Cover Artist: stef lenk

Current Issue
CLOSURE #10.5 (October 2024)

 

Comics and literature are each in their own specific ways ›temporal arts‹, unfolding sequences of action, collapsing or contrasting story time and discourse time, and representing temporal sequences in narrative or visual-spatial ways. Of course, both media can also deviate from chronological or ›mechanically unfolding‹ time; they may work with flashbacks, flashforwards, and fragmentation, thus evoking, for instance, the layering of time and simultaneity. When literary texts and comics represent experiences of Otherness due to illness and/or disability, perceptions of time that deviate from normal chronometry (or chrononormativity) gain center stage: In the face of unexpected physical or psychic changes, subjective time may stretch or contract, bring one’s past and present into aggressive collision or cast a spotlight on mortality itself. Continue reading

At the end of autumn 2025, the e-journal CLOSURE once again offers a forum for all facets of comic research. From cultural, visual and media studies to social or natural sciences and beyond: issue twelf of CLOSURE will publish essays and reviews that deal with the ›state of the comic‹. Whether detailed analysis, comic theory or innovative new approaches – our open section welcomes a diverse range of interdisciplinary studies of all things ›comics‹.

The visual language of comics provides distinctive opportunities for representing gender and sexuality. Through strategic use of colors, shapes, and artistic styles, creators can depict genderfluid, non-binary, and diverse queer characters and experiences with nuance. The medium’s inherent gaps between panels and juxtaposition of images resist fixed interpretations, allowing for fluid and non-standardized representations of identity. This issue of CLOSURE welcomes contributions exploring queer representation across diverse comics cultures, examining intersections with queer characters, forms, and narratives. Call for Paper.