Sequentials, hub for comics-as-scholarship launches

By John Freeman on July 30, 2017

The US-based Trace Innovation Initiative has launched Volume One, Issue One of Sequentials, a hub for comics-as-scholarship.

Not to be confused with the digital publisher Panel Nine’s e-magazine of the same name, the site features a number of original comics that range in topic, style, and length, some connecting with the special issue topic, “Postmodernism,” and others forming the General Forum.

You’ll also find details on submitting to the General Forum and information for the site’s second special issue on the “Submissions” page of the website.

Features include “Art Reviews in Comic Form” by Coco Picard, while Nicolas Labarre tackles “The Popular as Postmodern in Michael Moorcock’s Early Work” on this intriguing comic studies site.

The Trace Innovation Initiative is a research endeavour maintained through the University of Florida’s Department of English. Following Scott McCloud’s 1993 publication Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, as well as other visual comics scholarship from authors such as Nick Sousanis and Neil Cohn, Sequentials solicits and publishes interpretations of various academic subjects or themes drawn and explained through the comics medium. As a Trace Initiative project, Sequentials contributes to the flourishing field of comics scholarship and seeks to expand the production and circulation of knowledge.

This long-term project asks contributors to (re)imagine the meanings of both the subject at hand and the form their interpretation takes.

“By encouraging contributors to conceptualize their work in a distinctly visual way, this project highlights the unique creative capabilities of the comics medium and reflects Trace’s overall focus on innovative research, writing, and knowledge production,” the team explain on site.

As an online, peer reviewed, open-access publication, Sequentials stands in collaboration with the academic journal ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies and the University of Florida’s Department of English, which supports the largest program focusing on the academic study of comics and graphic narratives in the United States.
• Check out the site here: www.sequentialsjournal.net

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.