The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Sarah Lightman kindly sends us a heads-up on the Women in Comics one-day conference which is scheduled for Sunday October 25th at Murray Edwards College New Hall in Cambridge: “A one day conference, ‘Women in Comics’ will take place on the 25th October 2009. With its unique collection of 20th Century Women’s Art, The New Hall Art Collection provides the perfect venue for a gathering of practitioners, academics, curators and enthusiasts. Women comic artists will speak about their work, and broader discussion will include the representation of women in comics. The event will run 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) and funded by the Graduate School of the Arts and Humanities, University of Glasgow.”

(work by one of our more interesting female creators, Asia Alfasi, (c) the artist)

A look down the event’s page reveals an interesting-looking roster, with Belgian-based artist Dominique Goblet in conversation with Paul Gravett, Corrine Pearlman and Woodrow Phoenix discussing autobiographical comics work, Helen McCarthy on women and gender roles in the work of Osamu Tezuka, the always delightful Doctor Mel Gibson has “Something For the Girls”, Doctor Anne Miller, author of Reading Bande Dessinée’, discusses gender and eastern and western influences in Persepolis, Rikke Platz Cortsen from the University of Copenhagen will talk on female comics artists in Sweden, Kate Evans brings politics into the equation, Doctor Laurence Grove looks at women in 1950s French comics, in a related topic Catriona MacLeod discusses the representation of women in French comics work, good chum of the blog Sarah McIntyre will talk on “women: bridging the gap”, Nicola Streeten, Sarah Zaidan and Asia Alfasi will all also be taking part in the discussions. It all sounds like an intellectually fascinating day to me. Tickets are £12 and booking is required; Sarah herself will also be exhibiting In Memoriam, diary drawings from her on-going autobiographical comics work in the New Hall Exhibition Space fro the 19th of October to the 14th of November.

(Dumped before Valentine’s by and (c) Sarah Lightman)