Art by Hanneriina Moisseinen.

The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is very pleased to serve as the venue for the International Comic Arts Forum’s 17th annual academic conference from November 13-15, 2014.

“ICAF is looking forward to collaborating with the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum to showcase scholarship that complements OSU’s holdings and affirms the library’s commitment to engaging regional, national, and international comics communities.”

Since 1995, the International Comic Arts Forum has been dedicated to promoting the scholarly study and appreciation of comic art, including comic strips, comic books, comics albums and graphic novels, magazine and newspaper cartooning, caricature, and comics in electronic media. The forum provides a supportive, collegial environment to showcase innovative comics scholarship and comic art for critics, historians, teachers, and comics professionals from around the world.

As part of the three day event, we will be visited by a wide range of creators and writers:

Justin Green, author of Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary, the first work of extended graphic autobiography in the U.S.

Carol Tyler, author of Late Bloomer and the autobiographical trilogy You’ll Never Know

Phoebe Gloeckner, author of A Child’s Life and Other Stories

Hanneriina Moisseinen, a brilliant cartoonist from Finland and the artist for the ICAF  poster

Dash Shaw, cartoonist and animator and author of New School and Bottomless Bellybutton

Jeff Smith, author of Bone and RASL in conversation with Tom Spurgeon, comics historian and journalist

Bart Beaty, author of Comics vs. Art will deliver the academic keynote

Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell (the creators of the graphic novel memoir series March), with special musical guests Sweet Honey in the Rock

In addition, the conference will feature a wide range of exciting academic papers on international and historical topics (see Schedule of Events) which are free and open to the public. For more information visit the International Comic Arts Forum website.

Most of the conference events will be held at the Ohio Union in rooms located on the third floor, with a few events at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum in Sullivant Hall (see Schedule of Events for details). Parking during the day is available in the Ohio Union South garage.

Co-sponsored by  the College of Arts and Sciences, Popular Culture Studies, Department of English, Film Studies Program, Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures, Department of French & Italian, and Department of Comparative Studies, and the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum and University Libraries.