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