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COMICS: CULTURES &#38; GENRES Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, 13-14 April 2010Comics and graphic novels enjoy a paradoxical relationship with mainstream culture. Their narratives and characters are familiar to mass audiences through their adaptations in film, television and other mass media. However comics texts are rarely known or read outside comic book cultures. In recent years comics have instigated themselves into the public consciousness due, to a number of diverse circumstances such as the narrative possibilities they offer in an increasingly complex transmedia landscape. This conference aims to explore the intersections between comic books, graphic novels, their audiences and the ways they reflect the cultures and subcultures that produce them. The conference themes reflect the scope and aims of Routledges new journal, Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, edited by David Huxley and Joan Ormrod, (first issue July 2010). Abstracts of up to 250 words are invited around (but are not confined to) the following issues: - Genres (horror, romance, superheroes, autobiography, experimental etc) - Underground/alternative comics - Censorship - Online comics - Political and topical issues - Fans and audiences (subcultures, gender, subcultural production) - Comics production and distribution systems - Experimental comics Presentations will be 20 minutes long. Abstracts should be sent by 15 January 2010 to: David Huxley (D.Huxley@mmu.ac.uk) and Joan Ormrod (J.ormrod@mmu.ac.uk). Read the full call for papers: tandf.co.uk. Find out more about the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics: tandf.co.uk.