Birte Wege, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany:
The days when both the comics form itself, and the academic study of comics, had to defend themselves against accusations of unseriousness and irrelevance have long passed. In the North American context, works like Art Spiegelman’s Maus and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home have become canon, their relevance accepted far beyond the field of Comics Studies, while at the same time continuing to influence and inspire the work of both comics creators, and scholars. Across the globe, artists are utilizing the affordances of the comics form in ever more creative ways, demonstrating that the capacity of the medium to engage with topics both political and aesthetic is far from exhausted.