The Comics and Graphic Narratives Forum will be sponsoring three panels at MLA 2025, 286. Envisioning Racial Futures: Race, Ethnicity, and Speculative Fiction Comics, 493. Louisiana in Graphic Narratives, and 673A. Picturing Political Power in Comics. Also, check out all the other comics-related panels at this year’s conference.
286. Envisioning Racial Futures: Race, Ethnicity, and Speculative Fiction Comics
Friday, 10 January 2025
12:00 PM to 1:15 PM
Hilton New Orleans Riverside–Salon 3 (First Floor)
Presiders:
Derek Lee, Wake Forest U
William Orchard, Queens College/ CUNY
Presentations:
- “What Horror Has Magneto Wrought?: Coloring Marvel’s Racial Fantasies”
Chris Gavaler, Washington and Lee U - “The Coloniality of Virtual Reality in Inés Estrada’s Alienation“
Matthew Goodwin, U of New Mexico, Albuquerque - “‘Don’t Scare Me Colonizer’: Examining Race and Power in Black Horror Comics”
Christian Hines, Texas State U - “Regional Imaginaries in Brazilian Comics: The Case of Universo Guará Publisher”
Javiera Irribarren, Columbia U - “The Comics of Saladin Ahmed: Imagining Multicultural American Futures”
Aaron Kashtan, U of North Carolina, Charlotte - “‘The Hierarchy of Power . . . is About to Change’: Race, Empowerment, and Superhero Comics”
Adrienne Resha, U of Virginia
493. Louisiana in Graphic Narratives
Saturday, 11 January 2025
10:15 AM – 11:30 AM
Hilton New Orleans Riverside — Salon 9 (1st Floor)
Presentations:
- “Toxic Babies and Cajun Zombies: The Abject Louisiana Wetlands of Swamp Thing“
Brannon Costello, Louisiana State U, Baton Rouge - “Post-Katrina Visual Narratives in Johnson’s Dark Rain and Lafitte’s Kingpin of the Antpin“
Dana Cypress, Colgate U - “Vodou, Littoral Space, and Queer Potentiality in House of Whispers“
Paul Humphrey, Colgate U
673A. Picturing Political Power in Comics
Saturday, 11 January 2025
5:15 PM – 6:30 PM
Hilton New Orleans Riverside – Quarterdeck B (Riverside Complex)
Presider:
Maite Urcaregui, San José State U
Presentations:
- “Cartoons and Colonial Modernity: Subversion and Expression in Nineteenth-Century India”
Anu Sugathan, U of Oregon - “Politics as Vocation and Absolution in Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, and March”
Marc Singer, Howard U - “‘Oh, I See?!’: Comics Telling Trans and Queer Stories”
Liz Schoppelrei, Cornell U - “The Unwanted Tooth: Feminine Power and Reproductive Control in Amanda Miranda’s Juízo“
Catalina Joseph, Stony Brook U, State U of New York