Author: Admin

Stan Sakai, our 2014 Keynote Speaker, and his family have undergone some rough times recently. In the midst of helping his wife, Sharon, recover from a debilitating illness, his 20-month-old grandson, Leo, passed away in his sleep on Dec. 28th, 2013. There is a fund set-up to help Leo’s parents, Stan’s daughter and son-in-law, through this unimaginably difficult time.

https://fundly.com/leonardo-capone-langan-parent-fund

I hope you’ll take a moment to share this information and donate to this newly established fund.

The 2014 MSU Comics Forum will take place on Feb. 21st and 22nd. The keynote address will occur on the first evening, Friday, Feb. 21st, 2014, while the panel discussions and artist alley will happen the following day, Saturday, Feb 22nd, 2014. The location will be in Snyder/Phillips Hall on the campus of Michigan State University (the same locations as the past few years).

This year the MSU Comics Forum is proud to announce that award-winning comics creator, Stan Sakai, will be our guest of honor and keynote speaker on Friday, Feb 21st, 2014. Sakai is most known for his long-running anthropomorphic animal series, Usagi Yojimbo, which explores the culture and traditions of 17th century feudal Japan and has been published in 12 languages.  Recently, Sakai completed an ambitious historical mini-series, 47 Ronin, a comics adaptation of Japan’s best known tale with publisher and writer, Mike Richardson.  Sakai’s work has garnered him numerous Eisner Awards and in 2011 the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, CA presented a retrospective of his 30-year career.

The MSU Comics Forum will be accepting submissions for individual presentations, panel sessions, and roundtables as part of the event?s academic panel discussions on Saturday, Feb 22nd, 2014. Submissions accepted from a variety of disciplines and must be received by Dec. 1st, 2014 at 11:59pm EST.  Download PDF file for details.

The 2013 MSU Comics Forum will take place on the first weekend of March. As usual, the keynote address will occur on the first evening, Friday, March 1st, 2013, while the panel discussions and artist alley will happen the following day, Saturday, March 2nd, 2013. The location will be in Snyder/Phillips Hall on the campus of Michigan State University (the same locations as the past few years).

Now for the exciting news!  This year the MSU Comics Forum is proud to announce that Nick Bertozzi, award-winning comics creator and professor will be our guest of honor and keynote speaker on Friday, March 1st, 2013. Bertozzi received a Xeric Grant and multiple Harvey Awards and Ignatz Awards for his cartooning. He is the writer and artist of the graphic novel Lewis & Clark (First/Second).  He collaborated with Jason Lutes on the graphic novel Houdini: The Handcuff King (Hyperion/CCS) and drew Glenn (The Colbert Report/Daria) Eichler’s STUFFED! (First/Second).  Bertozzi is author of The Salon (St. Martin’s Griffin) a graphic novel about Picasso, the discovery of Cubism, and magical absinthe. He is hard at work on a cartoon biography of Lenny Bruce for Houghton-Mifflin, written by Harvey Pekar and you can read his ongoing sci-fi/fantasy cartoon, Persimmon Cup, for free every week at ACT-I-VATE (http://activatecomix.com). For the past several years Bertozzi has been teaching cartooning at NYC’s School of Visual Arts, as well as teaching stints at Rhode Island School of Design and at The Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont. For more information, visit his website: http://NickBertozzi.com/

The MSU Comics Forum will be accepting submissions for individual presentations, panel sessions, and roundtables as part of the event’s academic panel discussions on Saturday, March 2nd, 2013. Submissions accepted from a variety of disciplines and must be received by January 31st, 2013 at 11:59pm EST.  Download PDF file for details.

This year’s MSU Comics Forum Artists Alley will be taking place on Saturday, March 2nd, 2013. It will be in the Lookout! Gallery located on the 2nd floor of the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities in Michigan State University’s Snyder/Phillips Hall in East Lansing, MI. There is no cost to request table space for the MSU Comics Forum.

To request table space just download this PDF form, complete the requested information, save the PDF and e-mail it as an attachment to jay@comicsobscura.com. Applications must be submitted by Friday, January 4th, 2013.

Due to limited space the Artist Alley is juried and not all requests will be met. Once the application is received it will be reviewed and you will be notified via e-mail by Friday, January 18th, 2013 as to whether or not we are able to meet your request.