Call for submissions for

"The Cult of Difficulty: Critical Approaches to the Comics of Chris Ware",
edited by Dave Ball, Dickinson College, and Martha Kuhlman, Bryant
University.

"The Cult of Difficulty" is a proposed collection of essays on the work of
Chicago-based contemporary graphic novelist/comic book artist/ cartoonist
Chris Ware. Author of Jimmy Corrigan, "The Smartest Kid on Earth" (2000,
winner of the 2001 Guardian First Book Award), "Quimby the Mouse" (2003),
and "The Acme Novelty Library" (2005), Ware has quickly emerged as one of
the central figures in the recent ferment of graphic narratives and comics
criticism. We are currently seeking abstracts for 20 to 25 page articles
that analyze Ware¹s work, with particular interest in multi- and
interdisciplinary approaches to his oeuvre. Essays that address the
following questions are especially encouraged, but other topics are welcome:

-- How does Ware's work intersect with advertising culture, web sites,
graphic design, and packaging?
-- How do Ware's texts raise questions about representations of race,
gender, class, and disability? In particular we are eager to receive
analyses of Jimmy Corrigan and Acme Novelty Library that engage with these
topics.
-- How has Ware's work as an editor, anthologist, and collector shaped the
landscape of contemporary comics and informed his own corpus?

Please send 500-1000 word abstracts (or completed articles), c.v., and
contact information in Word format to warecollectiongmail.com by March
10th. Papers from a diversity of disciplinary orientations and
methodological approaches are especially encouraged.

You may also send inquiries off list to Martha Kuhlman: mkuhlmanbryant.edu