From: Peter M Coogan <[c--ga--e] at [student.msu.edu]>
Subject: Comic Art Studies Introduction
Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1993 12:22:41 -0500 (EST)
Below is the introduction to Comic Art Studies. It will give you a sense of
the newsletter. The newsletter itself will be about 5 times as long (about 10
pages on paper), so please let me know if that size will cause you problems in
storage space and so forth. I will be sending out the newsletter itself on
Tuesday, December 7.
Comica Amica Nobicum (Comics Are Our Friends!)
Pete Coogan ([c--ga--e] at [student.msu.edu])
Co-editor Comic Art Studies
Comic Art Studies
A newsletter from the Russel B. Nye Popular Culture Collection, Issn: 1062-6964
This newsletter is published to facilitate communication about the Comic
Art Collection at Michigan State University, and communication about public
comics collecting and scholarship in general. MSU now has over 70,000 comics
items in its special collection, including 500 scrapbooks containing more than
300,000 daily comic strips, plus over 2,000 Golden Age comic books on
microfilm. Donations continue at a rapid rate, and a catalog of the collection
has recently been published by Greenwood Press (1993).
Contents: Mission/Philosophy -- Comics Scholars Directory -- Parallel
Publications -- CAS Over
E-mail -- Comics Journal Index on Disc -- New Journal Announcements -- Comic
Arts Conference --Calls For Papers -- MSU Online Catalog--
Newsletter back issues: Back issues of this newsletter are almost all
available. However, unless you are requesting them for a research library,
please don't ask for a complete run. It is most economical for all involved if
we can select the issues that have the information you particularly need.
________________________________________________________________________________
COMIC ART STUDIES, introduction, November 25, 1993. Quarterly. Randall W.
Scott and Peter M. Coogan, editors. Address: MSU Libraries, East Lansing, MI
48824-1048. Phone (517) 355-3770. Fax: (517) 336-1445. Available in
exchange for materials in any area of popular culture or fandom. BLB
Collectors Club of America Member 219. MSU is an Affirmative Action/Equal
Opportunity Institution!
Mission/Philosophy: Comic Art Studies is intended as a clearing house for news
and information about comics scholarship and as a nexus for communication about
such scholarship among creators, publishers, distributors, retailers, scholars,
archivists, and readers of comics. Our mailing list, both paper and
electronic, contains over 1000 addresses, and is likely the most complete list
of academics working on comics.
Directory of Comics Scholars: Following a suggestion by Leonard Rifas,
publisher of EduComics, we established a Directory of Comics Scholars in issue
48 (Summer 1992) and ran the first installment in issue 49 (Fall 1992). It is
published to facilitate contact between scholars, and between scholars and
interested parties. Updates are published in each issue as they arrive; the
current version is available as a Parallel Publication. New entries may be
submitted on paper or through
e-mail (to [C--ga--e] at [student.msu.edu]). Below is CAS editor Peter M. Coogan's
entry.
Name: Peter M. Coogan; Address: Comic Art Studies, MSU Libraries, East Lansing,
MI 48824-1048
Phone(s): (517) 353-4858 (o), (517) 355-5770 (l), Fax: (517) 336-1445
E-Mail: [C--ga--e] at [student.msu.edu]
Publications: Comics Journal Index (on disc), review of Mage: The Hero
Discovered in Extrapolations 29: 36, Comic Art Studies Spring 1992-Present,
"Science Fiction Comics" in Anatomy of Wonder 4 (Bowker, 1994).
Areas of Interest: Comics scholarship and theory, superhero formula and
prehistory,
Associations/Memberships: Comic Arts Conference co-founder, Popular Culture
Association, Midwest PCA Comic Art and Comics Chair
Parallel Publications: We will be making selected features from Comic Art
Studies available as "Parallel Publications." Currently, updated versions of
the "Comics Scholars Directory" and the "Comics Scholars Survey" are available.
Please write for more information.
Comic Art Studies Over E-Mail: We will be sending this and future issues of
Comic Art Studies over e-mail. Please feel free to forward it to interested
parties. If you would prefer to receive CAS in only one format, please send a
reply indicating your preferred format. The Parallel Publications should be
also be available over e-mail by January. All such publications will be
archived on the Beelzebub ftp site at Teetot.acusd.edu, in
/pub/Beelzebub/Comics/About_Comics. The site can be accessed via 'ftp',
'gopher', or by 'e-mail-ftp'. Direct questions about this site to Jerry
Stratton, '[j--r--y] at [teetot.acusd.edu]'. The easiest way to use this site is using
gopher.
Comics Journal Index on Disc: Peter Coogan's index of the Comics Journal is
available from the Comic Art Collection in exchange for a stamped
self-addressed envelope and the appropriate number of disks, either 5 1/4 or 3
1/2 floppy disks, depending on your system. Currently the MS/DOS and
VOLKSWRITER versions cover issues 2-139 and take up 550k. The Macintosh
(Microsoft Word) version covers 2-142 and parts of 143 and takes up 654k. The
MSWord version can be converted to other word processing programs (WriteNow,
Word Perfect for DOS), but the resulting format changes cannot be guaranteed.
Calls for papers: We frequently publish calls for papers for conferences,
journals, and books related to comics. Since issue 48 (Spring 1992) we have
run calls for: the Comic Art & Comics Area of the annual Midwest and National
Popular Culture/American Culture Association, the annual Comic Arts Conference,
the Comic Book Poetics and Theory and the Comics (collections of essays on
critical approaches to and theory about the comics medium), the International
Association for Mass Communication Research, INKS: Cartoon and Comic Art
Studies (the scholarly journal on comics from Ohio State University), Popular
Culture in Libraries (the scholarly journal on popular culture and libraries
from Hawthorn Press), and other events and publications.
New Journals: Two new scholarly journals made debut announcements in CAS. In
issue 50 (Spring 1993) came: INKS: Cartoon and Comic Art Studies from The Ohio
State University Cartoon, Graphic, and Photographic Arts Research Library,
under the editorship of Lucy Shelton Caswell, associate professor and curator
of the Library. Associate editors include: Richard Samuel, political cartoons;
M. Thomas Inge, comic books; R.C. Harvey, comic strips; and Shelly Armitage,
magazine cartoons. More information is available by writing INKS: Cartoon and
Comic Art Studies at The Ohio State University, 1070 Carmac Road, Columbus OH
43210.
In issue 51 (Summer 1993) came: Popular Culture in Libraries from Haworth
Press, under the editorship of Frank W. Hoffman, Associate Professor in the
School of Library Science at Sam Houston State University. For more
information contact Dr. Hoffman at PO Box 2236, Huntsville, TX 77341.
Comic Arts Conference: Comic Art Studies played a key role in organizing the
annual Comic Arts Conference. It has been held in conjunction with the San
Diego Expo and Comicon at the Marriot Hotel and Marina (1992) and the Horton
Grand Hotel (1993). The Conference seeks to bring together scholars and
professionals to discuss issues of comics scholarship, theory, and history.
Presenters and respondents have included, scholars: James P. Pascoe (Director
of the Symposium on Comics, Film and Literature), Dr. John Lent
(Communications, Temple University), Dr. Randy Duncan (Communications,
Henderson State University), and Peter M. Coogan (American Studies, Michigan
State University), and professionals: Steve Bissette (Swamp Thing), Will Eisner
(Spirit ), Donna Barr (Desert Peach ), Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics ),
and Carl Potts (Marvel/Epic Comics).
MSU Online Catalog: The Michigan State University Libraries' Online Catalog is
accessible by modem: To access: 1. Type TN3270 MAGIC.LIB.MSU.EDU. 2. At the
VM370 screen, type DIAL MAGIC. 3. At the Terminal Emulator screen, enter VT100.
OR: Connect to MERIT:
1. Type TELNET HERMES.MERIT.EDU. 2. At the Which Host? prompt, enter MAGIC.
3. At the terminal id, enter VT100. To exit, use the TELNET or TN3270 escape
key. For more information, contact: Carl Lee, (517) 336-2361, [20676 cl] at [msu],
[20676 cl] at [ibm.cl.msu.edu], IP address: 35.8.2.99