A Year in the Life of a Finnish Comics Researcher
A Combined Conference Report
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conference reportAbstract
Let us dispel a certain misconception that might be embarrassingly easy to form: researching comics is not the easiest job in the world. While it does involve a delightful amount of reading and raving about graphic novels, and the conference culture tends to be more brotherly and relaxed than in the older, more established fields, resources – such as experts, events and libraries dedicated to sequential art – are few and far between. Remarkably, 2016 did finally see the birth of an international Comics Studies Society, but finding suitable academic forums for specialized comics research still requires extra effort, particularly if one is based in a small, peripheral country like Finland, where there resides only about a dozen graduate or post-doctoral level comics scholars, scattered in different universities and disciplines. However, if one is prepared to go that extra mile from the subtropical spring of New Orleans to the freshly frozen Arctic Circle, one can, in fact, pack a very full year. In addition to attending the two small regular events my comics-researching colleagues organized in Finland, I toured comics panels in literary and cultural studies conferences as well as widened my horizons in seminars about transmedia and geek culture
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