Conferences on graphic novels and animation are often segregated due to conflicts in thoughts and ideas.
"Whenever you study comics in the way I have, the way that creators of the material understand it is so vastly different from the way critics and scholars do," he said. "In the European formats, critics and scholars sit beside comics' creators, and even when the conversation gets strained and heated at times, the conversation goes on and things are productive."
Chaney teaches an English class on the graphic novel that analyzes the stories that come from an examination of pictures. Chaney's excitement for the conference stemmed from teaching the course and visits to the Center for Cartoon Studies based in White River Junction.
"It was full of serendipity," Chaney said. "Dartmouth has come a long way in forging ties with the cartoon school. It was really a joy to build even more bridges, particularly between English, film and television because there's really a rift in the field of comics study."
Friday's events will feature artists Milton Knight, whose work includes "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and "Bayou" creator Jeremy Love.
Panels featuring scholars and artists will be held on Saturday throughout the day.
"The rationale is that all three of these different dimensions are represented: comics, illustration studies, and animation, and so my thought is, if the conference is truly going to be hybrid, in the sense that it would talk in all these disciplines, it would have to risk something," Chaney said.
While Chaney mentioned that the conference's organization may surprise some, it is only to incite more understanding in audience members.
"The aim there is for the audience and the presenters to find these deeper threads of connection and move beyond the topical," Chaney said.
Several Dartmouth faculty members will speak, including English professors Aden Evens and Jeffrey Sharlet. Chaney will give a talk called "Closure as Cryptography, Comics as Puzzle-work."
"The way I hope it fits is, in the presentation of all the specific works, that we can similarly work outward from the detail to apprehend some larger bigger picture ideas," Chaney said.
Saturday's events will culminate in the animated screening of "Parallel Lines: Comics and Animation," (2010) presented by the Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation.
The documentary "Cartoon College" (2012) will be screened on Sunday to facilitate dialogue among artists, critics and fans.
"I thought the screening would be a great way for iconic graphic artists to show their face and to allow their say," Chaney said. "It's a way to end on a note of fellowship and community from the side of those who produce the text to those who reproduce it in scholarship."
Though some may view studies of graphic novels or illustrations as a "different" academic discipline, Chaney said it is a question he does no longer entertains.
"The question of their marginalization becomes less relevant," Chaney said. "What interested me more was the odd, compelling and very novel ways graphic novels tell stories and the way they position us in stories."
Henry Russell '15, a student in Chaney's class, expressed a similar sentiment, highlighting how the conference comes as a sort of reaffirmation of graphic novel as an art form and academic discipline.
"I think part of the whole conference is that there's an inferiority complex that this isn't literature," Russell said. "I think it is."
Russell noted that cartoonist and comics theorist Scott McCloud stresses the relationship between a critic and a comics artist. Russell explained how the class often draws and creates their own graphic texts in what Chaney refers to as "imitacio," in order to better understand the studied material.
"Everyone is willing to do a lot of work," Russell said. "I spent a ton of time drawing pictures, I have a lot of respect."
Corinne Romano '15 said she is highly anticipating the weekend's events.
"This is a huge opportunity for growing artists such as myself to learn from the masters," she said. "I couldn't be happier."
