ICAF - THE JOHN A. LENT SCHOLARSHIP

And for poor students reading this blog (are there any of you?) here's a generous chance at a FREE ALL EXPENSE PAID TRIP TO GLAMOROUS WASHINGTON, DC. Yes, you can win a paid accomodation...

... obviously I kind of miss the 1970s gameshows once in a while. Anywhere here's the real gen, a scholarship named after my buddy John.

THE JOHN A. LENT SCHOLARSHIP

The ICAF Executive Committee is pleased to announce its third annual John A. Lent Scholarship competition, to be held in preparation for ICAF 2007. The Lent Scholarship, named for pioneering teacher and researcher Dr. John A. Lent, is offered to encourage student research into comic art. ICAF awards the Lent Scholarship each year to a current student who has authored, or is in the process of authoring, a substantial research-based writing project about comics. (Preference is given to master's theses and doctoral dissertations, but all students of comics are encouraged to apply.)

The Scholarship for 2007 is subject to the condition that the recipient present a half-hour talk, based on their research, during ICAF 2007. The award will consist of hotel accommodations for the duration of ICAF 2007 (that is, three nights' hotel) at ICAF's expense. A commemorative letter and plaque will also be awarded.

Applicants must be students, or must show acceptance into an academic program, at the time of application. For example, applicants for ICAF 2007 must show proof of student status for the academic year 2006-2007, or proof that they have been accepted into an academic program for the academic year 2007-2008.

The Scholarship competition will be adjudicated by a three-person committee chosen from among the members of ICAF's Executive Committee. Applications should consist of:

* A self-contained excerpt from the project in question, not to exceed twenty (20) double-spaced pages of typescript.
* A brief cover letter, introducing the applicant and explaining the nature of the project.
* The applicant's professional resume.
* A letter of reference, on school letterhead, from a teacher or academic advisor (preferably thesis director), establishing the applicant's student status and speaking to her/his qualifications as a researcher and presenter.

Please note that applications for the Lent Scholarship are handled entirely separately from ICAF's general Call for Papers. Students who submit abstracts for the CFP are invited to apply separately for the Lent Award.

Please send applications by March 15, 2007 to

Marc Singer
Department of English
Howard University
Washington, DC 20059

Applicants should expect to be notified of the committee's decision in June 2006, at which point ICAF will begin working with the recipient to arrange her/his itinerary and accommodations.

Festival - Oct 12-14: ICAF Schedule

The Eleventh AnnualInternational Comic Arts Festival (ICAF)
Festival International de la Bande Dessinée
-->OCTOBER 12-14, 2006
Washington, D.C.
The Library of Congress, James Madison Building
With thanks to our many sponsors.
Read more about ICAF's mission here.
All events will be held in the Mumford Room, Library of Congress Madison Building, unless otherwise noted

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12

9:00-9:15: ICAF Welcome and Introduction

9:15-10:45: Panel #1: Cultural exchanges in French comics
Chair: Guy Spielmann, ICAF Executive Committee
Karen Leader, “Les caricaturistes peints par eux-mêmes”
Jennifer Worth, “Framing and Unveiling: Marjane Satrapi’s Performance of Persepolis“
Bart Beaty, “Appropriating la nouvelle bande dessinée: The Question of Cultural Change”

10:45-11:00: Break

11:00-12:30: Panel #2: Manga and Japanese society
Chair: Ana Merino, ICAF Executive Committee
Ryan Holmberg, “Japan, a country with guns: Armament and Manga in the 1960s”
Steven Clark, “Boxing Manga and the Fictionality Vector “
Kukhee Choo, “Manga: Japanese Governement Marketing Strategy”

12:30-2:00: Lunch

2:00-3:00: Georgia Higley, “Researching Comic Books in the Library of Congress”

3:00-3:45: Display of drawings and manuscript materials by Jules Feiffer in the Prints & Photographs Reading Room
Courtesy of the Swann Foundation for Caricature and Cartoon
Curated by Sara Duke & Martha Kennedy, The Swann Foundation

3:45-4:00: Break

4:00-5:00: Tour of “Enduring Outrage: Editoral Cartoons by Herb Block” in the American Treasures Gallery, Library of Congress Jefferson Building
Tour conducted by Martha Kennedy and Sara Duke

5:00-7:00: Dinner

7:00-8:30: An Evening with Jules Feiffer
The legendary cartoonist and author discusses his career


FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13

9:00-10:30: Panel #3: Collaborative authorship
Chair: Charles Hatfield, ICAF Executive Committee
Adam Rosenblatt, “The Making and Remaking of El Eternauta”
Michael Wenthe, “The Rules of the Game“
Isaac Cates, “The Many Hands of Alan Moore“

10:30-11:00: Break

11:00-12:30: Panel #4: Comics and memory
Chair: Ana Merino, ICAF Executive Committee
Natsu Onoda, “Comics, College, and Collective Memory”
Pedro Perez-Del-Solar, “Spanish War Stories:Constructing Spanish Civil War from the Underground“
Michael Chaney, “Re-Membering, Re-mediating Slavery”

12:30-2: Lunch

2:00-3:00: Lent Scholarship Lecture: Barbara Postema (Michigan State University)

3:00-3:30: Break

3:30-5:00: Panel #5: The frontiers of the comics form
Chair: Craig Fischer, ICAF Executive Committee
Robert Peterson, “The Acoustics of Manga: Narrative Erotics and Visual Presence of Sound”
John Jennings, Damian Duffy, and Rose Marchack, “Virtual Unreality and the Shape of Time: Virtual comics, postmodern self-referentiality, and the fourth dimension”

5:00-7:30: Dinner

7:30-9:30: Smile Through the Tears: Bearing witness to the Rwandan genocide through comic arts
A special event at the George Washington University’s Gelman Library featuring Rupert Bazambanza, Ellen Yamshon, and moderator Steven Livingston

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14

10:30-12:00: Panel #6: Early comics
Chair: Marc Singer, ICAF Executive Committee
Gerry Beegan, “’Leaving Out’: Imaging the Cockney in the Caricatures of Phil May”
David Olsen, “’Monkeying with the ink bottle’: The Signifying Potential of George Herriman’s Krazy Kat”
Jared Gardner, “Gutter Stories: Comics, Film, and Modernity, 1897-1917”

12:00-1:30: Lunch

1:30-3:00: Comics production roundtable
Stuart Moore and Jamal Igle (Firestorm) discuss the steps of assembling a comic book for a major US publisher

3:00-3:15: Break

3:15-4:45: Comics and politics
Phil Jiminez (The Invisibles, Infinite Crisis, Otherworld) and Denny O’Neil (Batman, Green Lantern/Green Arrow) discuss the challenges of addressing political issues in superhero comics

Festival - Oct 12-14: ICAF Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: 26 September 2006
Contact: Marc Singer
msinger@howard.edu
202-238-2379 (office)
615-428-2861 (cell)

COMICS COME TO THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Jules Feiffer, DC Comics Artists Headline Conference

EVENT: Eleventh Annual International Comic Arts Festival (ICAF)WHEN: Thursday, October 12 – Saturday, October 14, 2006
WHERE: Mumford Room, Madison Building, Library of Congress
COST: Free and open to the publicBACKGROUND: The International Comic Arts Festival, an annual conference devoted to the study of comics, returns to the Library of Congress this October for a three-day forum of panels, keynote speeches, artist talks, and exhibitions showcasing work by comic artists and scholars alike.

SPECIAL GUESTS: ICAF is proud to present legendary cartoonist and author Jules Feiffer (Tantrum, The Great Comic Book Heroes), who will speak from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 12. Original drawings and manuscript materials by Feiffer will be on display in the Prints & Photographs Reading room from 3:00 to 3:45 p.m. Thursday.

On Saturday afternoon, ICAF presents a behind-the-scenes look at superhero comics. Acclaimed artist Phil Jiminez (Infinite Crisis, The Invisibles) and writer and editor Denny O’Neil (Batman, Green Lantern) will discuss the challenges of addressing political issues in comics. Writer Stuart Moore and artist Jamal Igle (Firestorm) will appear in a panel revealing the step-by-step process of producing and publishing a comic book. Both panels will occur on the afternoon of Saturday, October 14.

ICAF will also feature eighteen academic presentations by comic art scholars from around the world.

SPECIAL EVENT: Rwandan comics artist Rupert Bazambanza (Sourire malgré tout) and American lawyer and conflict mediation expert Ellen Yamshon will speak about comics and the Rwandan genocide at the George Washington University’s Gelman Library at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, October 13.

SPONSORS: ICAF is pleased to work in collaboration with the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division and the Caroline and Erwin Swann Foundation for Caricature and Cartoon, and with the support of Foreign Affairs Canada / avec l’appui d’Affaires Étrangèrs Canada. Other sponsors include the Gelman Library, the Washington Post, Andrews McMeel Universal, Jean Schulz, Cartoon Books, and Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash.

INFORMATION: For more information, including schedules and sponsors, please visit our official website, http://go.to/icaf, or contact Marc Singer.

Festival - Oct 12-14: International Comic Arts Festival (ICAF)

Eleventh Annual International Comic Arts Festival (ICAF)
OCTOBER 12-14, 2006 Washington, D.C.
The Library of Congress, James Madison Building

watch http://www.go.to/icaf for details to emerge