Introduction: Comics, Conscience and Gender

This editorial introduces this double-length Special Issue, which collects proceedings from an open call for submissions held after the thirteenth iteration of the International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference held in July 2022 at the Lexicon Library and Cultural Centre, Dún Laoghaire, just outside Dublin, supported by Bournemouth University’s Women’s Academic Network, the Institute of Art, Design and Technology and the Creative Futures Academy. This event examined how contemporary challenges to conscience, ethics and responsibility prompt us to think about comics texts and representations, as well as considering how to approach or rethink debates and conflicts within comics studies itself. It summarizes the Special Issue content and identifies key themes that emerge in relation to discourses of gender and sexuality, including queer politics, questions of intersectionality and race, and the multivalent concept of the monstrous.