Comics Sans Frontières • March 20-23, 2025
Comics Sans Frontières:
Border Defiance in Graphic Narratives
Rice University, Houston, Texas
FROM panels and gutters to speech balloons and narrative boxes, comics has been famously marked by graphic borders. Yet, with its inherent co-mixing of words and images, comics has been equally about the defiance of borders, offering a literary stage for artists and narratives that challenge graphic, national and cultural frontiers. Echoing a similar act of academic border-defiance, we will bring together esteemed artists and scholars from around the globe who produce and study such texts.
THE keynote event will feature Pulitzer Prize-winning comic artist Art Spiegelman, the author of the groundbreaking graphic memoirs Maus and In the Shadow of No Towers. Register to attend this FREE event here. This opening event will be followed by three days of presentations, exhibitions, and comics-making workshops in locations across the Rice campus, all FREE and open to the public.
JOIN us for an international, interdisciplinary and cross-campus dialog on a form whose relevance to 21st-century communication and literacy is constantly growing. And if you can’t join us in-person, don’t fret! We’re making a book! Papers and art from the conference will be collected in the graphic anthology š! from kuš! komikss, available from March 21 for free with a conference tote bag, while supplies last — and for sale at finer comic book stores — or directly from the publisher.
SPECIAL for the conference is a presentation of the work of Jack Katz from his ground-breaking graphic novel series The First Kingdom as part of the student-curated and artist-led Moody Project Wall installation, Christopher Sperandio: Comics Without Borders. Guests can see how Rice students co-curated a selection of original comic art sourced from the archive of American comic book artist Jack Katz from the Jack Katz and Caroline Gold Comic and Paranormal Art Collection, recently donated to Rice University.
Want to promote our conference at your school or community center? Download a letter-sized poster here.
Please note: All events are FREE and OPEN to the public on a first come, first served basis. Need help getting here? Plan your visit and parking here, with Google Map links to event locations and parking options.
THURSDAY, MARCH 20
Moody Center for the Arts
[map] [parking]
Moody Center for the Arts, FLEX Space
5:00PM to 6:45PM
Opening Reception for Moody Project Wall: Christopher Sperandio, Comics Without Borders: Jack Katz
Organized by Christopher Sperandio with the students of ARTS387: Exhibition
Moody Center for the Arts, Media Lab
5:00PM to 6:45PM
Coloring outside the Lines
Curated by Mingo Almazan
Moody Center for the Arts, Lois Chiles Studio Theater
7:00PM
Opening Remarks:
Christopher Sperandio
7:10PM
Introduction of Š! #55, Comics Sans Frontières:
Pedro Moura
7:20PM
Keynote Event:
Introductions by Dr. Matthias Henze (RELI)
Art Spiegelman in conversation with Ofra Amihay (JWST)
Register here to attend this event.
8:30PM
Closing event
FRIDAY, MARCH 21
Moody Center for the Arts
[map] [parking]
9:00AM to 10:00AM
Coffee clutch
10:00AM to 11:50PM
PANEL 1: Comics and Publishers Roundtable
Moderated by Christopher Sperandio (ARTS & CATS); featuring David Schilter (Kus Komikss, Riga, Latvia), Brian Baynes (Bubbles Fanzine, Richmond, VA), Charles Kochman (Abrams ComicArts), and a special report by Fondren Fellow Sofia Adams-Giron (Rice ’29 – Art & Art History)
11:50PM to 1:00PM
Lunch break (food for purchase on site at Moody Cafe by Lemond Kitchen or bag a lunch!)
1:00PM to 2:50PM
PANEL 2: WEIRD SCIENCE! Comics and Engineering
Moderated by K.Jane Grande-Allen (BIOE); featuring Mia Oberländer (Germany), Vera Bekema (Germany), Līga Spunde (Latvia)
3:00PM to 4:50PM
PANEL 3: Comics and Gender
Moderated by Tesla Cariani (Boston University); featuring Julie Fette (FREN), Caitlin McGurk (Ohio State University)
5:00 PM to 5:50PM
Snacks and Sodas on the Moody Porch
6:00PM to 8:00PM
Artist presentation:
Robert Pruitt
A Houston native, New York-based Robert Pruitt will talk about his large-scale drawings and the impact that comics has had on his life and work.
SATURDAY, MARCH 22
Kyle Morrow Room, Fondren Library
[map] [parking]
10:00AM to 11:00AM
Woodson Research Center Coffee and Exhibition Reception for an exhibition, Highlights from the CATS Workshop Collection. Organized by Fondren Fellow Sofia Adams-Giron (Rice ’29) of objects from the CATS Collection at the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library.
11:00AM to 12:50PM
PANEL 4: Comics and Language
Moderated by Ofra Amihay; featuring Margarita M. Castromán Soto (ENGL), Naoko Ozaki (CLIC), Martalisa Tsai (Rice ’25 – Political Science & German Studies)
1:00PM – 2:25PM
Lunch break (Food for purchase next door at Local Foods Market at Brochstein Pavilion or bag a lunch!)
2:30PM to 5PM
PANEL 5: Comics and Rice University
Moderated by David Messmer (FWIS); featuring Jeffrey Kripal (RELI), Christopher Sperandio (ARTS), Amanda Focke & K. Sarah Ostrach (FONDREN), Amelyn Ng (Columbia University), Ana Waalder (CESAN School)
SUNDAY, MARCH 23
201 Sewall Hall (print shop)
[map] [parking]
12:00PM to 4:00PM
Risograph and Letterpress Workshops
201 Sewall Hall – follow the signs to the printshop off of the courtyard. Make friendship bracelets while learning how to print with Risograph. Hang out with Augusto Mora (Mexico City) as he prints a poster utilizing Risograph — or make custom drink coasters while learning the basics of letterpress with Mingo Almazan (Rice, ’25 – Art).
MONDAY, MARCH 24
Moody Center for the Arts
[map] [parking]
WEIRD SCIENCE! Post-conference workshops for Rice students
What can artists can teach engineers?
A special day-long series of events for Rice students. REGISTER HERE!
Unlock the secrets to creating more effective science posters! Who better to teach the art of working with words and images than comic book artists? Feel free to join us for one — or all — of these workshops and talk. Enjoy SWAG bags with pens, notebooks and more, first come, first served, while supplies last!
9AM to 11:30 AM
Room 205
WORKING WITH IMAGES SEQUENTIALLY
Need for Speed: Underground Comics: Workshop with Mia Oberländer
In this workshop we will draw a car and send it on a chase. We will put ourselves under some time pressure and fill a small comic zine along the way. Fasten your seatbelts!
12 noon to 1PM
Room 205
SURPRISE IS AN ESSENTIAL TOOL
Artist presentation
Līiga Spunde is an artist working with text and images across a range of disciplines and media.
1PM to 2:30PM
Room 205
BASIC PAGE CONSTRUCTION
Typo-Grid Poster Workshop with Vera Bekema
A grid is a tool for a designer to organize text and images on a page. In this workshop we are going to make a poster on a sheet of grid paper with RETRO text, numbers and geometrical shapes.
SPEAKERS and PANELISTS
Featuring:
Ofra Amihay (Jewish Studies) • Tesla Cariani (Boston University) • Margarita, M. Castromán Soto (ENGL) Amanda Focke (Head of Special Collections, Woodson Research Center) • K. Jane Grande-Allen (BIOE) • Matthias Henze (Jewish Studies) • Caitlin McGurk (Ohio State University) • David Messmer (FWIS) • Julie Fette (MCLC) • Jeffrey Kripal (RELI) • Pedro Moura (LEBD) • Naoko Ozaki (CLIC)• K. Sarah Ostrach (Fondren) • Christopher Sperandio (ARTS) • Sofia Adams-Giron (Rice ’29) • Martalisa Tsai (Rice ’25) • Ana Waalder (CESAN School)
Artists:
Art Spiegelman (US) • Robert Pruitt (US) • Amelyn Ng (US) • Mia Oberländer (DE) • Vera Bekema (DE) • Liga Spunde (LV)
Publishers:
David Schilter, kuš! • Brian Baynes, Bubbles Fanzine • Charles Kochman, Abrams ComicArts
SPONSORS
Comics Sans Frontières, March 20-24, 2025, is supported in part by the following Rice University entities: Center for Languages and Intercultural Communication • Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality • Creative Ventures • Fondren Fellows program • Humanities Research Center • Program in Jewish Studies • Moody Center for the Arts • Department of Religion • Rice Architecture • Scientia Institute • Woodson Research Center
Driving + Parking
NOTE: Rice University has NO free parking. All public parking is accessible via a credit card only, and in some instances parking is also available as tap-to-pay. Navigating the roadways at the University can be a little confusing. If you are unfamiliar with campus, please allow yourself some extra time to park and walk to event venues. Feel free to use the links below or use these campus maps.
Parking for THURSDAY and FRIDAY:
The Moody Center for the Arts is located on the campus of Rice University and is best reached by using Campus Entrance 8 at the intersection of University Boulevard and Stockton Street. As you enter campus, at the first intersection, the building is on the right. There is a dedicated parking lot, “Moody Lot,” adjacent to the building. Payment for the Moody Lot is by credit card only. Please note: The address is the general address of Rice University. To find us on campus, enter “Moody Center for the Arts” on Google or Apple maps.
Parking for SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
For Saturday’s events at Fondren Library and Sunday’s workshops at Sewall Hall, the Founder’s Court Lot is the closest public parking. There is additional public parking available at the Cambridge Office Building Parking Garage located here.
METRO bus + rail
The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, (METRO) provides bus and rail service from destinations around Houston. There is a METRORail stop across the street from the main entrance of the Rice campus is the Hermann Park/Rice University station.
Still have questions? Email Associate Professor Christopher Sperandio at “Sperandio at Rice.edu”