Important Info About Matt Smith/Free Comic Day

So as I said last meeting, Free Comic Book Day is the first Saturday in May.

I had also mentioned how a guy who works in the area (Matt Dow Smith) did art for a run of Dr. Who comics (he's also currently working on the Supernatural prequel comic. I just picked up the new issue where the villain is the comic version of a guy who works at Borders in 'Toga. Awesome.).

Well, Matt Smith will be doing a signing at Comic Depot in the Wilton Mall in Saratoga on Free Comic Book Day.

I know it's a long drive from where everyone lives, but since some people (*cough* Alex XD) were so excited about this Matt Smith and his Dr. Who comics, I thought I would let people know and see if you guys wanted to make an outing of it.

The Librarian's Guide to Graphic Novels for Adults

This isn't related to historical graphic novels, but I stumbled across it on Amazon and just had to share :-) The UAlbany library does not have it, unfortunately, but here's the Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/Librarians-Guide-Graphic-Novels-Adults/dp/1555706622

Off topic

Sorry, I know this won't count as historical but I just learned (again late in the game) that Tim Hamilton illustrated a graphic novel of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and I was wondering if anyone knew if any of Bradbury's other stories got the same treatment.

Okay, I'm going back to working on my research paper. :-P

Times Square Mural

I want to bring this up because the graphical style seems to be quite relevant to the group and it seems to be creating very strong feelings and impressions both for and against the style:

Controversial Women's History Month Mural in Times Square

Another link, more pictures and a few different words

Ooku

That historical manga I was talking about:

http://www.amazon.com/%C3%94oku-Inner-Chambers-Vol-Ooku/dp/1421527472/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268883880&sr=8-1

An Interesting PhD Opp: Manga

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: H-ASIA: Position PhD position, Manga Research, 'Beyond Utopia:
New Politics, the Politics of Knowledge, and the Science Fictional Field
of Japan' Leiden University
From: "Frank Conlon"
Date: Fri, March 12, 2010 4:53 pm
To: H-ASIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

H-ASIA
March 12, 2010


Position: Modern East Asia Research Centre, Leiden University, The
Netherlands - PhD position (research on political expression in manga) -
'Beyond Utopia: New Politics, the Politics of Knowledge, and the Science
Fictional Field of Japan'

************************************************************************
From: H-Net Job Guide:

JOB GUIDE NO.: http://www.h-net.org/jobs/display_job.php?jobID=40314

Modern East Asia Research Centre, Leiden University, The Netherlands - PhD
position (4 years) (research on political expression in manga) - 'Beyond
Utopia: New Politics, the Politics of Knowledge, and the Science
Fictional Field of Japan

Location: Netherlands
Institution Type: College/University
Position Type: Doctoral Fellow
Submitted: Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Main Category: Political Science/International Relations
Secondary Categories: Research/Professional
Philosophy
Media Studies
Fellowships/Grants/Interns
Asian History or Studies



The Modern East Asia Research Centre (MEARC) at Leiden University, the
Netherlands, invites applications for a 4-year PhD position within the NWO
VICI research project Beyond Utopia: New Politics, the Politics of
Knowledge, and the Science Fictional Field of Japan. Principle researcher
is Prof. dr. Chris Goto-Jones, Professor of Comparative Philosophy &
Political Thought, Leiden University.

Successful candidates will begin their position preferably in August 2010
and are expected to complete their thesis within four years.

Project description

Recognizing that, since the end of the Cold War, political theorists
around the world have embarked upon a deliberate quest for difference and
innovation in their discipline, triggered by the apparently world historic
victory of liberal capitalism, this project aims to uncover a series of
sites of difference and innovation. In particular, it locates itself in
two kinds of distancing: geo-cultural (ie. in the non-European space of
Japan) and medial (ie. in innovative expressive media). Utilizing
the techno-media of anime, manga and video games, and focusing on the
radical potentials of the genre of speculative science fiction, this
project aims to analyze and model a series of political visions as
potential alternatives to liberal capitalism, hence contributing to the
field of political thought.

Furthermore, acknowledging that these widely popular techno-medial
products utilize different grammars of expression from conventional,
text-based media, this project seeks to formulate a research methodology
for scholars to employ for critical interventions into these fields.
Accepting that the dimensions of the public sphere change with time and
technological developments, and hypothesizing that the public sphere in
many contemporary societies is now informed by this techno-politics, at
stake is the ability of scholars to remain in touch with (and persuasive
in) political realities: new forms of literacy are required if scholars
seek to remain involved in the new public sphere. This project attempts to
outline those forms of literacy, as implied by the rapidly globalizing
force of Japanese anime, manga and video games.

PhD subproject
The PhD project will focus primarily on investigating political expression
in manga

The goals of the PhD project are:
An analysis of the ways in which manga express political meanings and its
impact on the public sphere (in Japan and elsewhere), and hence the
development of a sense of what it means to be politically literate in
manga;

An analysis of the political positions/theories that are explained or
explored in manga, relative to existing ideas in the canon of political
thought.

The deliverables of the PhD project are:
a PhD thesis;
a conference paper.

Teamwork with the other researchers on this project (a PhD candidate
working on political expression in videogames, a PhD candidate working on
the political expression in anime, a PostDoc and the principal researcher)
is essential.

The PhD candidate may also be asked to contribute to associated teaching
programmes in the later stages of the project.

Requirements
Candidates should hold an MA degree or equivalent. Preference will be
given to candidates with:
an MA in Political Science/Thought or Philosophy and a demonstrable
knowledge of modern Japanese;
an MA in Japanese Studies and a demonstrable specialization in Political
Thought, or Philosophy;
an MA in Media Studies, with demonstrable expertise in Political Thought
or Philosophy and in Japanese language.
Outstanding research qualities manifest in a high-quality MA thesis or
equivalent;
Excellent command of English

Offer
MEARC offers a fulltime (38hrs/week) PhD position for a limited period of
4 years. The salary of the PhD candidate is EUR 2.042,- gross per month
in the first year, increasing to EUR 2.612,- gross per month in the fourth
year, based on fulltime employment (in accordance with current salary
scales as set out in the collective labour agreement for Dutch
Universities).

How to apply
Applications can be emailed (PDF format only) to the following email
address: info@mearc.eu

The deadline for applications is 1 May 2010

Only applications emailed on or before this date will be accepted.

In order to apply, the applicant must submit the following:
a curriculum vitae;
the MA thesis or other major writing sample (preferably in English);
an academic transcript;
name and contact details of two referees;
a short research proposal of up to three pages
a letter of motivation.

NB Each document should contain the applicants name (preferably in the
header or footer of the document)

Further inquiries

For further inquiries, please contact Esther TRUIJEN, info@mearc.eu

For information about MEARC, please visit www.mearc.eu

For more information about the project, please visit www.asiascape.net



Contact Info:
Esther Truijen
Manager
Modern East Asia Research Centre (MEARC)
Leiden University
PO BOX 9515
2300 RA Leiden
The Netherlands

Phone: + 31 71 5274172
Email: info@mearc.eu
Website: http://www.mearc.eu

Comic Book Markup Language

I think that this would be a splendid XML project...
"CBML, or Comic Book Markup Language, is a TEI-based XML vocabulary (with DTD and schema representations) designed to accommodate the XML encoding of comic books and graphic novels."

http://www.cbml.org/index.html

Good article i09!

My fav. sci-fi website, i09, posted an article exploring controversies covered in seinen (adult manga) vs. shonen (kid/boy manga). Not only is it incredibly good in an in-depth way, but it mentions series and gives their respective links for further inspiration. Hurray for name-dropping, I now have more books to add to my 'Must Read' list!

So, I thought I'd post it since there are quite a few in the group (myself included) who joined with the hope of hearing about new and exciting things. Happy reading! :-)

http://io9.com/5490323/to-protect-and-kill-morality-in-action-manga

Irish webcomic = new friend

I was on a search for an Irish Webcomic and I came across Flatmates. It's first one has a woman who talks about how hard it is for her to find a hat that fits her [supposedly] large head.

I love it already. I have the same problem. :-)

http://flatmatesthecomic.com/

The Shikwekwes

Remember that Kenyan webcomic that Lucy mentioned? Well, I found it. It looks like it hasn't been updated since September of '08 though.

http://theshikwekwes.com/

Buttercup Festival

Late(r) to the party, but this is probably my favorite, so I want to share it:

Buttercup Festival by David Troupes. You can view the first series by clicking BF Series I, where you'll also get an overview of the comic. The first series was in a school newspaper, but the second series is strictly web-based.

Enjoy!

Webcomic central, sort of...

This is a little late to the party, but here it is anyway--

The Webcomic List

It's a listing of a ton of webcomics. They appear by genre, but I think not alphabetical order. I found a few fun ones there last week.

See you all this afternoon!

Dwarf Tossing

I just thought I'd share this, in case anyone is interested. An old friend of mine has a webcomic that he works on off and on when he can. I actually don't follow it myself (^^;) but I thought I'd share at least.

Dwarf Tossing--tossing dwarfs for fun and profit