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McCabe Comic Books Collection

The comic book collection in McCabe was a gift from Swarthmore alum Richard A. Lamb '88.

Comics in the Digital Age Panel

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the panel and conversation on September 20th! A recording of the panel is available below.

Comics in the Digital Age, a panel discussion and reception, took place in the McCabe Library LibLab on Wednesday, September 20, 2023 (4:30 - 6 PM). Esteemed comics experts Dr. Margaret Galvan and Dr. Josh Kopin conversed with local comics creators Bryn Ziegler and Salvatore Marrone, addressing the changing relationship between the analog and digital in both creating and studying comics. The event was open to all community members.

 

 

Planning committee members included Amanda Licastro, Maria Aghazarian, Emily Higgs Kopin, Rex Hughes, and Rebecca Michelson.

Special thanks to Annette Newman and Swarthmore College Catering for helping to make this event a success.

Guest Speakers

Bryn Ziegler

  

Bryn Ziegler is a Philadelphia-based artist and educator specializing in intricate narrative books. She holds an MFA in Book Arts and Printmaking from University of the Arts. Bryn’s artistic practice encompasses both contemporary digital techniques and profoundly traditional craft, giving her a unique perspective on the development of comics today.

Her work was recently included in the NAHP Collegiate Triennial, Commonweal Gallery’s Terminal Degree, and Philadelphia Center for the Book’s A New Normal. In June of 2023 Bryn curated an exhibition of the Philadelphia Comics Collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia. 

Website: https://www.brynziegler.com/

Instagram: @bryn.ziegler

 


Salvatore Marrone

Salvatore Marrone is a Philadelphia based comic artist originally from Long Branch, New Jersey. Growing up by the shore, he had a fascination with the ocean, which inspired him to pick up crayons and start drawing mermaids. It was then that he became immersed in visual art and storytelling. By the time he was in middle school, he began drawing his own comics and sharing them with friends and classmates. As an adult, he self-published his autobiographical comic, No More Mermaids, which chronicles his experiences as a gay man. Through his comics, he’s expressed the challenges he’s faced with gay dating, self-acceptance and homophobia. In addition to drawing comics, he has also done subtitling for the anime distributor Discotek Media. In his free time he likes to watch classic anime, try new restaurants with his boyfriend, and go on the hunt for cool collectibles.

Instagram: Retrosofa.inc

Tumblr: Retrosofa

Twitter: Retrosofa

Bluesky: @retrosofa.bsky.social

 


Margaret Galvan

Margaret Galvan is Assistant Professor of Visual Rhetoric in the Department of English at the University of Florida. Her archivally-informed research examines how visual culture operates within social movements and includes a first book, In Visible Archives: Queer and Feminist Visual Culture in the 1980s, out this fall with University of Minnesota Press. In 2021-2022, she was in residence at the Stanford Humanities Center as the Distinguished Junior External Fellow, researching a second book about how communities of LGBTQ cartoonists innovated comics through grassroots formats.

Website: margaretgalvan.org

Twitter: magdor

Bluesky: margaretgalvan

 


Joshua Kopin

Joshua Abraham Kopin received his PhD in American Studies from the University of Texas, Austin in 2020 for a dissertation that explores the cultural and technological contexts surrounding the rise of the comic strip in late 19th century America. He has published in American Literature, Inks, The Journal of Comics and Culture and Keywords for Comics Studies. He has served as the President of the Comics Studies Society’s Graduate Student Caucus and he is presently the Programming Director of the International Comics Art Forum. He teaches at Haverford College, Thomas Jefferson University, and the Delaware College of Art and Design, and sometimes he also works in an office.

Twitter: IAmJoshKopin