Our own Dr. Maggie Flinn, Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies and Film Studies has been shortlisted for Comics Studies Society Best Edited Book shortlist and for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards for her new edited work, Drawing (in) the Feminine (2024). 

The Comics Studies Society (CSS) is an interdisciplinary society open to all who share the goals of promoting the critical study of comics, improving comics teaching, and engaging in open and ongoing conversations about the comics world. CSS defines comics studies liberally to include the study and critical analysis of comics strips; comic books, papers, and magazines; albums, graphic novels, and other graphic books; webcomics and other electronic formats; single-panel cartoons, including editorial and gag cartoons; caricature; animation; and other related forms and traditions. All types of sequential art, graphic narrative, and cartooning are relevant to our mission.

The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, considered the “Oscars” of the Comic book industry, are handed out each year in a gala ceremony at Comic-Con International: San Diego. Named for renowned cartoonist Will Eisner (creator of “The Spirit” and pioneer of the graphic novel), the Awards are given out in more than two-dozen categories covering the best publications and creators of the previous year. The nominees in each category are selected by a panel of six judges that change every year and represent a different aspect of the comics industry. Usually the panel includes a comics creator, a member of the Comic-Con organizing committee, a comics retailer, a critic/reviewer, a graphic novel librarian, and a scholar. Winners are chosen by a vote of eligible industry professionals.

Drawing (in) the Feminine (2024) celebrates and examines the richness of contemporary women’s production in French and Francophone comics art and considers the history of representations made by both dominant and marginalized creators. Bridging historical and contemporary comics output, these essays illuminate the interfaces among genre, gender, and cultural history. Contributors from both sides of the Atlantic, and across a variety of methodologies and disciplinary orientations, challenge prevailing claims about the absence of women creators, characters, and readers in bande dessinée, arguing that women have always been part of its history. While still far from achieving parity with their male counterparts, female creators are occupying an increasingly significant portion of the French-language comics publishing industry, and creators of all genders are putting forth stories that reflect on the diversity and richness of women’s and gender-nonconforming people’s experiences. In the essays collected here, contributors push back against the ways in which the marginalization of women within bande dessinée history has overshadowed their significant contributions, extending avenues for further exploring the true diversity of a flourishing contemporary production. 

This book is freely available in an open access edition thanks to The Ohio State University Libraries’ Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum and generous support provided by a grant from The Ohio State Energy Partners (OSEP).

Contributors: Armelle Blin-Rolland, Véronique Bragard, Michelle Bumatay, Benoît Crucifix, Isabelle Delorme, Jacques Dürrenmatt, Margaret C. Flinn, Alexandra Gueydan-Turek, Jennifer Howell, Jessica Kohn, Sylvain Lesage, Catriona MacLeod, Mark McKinney

Book cover photo credit: Julie Delporte