The Comfort with In(n) Sean Christensen

This talk will be an iteration of a performance/talk, on finding the heart in the art you make and how it communicates with you. Being born the same year as a hotel chain called the Comfort Inn and finding yourself always looking for the comfort within. This will be explored over a few works of mine made in the last 10 years.

I am a self-taught artist from Oregon, born in 1981. I make art in many disciplines including a feature film, music, poetry, comics and assorted ideas for walls. Regardless of landing, all my output find their root in drawing and story telling. Comics are such an open personal marriage of these things, and I have been selling self-published comics of work I made since I was in the 3rd grade. I have been published by Sparkplug Comics, Tugboat Press, Teenage Dinosaur, 2D Cloud, STiLLiFE, Colorama Books, and Secret Room Press. – SC

Roman Muradov: My Idea of Funny

A playful examination of the mechanics of humor through various mediums, from comics and novels to music and abstract art. Looking closely at the use of repetition and omissions, variations in syntax and style, and many other aspects of visual, written and spoken language, this talk is a celebration of comedy in its many shapes and forms.

Roman Muradov is an Armenian artist living in London. He is the author of several graphic novels, including All the Living and the upcoming Background Artist, both published by Fantagraphics.

https://romanmuradov.com/

Sept. 1 - 4pm start - Roman Muradov

Sept 7 - Monday - Sean Christensen

Sept 15 - Paul Tumey on Milt Gross

Sept. 22 - Ben Mendelewicz

Sept. 29 - Jason Shaffer

Oct. 6 - Bronwyn Carlton

Oct. 13 - Jeffrey S. Ravel

Oct. 20 - 6pm start. Oskar Cox Jensen

Oct. 27 - Georg Barber (ATAK)

Nov. 3 - Emmy Waldman

Nov. 9, Monday - Sarina Nihei

Nov. 17 - Drew Lerman

Nov. 24 - Mark Iosifescu

Dec. 1 - Pete Maresca on George McManus

Dec. 7, Monday - Lily Thu Fierro and Generoso Fierro

The comics of Mara Ramirez

Mara Ramirez makes comics that utilize different styles and processes in order to ruminate on the body and its place in the world through metaphor, fantasy, and realism alike. They will discuss their 2025 release, Flea (Fieldmouse Press), upcoming works in progress, and their ethos in using comics as a mode of self-nurturance and graphic medicine for gender dysphoria.

Mara Ramirez is a member of the Bay Area based Freak Comics collective and the author of MOAB, Flea and other works.

Frédéric Coché in Conversation

A rare talk in English by the European cartoonist and printmaker Frédéric Coché. Coché joins the Symposium to discuss how he makes his comics, many of which are ‘drawn’ as engravings.

Frédéric Coché is the author of The Hero’s Life and Death Triumphant, Hortus Sanitatis and many other works available from Fremok.

The Comics of Michael DeForge

One of the defining comic artists of the last two decades joins us to discuss his art, including his recent books Holy Lacrimony and All The Camera in My Room.

DeForge is the author of Ant Colony, Leaving Richard’s Valley, Lose, and countless other books.

George Wylesol on 2120

George Wylesol will discuss the making and background of his interactive graphic novel 2120.

George Wylesol is an artist based in Baltimore, Maryland. He currently teaches illustration at Towson University, and works as a freelance illustrator for clients like the New York Times, Penguin Books, and Adidas. He has published four books with Avery Hill Publishing – Ghosts, Etc., Internet Crusader, 2120, and Curses.

Jillian Tamaki: Collaboration Within Comics

Discussion of various collaborations, conventional and esoteric. Topics will include working with writers (alive and dead), found materials and collections.

Jillian Tamaki is a cartoonist, illustrator and educator living in Toronto, Canada.

“The ClairFree System”, from Boundless (2017)

David Francis Taylor: The Strange Life of Words in Caricature’s Golden Age

In this talk, I explore the varied texts that made – and feature in – political cartoons in Britain in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a period sometimes described as “the golden age of caricature”. On the one hand, I’m interested in how far these images (almost always single-sheet etchings) ask or need to be read as texts, for what Charles Lamb famously said of Hogarth might easily be applied to the likes of James Gillray or the Cruikshanks: “His graphic representations are indeed books … Other pictures we look at – his prints we read.” Indeed, cartoonists of this period delighted in quoting and parodying literary works by the likes of Shakespeare and Milton. On the other hand, I’m interested in how words in these images – speech balloons, unwieldy titles, epigraphs, depictions of printed books or pamphlets – are things that have shape and heft. In Gillray’s caricatures words are doing something as much as saying something. They spew, rise up, press down, run thick, trickle, smash, blaze. These words ask to be seen far more than they ask to be read.

David Francis Taylor is Professor of English at the University of Oxford, where he’s also a fellow of St. Hugh’s College. He is the author of The Politics of Parody: A Literary History of Caricature, 1760-1830 (2018) and curated the exhibition ‘Draw New Mischief: 250 Years of Shakespeare and Political Cartoons’ for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2017. His research focuses on theatre and on the relationship between words and images. He is currently working on a book about the political cartoonist James Gillray entitled Blood & Acid: The Life and Art of a Revolutionary Satirist.

Bill Kartalopoulos: Comics & Lettrism

Bill Kartalopoulos, co-curator of Rewriting the World: Isidore Isou and the Lettrist Book at the Center for Book Arts, will discuss his research on links between comics and Lettrism (Lettrisme). Founded in Paris in the years after World War II by Romanian immigrant Isidore Isou, Lettrism was an avant-garde movement that aimed to surpass Dada and Surrealism and to transform all human pursuits. Lettrism began as a sensational poetry movement before developing the “hypergraphic” novel – a book that could incorporate text, image, and all other possible signs and codes. Lettrists thought about comics, argued about comics, and made comics (though they often called them “hypergraphics”), and their work influenced the later, better-known Situationist comics. Lettrist comics are surprising for their bold experimentation in the years before underground comix made an impact, and are among the forgotten ancestors of today’s most expressive comics.

Bill Kartalopoulos is a comics scholar, educator, curator, and editor. He is the Programming Director for the MoCCA Arts Festival and is a member of the organizing committee for the New York Comics & Picture-Story Symposium. He teaches graduate level courses about comics at Washington University in St. Louis, the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and the Université de Picardie Jules Verne in Amiens, France. He is currently finishing a general history of American comics and is editing a second volume of Joe Brainard’s comics.

Tanja Skale on Stripburger: 33 Years of Making a Scene

Founded in 1992 in Ljubljana, Stripburger is an international comics magazine and a pioneering force in alternative comics in Slovenia and the wider region. Over more than three decades, it has grown from an experimental visual fanzine into a vibrant platform for alternative comic artists from around the globe, championing comic art both locally and internationally.

The lecture will present the rich history and wide range of Stripburger’s activities, as well as its distinctive global character, connecting local scenes with international voices, and its broader activities, including exhibitions, workshops, and other events, all dedicated to promoting the power of comics.

Tanja Skale has been collaborating with Stripburger magazine since 2013 and has served as editor-in-chief for the past ten years. In addition to curating the magazine, anthologies, and comic books, she organizes comics exhibitions, workshops, discussions, and other comics-related events. Additionally, she is a co-founder and the artistic director of the Tinta International Comics Festival in Ljubljana.

www.stripburger.org/

www.instagram.com/stripburger/

www.facebook.com/stripburgercomix/

March 10 (#446) - Graham Twemlow

March 24 (#447) - Tanja Skale

March 31 (#448) - Bill Kartalopoulus

April 7 (#449) - David Francis Taylor

April 13, Monday (#450) -Jillian Tamaki

April 20, Monday (#451) - George Wylesol

April 28 (#452) - Michael Deforge

May 5 (#453) -Frédéric Coché at 5pm NYC-time

May 12 (#454) - Mara Ramirez

GRAHAM TWEMLOW – Chiltern Landscapes: The Art of John & Paul Nash
Graham’s illustrated talk celebrates the work of the Nash brothers, focusing on their association with the Chiltern Hills. Their childhood years spent in rural Buckinghamshire were to have a profound effect on their artistic endeavors throughout their lives. The talk will range from the time they spent as War Artists, living and working in the village of Chalfont St Peter, to the period in the 1920s and 1930s when they used the chalk hills of the Chilterns as inspiration for their most notable works. Profusely illustrated the talk will also give prominence to the major contribution they made to the applied arts, exploring examples of their woodcuts, textiles, illustrations, and poster designs.

A retired University lecturer in illustration and graphic design, Graham Twemlow writes and lectures on design history and decorative arts subjects. He holds an MA in the Decorative Arts, and a PhD on Printing and Design History from the University of Reading. His PhD was an investigation into poster design and production in the inter-war years using E. McKnight Kauffer’s oeuvre as a paradigm.

He is interested in all aspects of the applied arts, but with a particular passion for illustrated posters from the mid 19^th Century to the mid 20^th Century. An experienced speaker, he has given talks at venues such as the Royal Society of Arts, London, the Grolier Club, New York, Christie’s South Kensington, the River & Rowing Museum, Henley on Thames, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and numerous other venues in the U.K. His publishing credits include a role as a specialist consultant, editor and contributing author to the Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design. Graham publishes aspects of his current research on a Blog (www.grahamtwemlow.blog)

John Nash, Wood Interior, wood engraving, 1929

The Comics vs the Fascists - A Will Eisner Week 2026 Event

When fascism threatened the world in the 1930s and ‘40s, comics creators rushed to counter its threat, including through their characters actions. Will Eisner (with The Spirit), Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (with Captain America), and Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (with Superman) were among the prominent writers and artists who used their four-color platforms to combat fascists both at home and abroad. Today, shining a spotlight on the way these creators rose to the challenge, and what lessons may be learned for the present, is an expert panel including:

· Karen Green (Columbia University Curator for Comics and Cartoons)

· Dean Haspiel (The Red Hook)

· Arie Kaplan (From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books)

· Charles Kochman (Abrams ComicArts)

· Danny Fingeroth (Will Eisner Studios) moderator

ABOUT THE PANELISTS:

KAREN GREEN is the Curator for Comics and Cartoons in Columbia University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library. She oversees the acquisition of archives (e.g. Harvey Kurtzman, Fly Orr, Bill Schelly’s research materials and fanzine collection) and the expansion of the circulating graphic novels collection, which she initiated twenty years ago. She has been a judge for the Eisner Awards, the Pulitzer Prize (four times), the comics category of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, and the Thurber Prize for American Humor in Cartoon Art. A comic about her career win an Eisner Award for Best Short Story for artist Nick Sousanis.

Emmy and Ringo Award-winning cartoonist DEAN HASPIEL is best known for creating Billy Dogma, and The Red Hook. Collaborating with Harvey Pekar and Jonathan Ames, and illustrating for HBO’s “Bored to Death.” His published work includes writing and drawing for Marvel, DC/Vertigo, Archie, Image, and Webtoon. In addition, Haspiel is an accomplished playwright and Yaddo fellow. He lives in Brooklyn, NY. visit deanhaspiel.substack.com

ARIE KAPLAN is the USA Today bestselling author of several books, including From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books, 96 Facts About Taylor Swift, and The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions. He has also written scripts for numerous comic book series, such as Star Wars Adventures, MAD Magazine, and Bart Simpson Comics.

CHARLES KOCHMAN is Editor-in-Chief of Abrams ComicArts and editor of the #1 bestselling series Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. For forty years, Kochman has edited several hundred books for all age groups, including award-winning picture books, middle-grade novels, retrospectives, monographs, graphic novels, and art book collections published by Abrams, DC Comics, MAD magazine, Bantam Books, and Putnam. He is a recipient of the Inkpot Award, presented by Comic-Con International for achievement in comics.

DANNY FINGEROTH, Chair of Will Eisner Week, is a popular culture critic and historian. Having spent many years as a writer and editor at Marvel Comics, he’s written books including 2019’s A Marvelous Life (from St. Martin’s Press/Macmillan), a biography of controversial Marvel Universe co-creator Stan Lee. Fingeroth’s most recent book is 2023’s Jack Ruby: The Many Faces of Oswald’s Assassin (from Chicago Review Press), a look at this bizarre, history-shattering figure. For more: www.dannyfingeroth.com

About Will Eisner Week:

WILL EISNER WEEK is named for comics and graphic novel pioneer Will Eisner, who was one of the most innovative and revered figures in comics history. Will Eisner Week is an annual celebration of his legacy and the world of comics and graphic novels, with events presented in libraries, schools, museums, bookstores, and comic book shops around the world. Were he alive today, Eisner would be thrilled about the growth and appreciation of comics and graphic novels. We hope you and your organization will join us in celebrating Will Eisner Week.

About Will Eisner:

WILL EISNER (1917-2005) pioneered and innovated in comics for almost eight decades. Eisner helped invent the comics industry in the 1930s, created The Spirit in the 1940s, created comics for training and education in the 50’s and 60’s, and in 1978, re-invented himself—and the comics medium—with his first graphic novel, A Contract With God, followed, until his 2005 passing, with many acclaimed graphic novels and comics textbooks. The Eisner Awards, presented annually at San Diego Comic-Con, are named in his honor.

Carol Tyler on The Ephemerata: Shaping the Exquisite Nature of Grief

Cartoonist Carol Tyler speaks about her new graphic novel.

Born in Chicago in the 1950s, Carol Tyler is a cartoonist who bridged underground and alternative comics with her debut in Weirdo magazine in 1987: collections such as The Job Thing (1993) and Late Bloomer (2005) followed. In 2015, Fantagraphics published Soldier’s Heart, her Eisner Award-nominated biography of her father, tracing his return from WWII and how his trauma impacted his family. Fab4 Mania (Fantagraphics, 2018), based on her 1965 diary, is about her teenage obsession with the Beatles. In recent years, she has taught Sequential Art at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. She is a CXC Master Cartoonist and a Slate Studio Prize winner. In 2023, Married To Comics, a documentary about Tyler’s life with her husband and fellow cartoonist Justin Green (1945–2022), won rave reviews. (from the Fanatgraphics catalog)

Angela Fanche and Katie Lane on Bernadette, A New Anthology.

Angela Fanche and Katie Lane, cartoonists and the editors behind Bernadette, join The Symposium to discuss their ongoing anthology.

Angela Fanche is the cartoonist behind Me and Night, Performance of The Love Note and many other works. She is the co-editor of Bernadette.

Katie Lane is the author of Single Camera Sitcom and Girls Gone Wild. She is the co-editor of Bernadette.

Beatrice Radden Keefe: All of Us in the Medieval Manuscripts of Terence

Bringing in things ranging from ancient home furnishings to scraps of papyri, this talk looks at the long tradition of illustrating Greek and Roman comedy—and how the makers of medieval manuscripts of Terence’s comedies adapted this old imagery to create new readings.

Beatrice Radden Keefe received her PhD from the Courtauld Institute of Art. She is the author of The Illustrated Afterlife of Terence’s Comedies (800-1200) and writes more broadly on art and art history for publications including The New York Review of Books.

Image: Detail from Terence’s Eunuchus, MS VLQ 38 in the Leiden University Libraries.

Caitlin McGurk: History and Highlights from the World’s Largest Collection of Comics and Cartoon Art

Join Curator Caitlin McGurk from The Ohio State University to learn about the highlights of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, the foremost center for the study and preservation of comics and cartoon art, proudly stewarding the largest collection of related materials in the world. Located in Columbus, Ohio since 1977 and founded by cartoonist Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon), the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum contains over 300,000 pieces of original art, 2.5 million comic strip clippings, thousands of comic books, graphic novels, and more. McGurk will take viewers on a behind-the-scenes tour of the archive as part of her presentation and will answer audience questions throughout.

Caitlin McGurk is the Curator of Comics and Cartoon Art at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum and Associate Professor at The Ohio State University. She is the author of Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund (Fantagraphics, 2024), which won the Eisner Award for Best Book About Comics in 2025. McGurk’s scholarship and exhibitions focus on the work of women in comics, alternative and underground comics, and early American comic strips. Her recent exhibitions include Ladies First: A Century of Women’s Innovations in Comics and Cartoon Art and Man Saves Comics: Bill Blackbeard’s Treasure of 20th Century Newspapers, featured on CBS Sunday Morning. Her writing has appeared in Journal of Lesbian Studies, Slate, The Comics Journal, Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society, and IDW Publishing’s Library of American Comics Essentials. McGurk has also worked for the Center for Cartoon Studies’ Schulz Library, Marvel Comics, and serves on the council for the annual Cartoon Crossroads Columbus festival.

Tommi Parrish: “GET RID OF MEANING. YOUR MIND IS A NIGHTMARE THAT HAS BEEN EATING YOU: NOW EAT YOUR MIND.” (Kathy Acker)

What I want to discuss is the challenge of grappling with perfectionism, the struggle to maintain a sense of play while entering mid-career and tips and tricks to stay in love with making art.

Tommi Parrish (b. 1989, Melbourne) is a trans Australian cartoonist and painter. Their debut work,The Lie and How We Told It, won the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for the best LGBTQ graphic novel, was nominated for the Ignatz award, was featured in many best of 2018 lists, and translated into 11 languages worldwide. Tommi was the 2020 recipient of the Center For Cartoon Studies Fellowship and their work has been showcased in The New Yorker, Granta Magazine, The New York Times, Pitchfork, Vice, and many more.

Jan. 27 (#440) - Tommi Parrish

Feb. 2, Monday (#441) - Caitlin McGurk

Feb. 10 (#442) - Beatrice Raddem Keefe, 2pm NYC-time

Feb. 17 (#443) - Katie Lane & Angela Fanche

Feb. 24 (#444) - Carol Tyler

March 3 (#445) - Will Eisner Week event

March 10 (#446) - Graham Twemlow

March 24 (#447) - Tanja Skale

March 31 (#448) - Bill Kartalopoulus

April 7 (#449) - David Francis Taylor

April 13, Monday (#450) -Jillian Tamaki

April 20, Monday (#451) - George Wylesol

April 28 (#452) - Michael Deforge

May 5 (#453) -Frédéric Coché at 5pm NYC-time

May 12 (#454) - Mara Ramirez