Coming up next week, 40 years on from the Falklands War, is a three-day, online multi-disciplinary academic conference, looking at Visions and Versions in Argentinian and British Cultures. It will include a panel on contemporary comics of the period, and later, in both countries.
The conference is co-ordinated between Dr. Tilmann Alternberg, Reader in Hispanic Studies at the School of Modern Languages, Cardiff University and Dra. Cora Gamarnik from the Instituto de Investigaciones Gino Germani, Universidad de Buenos Aires.
Comics archivist Paul Gravett will be among the presenters on Friday afternoon, 8th April exploring British responses to the conflict from Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell, in Battle Picture Weekly, Raymond Briggs and more.
“I’m very glad that they are including a panel on comics,” says Paul. “The panel is being coordinated by Argentine academics Pablo Turnes and Lauri Fernández, and includes Adolfo “Fuchi” Bayúgar, author of the groundbreaking 2013 Falklands War comic Tortas frites de polenta, and Calum Laird, a former editor on Commando for various periods between 1981 and 2007.”
“Tortas frites de polenta”, the story of a veteran of the Falklands War, was first published in Fierro Magazine No. 78 in April 2013, apparently the first time that the magazine dedicated an entire issue to a single comic.
Numerous Falklands-inspired comics and features relating to the conflict ran in British comics of the period, and in Commando later, and the war comic returns to the war with some anniversary stories with its set due for release on Thursday 14th April.
• (Re)pensando Malvinas (1982–2022): Visiones y versiones en las culturas argentina y británica | 6th – 8th April 2022
Attendance for this online event is free of charge. To receive a copy of the full programme and the links to the Zoom Webinar, please register by completing the form on this page | Registration deadline: 5th April 2022 (14:00 BST)
Further Reading
• Operation Corporate: The Falklands War in British Comics
In the early 1980s, Britain was at war over islands in the South Atlantic many Britons had never heard of – and some at the time even thought were part of the Shetlands. Back in 2007, Jeremy Briggs examined the British comics that featured the 1982 Falklands conflict between Britain and Argentina…
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as 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.
Categories: British Comics, Comics, Comics Education News, Comics Studies, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events
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