Call for Papers – CLOSURE: Journal of Comics Studies #12
(November 2025)
Thematic Section: »Queer Comics«

Open Call for Submissions

The e-journal CLOSURE will once again provide a platform for all facets of comic studies in its twelfth issue, to be published in Fall 2025. From cultural, visual, and media studies to social and natural sciences, and beyond, CLOSURE invites essays and academic reviews that engage with the »state of the comic«. Whether in-depth analysis, comic theory, or innovative new approaches—for the open topic section, we welcome diverse contributions from the interdisciplinary field of comics research.

Thematic Section: »Queer 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.

Comic artists can experiment with formal sequencing to create non-linear narratives, mirroring the complexity of queer identities. These structural innovations allow comics to embody diverse LGBTQ+ experiences in both form and content. While we close the gaps between panels in comics reading, crucially they remain visible and present—a refusal of continuity that queer comics have recuperated to suggest »queer temporalities« (Halberstam) outside normative times.

Comics require readers to actively interpret both plot and visual information. This interactivity allows queer stories to challenge or subvert normative framings, using visual hints and symbols that reveal deeper meanings through engaged reading. Such techniques enable nuanced representation of queer experiences. If we take our cue from Sara Ahmed's insight that »Phenomenology, after all, is full of queer moments, moments of disorientation,« how does the media phenomenology of comics disorient, disturb, derange how others are seen and read?

Since the 1950s, the gay community was primarily represented in independent and self-published works. The Stonewall riots of 1969 (Hall 2012) catalyzed expansion of queer themes in underground and alternative comics. This scene fostered spaces to challenge conventional gender roles and sexuality. Pioneering artists like Howard Cruse (1944-2019), editor of Gay Comix, brought explicit queer stories to the forefront, creating room for LGBTQ+ narratives still considered taboo in mainstream comics.
Narratives about the queer experience are visibly present early on in the field of graphic medicine, both in activist and autobiographical form, as well as for targeted health education (such as Marbles by Ellen Forney 2012, Taking Turns by MK Czerwieck 2014, or Pregnant Butch by A.K. Summers 2014).

Since the 2000s, webcomics and independent publishers have significantly expanded the diversity of queer identities, gender roles, and narratives in comics. Simultaneously, mainstream comics are progressing towards greater inclusivity, albeit at a slower pace. However, this approach is also evolving, as seen with the Young Avengers, whose characters Wiccan, Hulkling, and America Chavez, since their introduction to the universe in 2005, have become some of Marvel's first prominent LGBTQ+ figures. This evolution reflects ongoing negotiations of queer visibility and acceptance, tracing how representation transforms as it shifts from the freedom of the margins to the constraints and opportunities of the popular cultural center.

These comics challenged both societal norms and comic conventions by bringing queer narratives into comic panels and beyond. Understanding their impact requires studying the works and the communities in which they are created and read. This issue of CLOSURE welcomes contributions exploring queer representation across diverse comics cultures, examining intersections with queer characters, forms, and narratives.

Potential topics include:

● Coming-out experiences/Self-discovery
● Struggles against discrimination and censorship/Activism
● Comics about trans, non-binary, or gender-nonconforming identities
● Life in (non-)queer communities
● Queer readings of non-queer comics
● Queer perceptions of time and space through fragmented or circular forms
● Queer time: Depictions of alternative, non-cisheteronormative life designs
● Depictions of queerness in comics for different audiences, such as children, young readers, young adults, or adults
● Intersectional queer comics, such as queer crip or queer Black identities
● Queer self-help comics (e.g., Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding by Maya Kobabe, Sarah Peitzmeier, 2024)
● Queer comics in schools/universities
● Queer superheroes
● Educational comics about queerness, such as Queer: A Graphic History (Meg-John Barker, Jules Scheele 2016)
● Queer and trans narratology in comics
● Queer aesthetics and forms

Please, send your abstract to the open section or to the focus »Queer Comics« (approx. 3000 characters), as well as a short bio, for consideration for our twelfth issue of CLOSURE to closure@email.uni-kiel.de by January 15, 2025. The contributions (35,000-50,000 characters) are expected by June 1st, 2025. For more information about CLOSURE and our previous issues, please visit www.closure.uni-kiel.de.