CFP - Graphic narrative in the current technological context: from comic strips to comic journalism

Posted on 2024-07-25 09:50:58

The Miguel Hernández Communication Journal is pleased to announce a call for papers for its upcoming issue, dedicated to the theme: “Graphic Narrative in the Current Technological Context: From Comic Strips to Comics Journalism”.
We invite researchers, academics, and professionals from the fields of communication and journalism, education, and the humanities to submit manuscripts that explore the intersection between comics and journalism from a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives.

Graphic narrative encompasses not only comics but also other specific formats such as illustrated albums and books. Over the past two decades, this form of artistic and communicative expression has attracted considerable academic interest across various disciplines, and we therefore consider it timely to propose an issue specifically analysing its relationship with journalism and communication.

Graphic narrative and journalism—two forms of visual and textual storytelling—have increasingly converged in innovative and meaningful ways in recent decades. This special issue aims to explore how graphic narrative, as an iconolinguistic medium, has been used to inform, educate, and comment on current events and social issues. Ultimately, we seek to examine how this medium has become established as a legitimate and powerful form of journalistic communication. Furthermore, the issue will explore recent digital transformations and their impact on the genre of comics journalism.

While not limited to the following, some potential topics of interest include:

  • Technological innovations and the future of comics journalism in the current context

  • Comics journalism and other formats of visual communication

  • The link between comics, photography, and documentary

  • Comics and journalism in the coverage of conflicts and crises

  • Comics and journalism in relation to current social, cultural, economic, and political affairs

  • News and other journalistic genres in strips, illustrations, and/or illustrated books

  • The professional and educational profile of the graphic designer and illustrator in comics journalism

  • Case studies in comics journalism and contributions to its development

  • Comics journalism as an educational tool

  • History of comics journalism: evolution and development

References:

Gisbert, Jesús (2022). Editorial: Comics and Journalism for Tebeosfera, third epoch, 19. Asociación Cultural Tebeosfera, Seville.
https://www.tebeosfera.com/documentos/editorial_para_tebeosfera_tercera_epoca_19.html

López-Hidalgo, Antonio; López-Redondo, Isaac (2021). *New Narrative Registers in Comics Journalism. A Case Study: La grieta. Profesional de la información, vol. 30, no. 1.
https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2021.ene.17

Matos-Agudo, Diego (2017). Comics Journalism. A History of the Genre from the Pioneers to Joe Sacco. Comunicación Social Ediciones y Publicaciones.

Melero, Xavier (2011). Comics as a Journalistic Medium. EU-topías, journal of interculturality, communication and European studies, vol. 1.
https://saguntum.uv.es/index.php/eutopias/article/view/18446

Varillas Fernández, R. (2013). Comics: A Question of Formats (1): From Journalistic Origins to the Comic Book. CuCo, Cuadernos de cómic, (1), 7–32.
https://doi.org/10.37536/cuco.2013.1.1062

Manuscripts must be original and not under consideration by other publications.
Articles should be between 6,000 and 8,000 words, including references and footnotes. All manuscripts will undergo a double-blind peer review process to ensure academic quality and relevance. Articles must be submitted using the journal’s template and uploaded via the online submission platform. Authors must register on the platform to do so.
Author guidelines: https://revistas.innovacionumh.es/index.php/mhcj/about/submissions

We invite you to submit your research by 1 October 2024 for this special issue of MHJournal, which will be published in January 2025.

For enquiries regarding the suitability of your proposal, please contact:
Eduard Baile López (ebaile@ua.es)
José Rovira-Collado (jrovira.collado@ua.es)

Guest Editors:

Dr Eduard Baile López
(Aula de Còmic at the University of Alicante – Unicòmic – University of Alicante)
ebaile@ua.es
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7685-6487

Eduard Baile López holds a degree in Catalan Philology from the University of Alicante, where he is a Permanent Lecturer. He earned his doctorate with a thesis entitled Diccionari específic dels substantius i dels adjectius del ‘Tirant lo Blanc’. He is a member of the research groups ‘Recerca de Literatura Contemporània’ and ‘Estudis Transversals’. He has coordinated the University of Alicante’s Aula de Còmic since 2017 and has been the Academic Coordinator of Unicòmic since 2011. He is also a member of the European COST project Investigation on Comics and Graphic Novels in the Iberian Cultural Area (iCOn-MICS), where he serves as co-leader of Working Group 3 – Iberian Comics as a Form of Intercultural Dialogue. He is currently the Director of the Department of Catalan Philology at the University of Alicante. From June 2016 to March 2020, he was also the Director of the Alicante branch of the Unitat per a l'Educació Multilingüe, part of the Institut Interuniversitari de Filologia Valenciana.

Dr José Rovira-Collado
(University of Alicante)
jrovira.collado@ua.es

José Rovira-Collado is a Permanent Lecturer in the Didactics of Language and Literature at the University of Alicante. He obtained his PhD in Educational Research in 2015 with the thesis Children’s and Young Adult Literature on the Internet. From the Cervantes Virtual Library to LIJ 2.0: Tools and Spaces for its Study and Dissemination, which received the 2018 Extraordinary Doctoral Award and the Santander-UA Digital Transformation Chair Award. He served as a Spanish language lecturer at various Italian universities between 1999 and 2007. He currently coordinates the area of Language and Literature Didactics and is Deputy Director of the Department of Innovation and Didactic Training. He specialises in teaching Spanish through technology, children's and young adult literature on the internet, multimodal reading, and graphic narratives. He has coordinated Unicòmic, the University of Alicante’s comic book conference, since 2008.