CFP: The Comic Book Film - Media and Mediation

Papers are wanted for a panel on The Comic Book Film as part of the Film Studies Association of Canada Annual Conference being held at Wilfrid Laurier Univeristy, May 30th - June 1st, 2012.

Adaptations and remediations of comic books represent one of the most prevalent, yet undertheorized, modes of filmmaking in contemporary Hollywood. From early serialized adaptations of Superman, Batman and Captain Marvel to contemporary remediations of the works of Frank
Miller and Alan Moore, comic book films pose a significant challenge to traditional theories of adaptation that posit a transition from the written word to the moving image; in their place, a theory of remediation that explores the ways in which the form and style of comic books are
appropriated along with the stories and characters may take precedence.

This panel seeks to address the variable paths and transformations taken by comic book properties in the age of media convergence. Other suitable topics include, but are not limited to:

• adaptation theory and the comic book film
• other film theories and the comic book film
• medium specificity/ontological differences between film and comic books
• the role of animation/the digital in the superhero film
• differences between the superhero genre in film and comic books
• costuming and set design in comic book films
• the superhero film as “bad object”
• convergence, merchandising and franchising in the superhero genre
• adaptations of adaptations (e.g. video games based on films based on comics)
• hybridity and/or reflexivity in the comic book film
• non-American comic book films
• time/temporality in the comic book film
• new technologies and the comic book film (e.g. motion/performance-capture, 3-D, etc.)
• authorship across adaptation, and/or auteurs of the comic book film
• memory and trauma in comic book films
• satires/spoofs
• violence and moral ambiguity and comic book films
• nostalgia and postmodernity
• non-superhero comic book films
• film serials and comic books on television

Submit proposals/queries of 200-300 words to Dru Jeffries (dru.jeffries@gmail.com) and James Hrivnak (james.hrivnak@gmail.com) by December 21, 2011. Successful applicants will be notified by e-mail in early January 2012.