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Dear All,

With apologies for cross posting, I include below the CFP for an exciting
new special collection on The Comics Grid, Brilliant Corners: Approaches to
Jazz and Comics.

The CFP can also be found on our website here -
http://blog.comicsgrid.com/2015/07/cfp-jazz-and-comics/

Many thanks

Hattie Kennedy


*The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship
<http://comicsgrid.com/>* invites
authors and artists to submit contributions for a special collection on the
general topic of Jazz and Comics.

This will be an open access scholarly collection co-edited by Dr Nicolas
Pillai (Birmingham City University) and Dr Ernesto Priego (City University
London).

We welcome submissions from researchers, artists, graduate students,
scholars, teachers, curators, publishers and librarians from any academic,
disciplinary or creative background interested in the
multidisciplinarystudy and/or practice of comics and jazz.

Submissions must fulfil *The Comics Grid*’s editorial guidelines, available
here <http://comicsgrid.com/about/submissions>. *The Comics Grid: Journal
of Comics Scholarship* is an open access journal; authors retain copyright
of their own work and the published content is made available on HTML and
PDF under a Creative Commons-Attribution License.

The popular forms of jazz and comics have shared similar historical and
cultural tendencies. As expressions of modernism, they have been subject to
the demands of the marketplace and consumed by wide and varied audiences.
Yet the liberatory qualities of comics and jazz have provoked concern in
moral guardians, particularly in relation to the subcultures they have
generated. Recalling Bourdieu, we might note that, within these
subcultures, very divergent and often incompatible judgements are fiercely
defended (1983: 24). In the 21st century, both jazz and comics are accepted
as art forms. However, this elevated cultural position has arguably come at
a price, contributing to the restriction of some forms of jazz and comics
to specialised spaces of purchase and consumption.

Over the last forty years, the fields of jazz studies and comic studies
have gained currency within the academy and have been enriched by
interdisciplinary approaches. The New Jazz Studies has invigorated the
discipline beyond its musicological roots, while Comics Studies has thrived
in the digital age. This collection aims to find meeting points between the
disciplines. We are encouraged by the fact that distinguished jazz
musicians such as Wayne Shorter, Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock and Vince
Guaraldi have each stated the influence of comic books on their musical
development, while artists and writers have frequently turned to jazz for
inspiration (e.g. strips about music appreciation by Harvey Pekar or
Blutch). Jazz musicians have been the subjects of comic strips (e.g. *Charlie
Parker: Handyman*, the *BD Jazz* series) and jazz musicians have created
comic strips (Wally Fawkes/Trog).

The *Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship *welcomes research
articles, book reviews, research notes, interviews, commentaries and
research in comics form that develop the existing scholarship on jazz and
comics as cultural and artistic practices within specific contexts and
specific material conditions. We are particularly interested in work which
emphasises interconnection and the multimodal. We proceed from an
assumption that comics are not silent and that jazz is inherently visual.

Potential contributors are encouraged to think about jazz and comics
expansively—and to consider them as practices that resist rigid formal
definitions. While this will primarily be an academic collection of essays,
we welcome work that challenges traditional forms of academic writing that
nonetheless follow rigorous academic practice. Submissions might, for
example, present academic book reviews in comics form, or research-based
interviews with practitioners or scholars.

Possible topics may include (but are not restricted to):
The role of materiality and/or performativity in comics and jazz cultures
Comics and jazz collections in libraries and archives, and what comics and
jazz librarianship and curatorial practice might learn from each other
Representations of jazz musicians and jazz history in comics
Visual and literary representations of jazz music in comics
Collectionism in comics and jazz cultures
The role of jazz music in films about comics and comics artists
Gender and jazz in comics
Critical engagements with biographies of jazz musicians in comics form


Submissions can be in any of the article types listed in our author
guidelines <http://comicsgrid.com/about/submissions/>. It is essential all
research submissions include and directly refer to and discuss, in-text,
specific examples of comics (panels, pages). Please ensure you have read
the author guidelines carefully before submitting. Submissions must be
uploaded directly to the journal here
<http://comicsgrid.com/about/submissions/>. All research submissions are
subject to peer review. For technical specifications and special guidelines
for research presented in comics form, please contact
<http://comicsgrid.com/contact/> the editors before submitting.



*Important dates*

Submission deadline: 15 January 2016

Estimated Acceptance/Rejection Notices date: 15 April 2016

Estimated author revisions and proofreading period: 15 April- 15 June 2016

Estimated Publication date: 15 July 2016

*Depending on the number of accepted submissions outputs may be published
in the order they are accepted.