Extended Deadline Dec 31, 2021
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS – Epic and Iconic: Essays on the Work, Influence, and Legacy of Alex Ross
Edited by Robert Moses Peaslee and Robert G. Weiner
Under contract with the University Press of Mississippi for 2023 publication
Nelson Alexander Ross, better known as Alex, has exerted nearly thirty years of profound influence upon sequential art storytelling. Rossemerged into the comics world in the early 1990s with his work on Terminator: Burning Earth, Marvels, and Kingdom Come, immediately establishing his photorealistic style of painting, influenced by Norman Rockwell, Salvador Dali, and Andrew Loomis, among others.
In the years since, Ross has drawn and painted nearly every recognizable character in the Marvel and DC universes, expanded the storytelling capacity of the graphic novel form, and taken home numerous Eisner and Harvey awards. His prolific output can be found across media platforms, from traditional comics to art galleries, from film and television to magazines, toys, and video games.
Given Ross’s substantial and acclaimed level of production, it is no exaggeration to consider him among the most important commercial artists of his generation – and yet, his work has garnered little academic interest. In this collection, we hope to curate the first definitive set of scholarly perspectives on Ross’s creative approach, his interventions into sequential art narrative and aesthetics, and his lasting influences upon popular culture and the creative community.
To this end, we invite abstracts proposing analyses and essays composed from a wide variety of disciplinary perspectives, including, of course, comics and sequential art studies, but also art history, visual studies, media studies, narratology, critical and cultural studies, digital humanities, political economy, media history, semiotics, game studies, film studies, studies of myth/religion/literature, and studies of fandom and material culture, among many other possibilities.
Timeline:

  *   Abstracts (500 words max) due:                                 December 31, 2021
  *   Full articles/essays (5000-6000 words) due:            April 1, 2022
  *   Article revisions (1-2 rounds)                                      May-September, 2022
  *   Delivery of full manuscript to UPM:                          January 1, 2023
To Submit:
Please email your abstract (500 words max) and a biography of no more than 150 words to co-editor Rob Peaslee at [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> no later than December 31, 2021. Abstracts should demonstrate the author’s capacity to engage deeply and meaningfully with one or more dimensions of Ross’s work, influence, background, or reception.
Questions:
Please direct questions to the co-editors, Rob Peaslee and Rob Weiner, at [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>and [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>.
Best,
Rob

———————————————————————
Robert Moses Peaslee, PhD
[he, him, his]
Associate Professor & Chair
Department of Journalism & Creative Media Industries<https://www.depts.ttu.edu/comc/about/college/jcmi/>

Office: COMC 517

Now available:
THE SUPERVILLAIN READER (co-editor with Robert G. Weiner)
University Press of Mississippi
Online: www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/T/The-Supervillain-Reader<http://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/T/The-Supervillain-Reader>
Local: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781496826473

Coordinator, TTU International Film Series
Faculty Affiliate, Thomas Jay Harris Institute for Hispanic and International Communication
Area Chair - Graphic Novels, Comics, & Popular Culture - Southwest Popular/American Culture Association

College of Media & Communication
Texas Tech University
MS 3082
Lubbock, TX 79409

806.834.2562








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