Comics Arts Conference

The Comics Arts Conference (CAC), also known as the Comic Arts Conference, is an academic conference held in conjunction with both the annual Comic-Con International in San Diego, California, and WonderCon in San Francisco. Founded in 1992 by Henderson State University communications professor Randy Duncan and Michigan State University graduate student Peter Coogan (author of the book Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre), the Comic(s) Arts Conference brings together scholars, professionals, critics, industry professionals, and historians who study comics seriously as a medium.

The Comic(s) Arts Conference first convened on August 12, 1992, at the Marriott Hotel and Marina in San Diego as part of that year's Comic-Con International. CAC's inaugural programming featured presentations on Tijuana bibles, The Role of the Indian in the Western Comic Book, and Coogan's opinion of The Present State of Comics Scholarship. Highlights included Duncan's lecture on Applying Rhetorical Methodologies to the Study of Comics with highly acclaimed comics professional Will Eisner and noted comics scholar Scott McCloud as respondents. Comics creator Leonard Rifas presented a talk on Fredric Wertham, to which Steve Bissette and Robert C. Harvey responded.

Over time, CAC has evolved and expanded, introducing seminars, poster sessions, and roundtable discussions on topics ranging from the superhero genre as a whole to specific stories or characters. CAC's location originally alternated between San Diego's Comic-Con International (1992, 1993, and 1996) and the Chicago Comicon (later known as Wizard World Chicago Comic Con) in 1994 and 1995 before a 1997 hiatus, then becoming permanently attached to the San Diego Comic-Con as an official part of the international convention in 1998. The Comics Arts Conference expanded in 2007 when it began to meet twice annually, adding sessions at February's WonderCon in San Francisco in addition to July's Comic-Con. The WonderCon conference was repeated in February, 2008, and is intended as a move toward permanently running the conference semi-annually.

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