Burmese political cartoons published in exile, written by Lisa Brooten; and articles or reviews written by cartoonists -- Trina Robbins and Matt Wuerker of U.S., Frank Hoffmann and Marlene Pohle of Germany, Ġorġ Mallia of Malta, Raquel Orzuj of Uruguay, and Arcadio Esquivel Mayorga of Costa Rica. It is the first time Burma, Costa Rica, Malta, and the Indian Ocean were featured in the International Journal of Comic Art. Besides articles on the American “Popeye,” Maus, Johnny the Homicidal Killer, Sin City, “Feiffer,” Captain America, war comics, and political cartoons, others in this issue dealt with Australia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Europe more generally, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.


So that's what you get in the current issue. Here's what the ten year period saw overall:

At least two articles (Fredrik Strömberg on Sweden and Fabio Gadducci on Italy) were developed into monographs by their authors, and many other articles were reprinted in books and very frequently cited in the scholarly literature. The journal is known worldwide, gracing the shelves of 111 university libraries, comic centers, art institutes, museums, and comics publishers in at least 20 countries; some of them are British Library, Library of Congress, Victoria & Albert Museum, Serieteket (Stockholm), Centre National de la Bande Dessinée de l’Image Bibliotheque (Angoulême), New York Public Library, Ivy League universities (Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale), MIT, Stanford, UCLA, Georgetown, School of Visual Arts, and University of Chicago.

We take pride also in the quantity of production. In 20 issues, the International Journal of Comic Art published 493 articles, including 16 symposia [see list], 71 book reviews, and 141 exhibition reviews, the latter very ably handled by Michael Rhode. The total number of pages was 9,198. At least 357 different authors (151 in Vols. 1-5, 206 in Vols. 6-10) wrote articles;* some of them had multiple contributions. Sixty countries were written about individually and others were treated less exhaustively in regional treatments on Africa (2 articles), Asia (1), East Africa (2), East Europe (1), Europe (3), Francophone Africa (1), and Latin America (1). The most articles dealt with North America (U.S., 179; Canada, 6) with 185; Europe (107), Asia (100), Latin America (40), Africa (31), and Australia/New Zealand (14). Nineteen countries of Europe were featured in articles, followed by 14 each for Africa and Asia, nine for Latin America, and two each for North America (U.S., Canada) and Australia and New Zealand. The top ten countries with articles were U.S., 179; Japan, 45; France, 24; England, 23; China, 18; Russia, 14; Spain, 13; Australia, 12; Brazil, 11, and Argentina, 9.


He wraps up with a list of special issues in case any of these are of interest to you (we're working on a plan to get the out of print issues back into print):

List of Symposia

10:2 “Women in/of Cartooning: A Symposium” -- edited by John A. Lent (14 articles)
“Pioneers of Comic Art Scholarship Series, Part V” -- (2 articles)
10:1 “Biff! Bam!! Crikey!!! A Comics Conference in Scotland, 2007 -- edited by Christopher Murray (10 articles)
9:2 “Gallery Comics: A Symposium” -- edited by C Hill (4 articles)
“Egyptian Cartooning: A Symposium” -- edited by John A. Lent (4 articles)
9:1 “Kibyōshi: The World’s First Comicbook?” -- edited by Adam L. Kern (7 articles)
“Cartooning in Australia: A Symposium” -- edited by John A. Lent (6 articles)
8:2 “Racial Identity: A Mini Symposium” -- edited by William Foster, III (4 articles)
8:1 “Ever-Ending Battle: A Symposium” -- edited by A. David Lewis (8 articles)
7:2 “Pioneers of Comic Art Scholarship Series, Part IV” -- edited by John A. Lent (5 articles)
7:1 “Late/Post-Soviet Russian Komiks: A Symposium” -- edited by José Alaniz (10 articles)
5:2 “Spanish Comics: A Symposium” -- edited by Ana Merino (10 articles)
“Pioneers of Comic Art Scholarship Series, Part III” (4 articles)
5:1 “Pioneers of Comic Art Scholarship Series, Part II” (4 articles)
4:1 “There at the Beginning: Early Days of Comics Scholarship”
(“Pioneers of Comic Art Scholarship Series, Part I”) -- edited by John A. Lent (9 articles)
3:2 “Latin American Comic Art: A Symposium” -- edited by John A. Lent (10 articles)