Conference on Religion and Comics
The conference, “Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels,” held from April 11 through April 13, 2008, was a three-day event that featured a keynote lecture by James Sturm, author of the graphic novel, The Golem’s Mighty Swing and Director for the Center of Cartoon Studies; presentations by fifteen graduate students, professors, and independent scholars on subjects as wide-ranging as “Revelation and Revenge in the Comics,” “American Catholic Citizenship,” and “London as Sacred and Desecrated Space(s) in Alan Moore’s From Hell;” and two panel discussions, one featuring five graphic novelists whose work explores religious ideas, from retellings of Hebrew and Christian scripture and Hindu sacred stories to wholly original tales that incorporate concepts from contemporary Islam or ancient paganism. This conference was conceived and organized by A. David Lewis, a PhD candidate in the Religion and Literature specialization and Christine Hoff Kraemer, who earned her PhD in Religion and Literature in January 2008.