‘Comics Sans Frontières’ celebrates the magic of the medium

By Lily Harvey     3/25/25 10:18pm

Art Spiegelman, the first cartoonist to win a Pulitzer Prize for his graphic novel “Maus,” kicked off “Comics Sans Frontières: Border Defiance in Graphic Narratives,” at Rice March 20. 

The comics conference, hosted by the Moody Center for the Arts, Fondren Library and various other departments, featured five days of presentations, exhibitions and student workshops.

At the opening event on Thursday, Christopher Sperandio began by speaking about the intersectional nature of comics.

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“Comics — Is it art? Is it literature?” asked Sperandio, associate professor of art and conference co-organizer.

Pedro Moura, a comics writer and scholar from Portugal and co-editor of the conference collection, also spoke about the versatility and connections comics provide.

“Comics work well often beyond linguistic confines … they speak to you somehow. We all come together in the magic of the printed thing,” Moura said. “Comics allow us to resist, remember, reload and revolt.”

Art Spiegelman then took the stage in conversation with convention co-organizer Ofra Amihay, the Anna Smith Fine Lecturer in Jewish Studies and text and image scholar. Spiegelman discussed his introduction to comics and the history of working in the genre.

Spiegelman said his strict parents and exposure to Mad magazine first sparked his interest in comics.

“We didn’t have TV in the house. Mad [magazine] was as close as I could get to finding the mass media … Even the miniature version changed my life,” Spiegelman said.

Spiegelman said he wrote his first comic around age fourteen before working as an intern with trading card manufacturer Topps to design “Wacky Packages” and “The Garbage Pail Kids” cards. 

He then discussed his work “Maus,” which tells the story of his parents’ survival of the Holocaust and the generational trauma he experienced, clarifying that he made it with an adult audience in mind.

“I thought of it as self healing,” said Spiegelman. “The irony for me is I never did ‘Maus’ for kids … It was about othering.” 

Spiegelman then spoke about his most recent work, a three-page comic about the war in Gaza which he created in collaboration with Joe Sacco, author of graphic novel “Palestine.”

“I wanted to make sure ‘Maus’ was never used for recruiting for the Israeli army … He did the drawing, I did the coloring, we played to our strengths,” Spiegelman said.

In addition to the discussion with Spiegelman and other panels, the convention also showcased the Moody Center’s ‘Project Wall,’ a dynamic exhibition space that displays student and artist collaborations. 

Its current installation features a sample from a recent donation of original comic art by cartoonist and graphic novelist Jack Katz, curated by Sperandio and students in his Exhibition Design course (ARTS 378). 

Alison Weaver, the executive director of the Moody Center for the Arts, said the installation was largely student-created.

“[Fondren Library] just acquired all this incredible historic material by a very important comic artist and decided to make an exhibition around that,” Weaver said. “So [students] proposed the design, they painted and 3D laser printed these end caps, mounted them and chose the materials, the vinyl and the didactics.” 

Weaver also said the conference brought together community and connections.

“[The wall] ties in an interesting way to both a class, the Woodson archive and the conference, and I think that’s typical of how the Moody tries to facilitate and give a creative component to things that are already happening on campus,” Weaver said. “That’s also nice, at Rice, to be able to invite artists from the community … and invite them here not just to attend something, but to participate in something and get to know people.”

While some artists and panelists traveled to the conference, many leaders came from departments within Rice.

“I got into it by being asked to buy comics and the artist editions,” said K. Sara Ostrach, Fondren Library’s art & architecture librarian. “I met Chris Sperandio, and he said, ‘I really want this artist edition’ … And I see one, and I buy one, and he’s really excited about it. And I asked, ‘Are there any others that you want?’ And he writes me a whole list.”

According to Ostrach, ‘artist editions’ are reproductions of original art in comics at the same scale they were originally done – some of them several feet tall. The Woodson Archive developed a shelf for the conference which included Spiegelman’s and other presenters’ comics.

Amihay, coined the title “Comics Sans Frontières” for the convention, said she became interested in comics at the beginning of her academic journey.

“When I started my academic path, I became really interested in children’s literature, and my MA was dedicated to that,” Amihay said. “Yet when I began attending children’s literature conferences, I realized that, actually, what I was interested in was picture books and text and image relations.”

According to Amihay, Spiegelman’s “Maus,” alongside other defining works, are notable due to their unconventional nature.

“During my MA, I was exposed to “Maus” and my mind exploded; I thought, ‘This is crazy. I’ve never seen anything like that. 

“That’s exactly how I think of comics — as a kind of form that really challenges borders, even though it is so famous for its borders … I think it is a medium with an incredible potential to really subvert binaries,” Amihay said.

Sperandio agreed that comics act as an unconventional way to subvert borders.

“The secret is out: comics, once considered as cultural garbage by academics, are a vital part of the human experience,” Sperandio said.

During his conversation with Amihay, Spiegelman also noted this ability.

“Comics is a history of standing on each other’s shoulders and breaking boundaries,” Spiegelman said.

Art Spiegelman, the first cartoonist to win a Pulitzer Prize for his graphic novel “Maus,” kicked off “Comics Sans Frontières: Border Defiance in Graphic Narratives,” at Rice March 20. The comics conference, hosted by the Moody Center for the Arts, Fondren Library and various other departments, featured five days of presentations, exhibitions and student workshops.

At the opening event on Thursday, Christopher Sperandio began by speaking about the intersectional nature of comics.

“Comics — Is it art? Is it literature?” asked Sperandio, associate professor of art and conference co-organizer.

Pedro Moura, a comics writer and scholar from Portugal and co-editor of the conference collection, also spoke about the versatility and connections comics provide.

“Comics work well often beyond linguistic confines … they speak to you somehow. We all come together in the magic of the printed thing,” Moura said. “Comics allow us to resist, remember, reload and revolt.”

Art Spiegelman then took the stage in conversation with convention co-organizer Ofra Amihay, the Anna Smith Fine Lecturer in Jewish Studies and text and image scholar. Spiegelman discussed his introduction to comics and the history of working in the genre.

Spiegelman said his strict parents and exposure to Mad magazine first sparked his interest in comics.

“We didn’t have TV in the house. Mad [magazine] was as close as I could get to finding the mass media … Even the miniature version changed my life,” Spiegelman said.

Spiegelman said he wrote his first comic around age fourteen before working as an intern with trading card manufacturer Topps to design “Wacky Packages” and “The Garbage Pail Kids” cards. He then discussed his work “Maus,” which tells the story of his parents’ survival of the Holocaust and the generational trauma he experienced, clarifying that he made it with an adult audience in mind.

“I thought of it as self healing,” said Spiegelman. “The irony for me is I never did “Maus” for kids … It was about othering.” 

Spiegelman then spoke about his most recent work, a 3-page comic about the war in Gaza which he created in collaboration with Joe Sacco, author of graphic novel “Palestine.”

“I wanted to make sure “Maus” was never used for recruiting for the Israeli army … He did the drawing, I did the coloring, we played to our strengths,” Spiegelman said.

In addition to the discussion with Spiegelman and other panels, the convention also showcased the Moody Center’s ‘Project Wall,’ a dynamic exhibition space that displays student and artist collaborations. Its current installation features a sample from a recent donation of original comic art by cartoonist and graphic novelist Jack Katz, curated by Sperandio and students in his Exhibition Design course (ARTS 387). 

Alison Weaver, the executive director of the Moody Center for the Arts, said the installation was largely student-created.

“[Fondren Library] just acquired all this incredible historic material by a very important comic artist and decided to make an exhibition around that,” Weaver said. “So [students] proposed the design, they painted and 3D laser printed these end caps, mounted them and chose the materials, the vinyl and the didactics.” 

Weaver also said the conference brought together community and connections.

“[The wall] ties in an interesting way to both a class, the Woodson archive and the conference, and I think that's typical of how the Moody tries to facilitate and give a creative component to things that are already happening on campus,” Weaver said. “That's also nice, at Rice, to be able to invite artists from the community … and invite them here not just to attend something, but to participate in something and get to know people.”

While some artists and panelists traveled to the conference, many leaders came from departments within Rice.

“I got into it by being asked to buy comics and the artist editions,” said K. Sara Ostrach, Fondren Library’s art & architecture librarian. “I met Chris Sperandio, and he said, ‘I really want this artist edition’ … And I see one, and I buy one, and he’s really excited about it. And I asked, ‘Are there any others that you want?’ And he writes me a whole list.”

According to Ostrach, ‘artist editions’ are reproductions of original art in comics at the same scale they were originally done – some of them several feet tall. The Woodson Archive developed a shelf for the conference which included Spiegelman’s and other presenters’ comics.

Amihay, coined the title “Comics Sans Frontières” for the convention, said she became interested in comics at the beginning of her academic journey.

“When I started my academic path, I became really interested in children's literature, and my MA was dedicated to that,” Amihay said. “Yet when I began attending children’s literature conferences, I realized that, actually, what I was interested in was picture books and text and image relations.”

According to Amihay, Spiegelman’s “Maus,” alongside other defining works, are notable due to their unconventional nature.

“During my MA, I was exposed to “Maus” and my mind exploded; I thought, ‘This is crazy. I've never seen anything like that. 

“That's exactly how I think of comics — as a kind of form that really challenges borders, even though it is so famous for its borders … I think it is a medium with an incredible potential to really subvert binaries,” Amihay said.

Sperandio agreed that comics act as an unconventional way to subvert borders.

“The secret is out: comics, once considered as cultural garbage by academics, are a vital part of the human experience," said Sperandio.

During his conversation with Amihay, Spiegelman also noted this ability.

“Comics is a history of standing on each other’s shoulders and breaking boundaries,” Spiegelman said.

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