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PhD student says he’s masturbating to ‘young boy’ comics for research

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Manchester University is investigating a PhD student after he wrote a paper documenting his experiences of masturbating while looking at ‘extreme’ comics featuring drawings of ‘young boys’.

Karl Andersson spent three months deriving sexual pleasure from a subgenre of underground Japanese comics and keeping a journal, eventually writing a 4,000-word study on the subject.

The books depict young males in a ‘cute or, most often, sexually explicit way’, according to the author himself.

In the paper, which was first published in April but has only just come to the university’s attention after it was seized on by social media users, Mr Andersson gives graphic accounts of his sexual habits.

He writes that he began the practice after he ‘hit a wall’ in his studies of comics, adding ‘I realised that my body was equipped with a research tool of its own that could give me, quite literally, a first-hand understanding’.

Mr Andersson, originally from Sweden, says he eschewed ‘regular’ porn and sex during a three-month ‘research’ period, claiming it ‘deepened my understanding’ of why people read the comics.

According to his own Twitter account, his studies are funded by the The School of Arts, Languages and Cultures at The University of Manchester and focus on ‘how fans of subcultural comics in Japan experience desire and think about sexual identities’.

His paper was published in the Journal of Qualitative Research under the title: ‘I am not alone – we are all alone: Using masturbation as an ethnographic method in research on shota subculture in Japan’.

In it, Mr Andersson writes: ‘I therefore started reading the comics in the same way as my research participants had told me that they did it: while masturbating.

‘In this research note, I will recount how I set up an experimental method of masturbating to shota comics, and how this participant observation of my own desire not only gave me a more embodied understanding of the topic for my research but also made me think about loneliness and ways to combat it as driving forces of the culture of self-published erotic comics.’

He records how ‘my desire did not only emanate from the content…but from the fact that other people too were excited by this often extreme content and masturbated to it’.

Mr Andersson said the ‘feeling was enhanced when I read a secondhand [comic], which I assumed had been used for masturbation by its previous owner, and thus been “charged”, like a magic charm that would continue to bring happiness to new owners’.

A University of Manchester spokesperson said: ‘The recent publication in Qualitative Research of the work of a student, now registered for a PhD, has raised significant concerns and complaints which we are taking very seriously.

‘We are currently undertaking a detailed investigation into all aspects of their work, the processes around it and other questions raised. 

‘It is very important that we look at the issues in-depth.

‘While that investigation is ongoing, it would not be appropriate for us to comment further at this time.’

Metro.co.uk has contacted Mr Andersson for comment. 

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected] .

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PhD student in UK who masturbated to manga about young boys for research paper triggers investigation

The University of Manchester in England and peer-reviewed scientific journal Qualitative Research have launched an investigation into a research paper written by a Ph.D. student who described how he masturbated to Japanese comics depicting young boys for three months.

Karl Andersson, a visual anthropologist and Ph.D. student at the University of Manchester, drew controversy last week after his research paper, titled “I am not alone – we are all alone: Using masturbation as an ethnographic method in research on shota subculture in Japan,” began circulating on social media.

The paper was published in Qualitative Research on April 26.

In his paper, Andersson noted that he began masturbating after having "hit a wall" while researching shota, a Japanese illustrated genre that portrays young boys in sexualized ways.

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“ In this research note, I will recount how I set up an experimental method of masturbating to shota comics, and how this participant observation of my own desire not only gave me a more embodied understanding of the topic for my research but also made me think about loneliness and ways to combat it as driving forces of the culture of self-published erotic comics,” Andersson wrote in the nearly 4,000-word paper.

The Ph.D. student provided graphic details on his methodology over the span of three months. He wrote about his self-imposed ban on regular pornography, sex and other forms of “sexual relief.”

Andersson also noted he has been living alone and had recently become single following a long-term relationship. He speculated that “these factors probably contributed to my willingness and eagerness to explore this method.”

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“ For a period of three months, I would masturbate only to shota comics. For this purpose, I would use doujinshi and commercial volumes that I have bought or been given during fieldwork in Japan,” Andersson wrote.

“ After each masturbation session I would write down my thoughts and feelings – a kind of critical self-reflection – in a notebook, as well as details about which material I had used, where I had done it, at what time, and for how long,” he continued.

Outrage soon spread online after a netizen on Mumsnet , a popular London-based internet forum for parents, shared the paper and called it a "PhD. in wanking." Meanwhile, Twitter users called out Andersson and those responsible for publishing his paper.

More from NextShark: Pakistani Man's Story of Discrimination in Dubai Goes Viral

“ Why should hard-working taxpayers in my constituency have to pay for an academic to write about his experiences masturbating to Japanese porn?” Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Neil O’Brien tweeted.

Why should hard-working taxpayers in my constituency have to pay for an academic to write about his experiences masturbating to Japanese porn? The non-STEM side of higher education is just much too big, producing too much that is not socially useful. https://t.co/MPCGU4slLE pic.twitter.com/ctJQYyoa5p More from NextShark: Loyal Cat Visits Late Owner's Grave Every Day for 2 Years in Malaysia — Neil O'Brien MP (@NeilDotObrien) August 10, 2022

“ How was a description of the author masturbating to the images of young boys peer reviewed and published?” another netizen wrote .

How did this pass IRB? Or is this another example of “autoethnography” allowing white scholars to avoid more rigorous ethics review? How was a description of the author masturbating to the images of young boys peer reviewed and published? pic.twitter.com/jNnzHkwxum — M. Jane (@madjane_) August 10, 2022

Following the backlash, the University of Manchester announced that it had launched an investigation into Andersson’s research paper after it raised significant concerns and complaints.

“ The recent publication in Qualitative Research of the work of a student, now registered for a PhD, has raised significant concerns and complaints which we are taking very seriously,” a spokesperson said in a statement to The Guardian . “We are currently undertaking a detailed investigation into all aspects of their work, the processes around it and other questions raised. It is very important that we look at the issues in-depth.”

Similarly, the editors at Qualitative Research also published a statement online, writing: “On August 9th we began investigating the publication of the paper “I am not alone – we are all alone: Using masturbation as an ethnographic method in research on shota subculture in Japan,” published earlier this year. We are continuing with our investigations and will consider closely all guidance from the Committee of Publication Ethics and ensure that any actions taken comply with COPE standards.”

pic.twitter.com/b0u4oJhvZ8 — Qualitative Research (@QRJCardiff) August 10, 2022

A spokesperson for the British child protection charity National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) also raised concerns over the publication of the paper and agreed with the ongoing investigation.

“ That this research was published in a peer-reviewed journal is highly concerning, and it’s right that the universities and publishers involved are investigating," the spokesperson told The Guardian. "All research, and research publication, should be subject to proportionate but rigorous ethical review, including robust safeguarding checks."

In his University of Manchester profile , Andersson wrote that he is a “PhD student researching how fans of subcultural comics in Japan experience desire and think about sexual identities, especially in regard to fictional and actual realities.”

He also noted that his Ph.D. research is “funded by the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures.”

Andersson received his Master of Arts in Visual and Media Anthropology from the Free University of Berlin in 2020 and his Bachelor of Arts in Applied Linguistics from Stockholm University in Sweden in 2003. His film “ Unreal Boys ,” which tells the story of “three young men in Tokyo [who] explore the limits of fantasy through the comic genre shota,” premiered at the 17th biennual conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists in Belfast on July 28.

Featured Image via Karl Andersson

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The Masturbation Article Affair: Japanese Manga, Scholarly Publishing, and the Twenty-First Century Politics of Censorship

• Published: 14 September 2022
• Volume 39 , pages 132–146, ( 2023 )

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• Casey Brienza 1  

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In April 2022, a first-year PhD student published his first peer-reviewed article in the journal Qualitative Research . Less than four months later, amid viral public outrage, that article, Karl Andersson’s “I am not alone – we are all alone: Using masturbation as an ethnographic method in research on shota subculture in Japan,” was removed from publication and formally retracted by the Journal Editors. This paper explores the controversy surrounding the so-called “masturbation article” and its relevance to the field of publishing studies. I begin with a general overview of the shota manga genre and its legal context and provide a factual short history of the affair. I then demonstrate what a good-faith positive peer review of Andersson’s article may have included and critically assess Qualitative Research ’s Retraction Notice, alongside other published ethical complaints. I conclude by showing how both Andersson’s article and the Japanese manga he studies have been censored for the same reasons, with troubling implications for freedom of speech in the twenty-first century.

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Change history, 16 june 2023.

The article was updated for legal reasons

For the purposes of this article, “shota” and “shotacon” are used interchangeably.

In these contexts, shotacon may be thought of as a subgenre of boys’ love (BL). For more on BL manga, see for example Levi et al. [ 6 ], McLelland et al. [ 43 ], and Welker [ 44 ].

As defined by Wikipedia, gender-critical feminism, also known as trans-exclusionary radical feminism, is an ideology “critical of concepts of gender identity and transgender rights, holding that biological sex characteristics are an immutable determination of gender or supersede the importance of gender identity: in other words that trans women are not meaningfully women, and trans men are not men” [ 45 ]. For more on gender-critical feminism as a contemporary social and political movement, see for example Pearce et al. [ 46 ], Alm and Engebretsen [ 47 ], Wuest [ 48 ], and Bassi and LeFleur [ 49 ].

I use the term “article” (uncapitalized) throughout this paper to refer to what is properly termed a Note. Further, although it is nowhere stated in the submission guidelines that Notes are peer-reviewed, both the Acknowledgements section of Andersson’s article and the subsequent Retraction Notice make it clear that this particular Note, at least, was fully peer-reviewed.

In their Retraction Notice, the Journal Editors state that the article’s two peer-reviewers did not flag any ethical considerations.

My understanding of “harm” here encompasses serious bodily injury/death and criminal activity only. For the purposes of this exercise, I am not interested in harms involving reputational damage or purely emotional distress.

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Brienza, C. The Masturbation Article Affair: Japanese Manga, Scholarly Publishing, and the Twenty-First Century Politics of Censorship. Pub Res Q 39 , 132–146 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-022-09916-y

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Manchester probe academic over self-love text

• 10 August 2022, 4:45pm

Well, you have to hand it to them. After an outcry, Manchester University has now told Mr S that they’re investigating a PhD student who published a research paper in which he detailed how he masturbated for three months to extreme Japanese comics featuring young boys. 

The saga started earlier today after Tory MP Neil O’Brien tweeted a link to an article in the journal Qualitative Research titled ‘I am not alone – we are all alone: Using masturbation as an ethnographic method in research on shota subculture in Japan.’ O’Brien noted that ‘the non-STEM side of higher education is just much too big, producing too much that is not sociallly useful.’ That’s putting it mildly…

Most popular

Mary dejevsky, the concerning sickness of nhs staff.

PhD student Karl Andersson was researching subcultural Japanese comics at the University of Manchester but began masturbating after ‘hitting a wall’ in his studies. He started a three-month stint of masturbating to the same subject matter as his ‘research participants’ and make notes on each session. But his own thesis describes the material – known as shota – as a genre of self-published erotic comics that feature ‘young boy characters in a cute or, most often, sexually explicit way’.

Naturally after O’Brien and others raised concern about the research ethics underpinning Andersson’s ‘study’, Manchester was forced to belatedly intervene. A spokesman told Mr S:

The recent publication in Qualitative Research of the work of a student, now registered for a PhD, has raised significant concerns and complaints which we are taking very seriously.We are currently undertaking a detailed investigation into all aspects of their work, the processes around it and other questions raised. It is very important that we look at the issues in-depth. While that investigation is ongoing, it would not be appropriate for us to comment further at this time.

Talk about spaffing money up the wall. Just how on earth did this get approved?

JK Rowling is no bully

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Interest University of Manchester Investigates Academic Paper on Shotacon Manga (Updated)

The 4,000 word paper , by Karl Andersson (pictured right), is called, I am not alone – we are all alone: Using masturbation as an ethnographic method in research on shota subculture in Japan ."

According to the paper's abstract, Andersson "wanted to understand how my research participants experience sexual pleasure when reading shota ... I therefore started reading the comics in the same way as my research participants had told me that they did it: while masturbating."

A spokesperson for the University of Manchester said the paper "has raised significant concerns and complaints which we are taking very seriously. We are currently undertaking a detailed investigation into all aspects of their work, the processes around it and other questions raised. It is very important that we look at the issues in-depth.”

Andersson has a University of Manchester profile page which describes him as "a PhD student researching how fans of subcultural comics in Japan experience desire and think about sexual identities, especially in regards to fictional and actual realities."

The profile page also says Andersson's PhD research is funded by the University's School of Arts, Languages and Cultures. However, in his I am not alone paper, Andersson says he “received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article”.

The journal which published Andersson's paper, Qualitative Research , has now tagged the paper with the following statement : "We began investigating the publication of the above paper on Aug 9, 2022, and are continuing our investigations. We will consider closely all guidance from the Committee of Publication Ethics and ensure that any actions taken comply with COPE standards."

While the paper was published on April 26, the Guardian says that it provoked outrage after it was circulated on Twitter this week. For example, the Guardian quotes the Conservative MP Neil O'Brien asking, "Why should hard-working taxpayers in my constituency have to pay for an academic to write about his experiences masturbating to Japanese porn?”

A spokesperson for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is also quoted: “That this research was published in a peer-reviewed journal is highly concerning, and it's right that the universities and publishers involved are investigating. All research, and research publication, should be subject to proportionate but rigorous ethical review, including robust safeguarding checks.”

Andersson's web page mentions that his 35-minute graduation film, Unreal Boys , was about three young men in Tokyo who "explore the limits of fantasy through the comic genre shota , which features fictional boys in sexual situations."

In addition, Andersson was previously the editor of a Swedish self-published magazine called Destroyer , published from 2006, which foregrounded images of young boys. There is a Swedish article from the Aftonbladet website about Andersson editing the magazine here . The magazine was also the subject of an Out article and another in Holland's Gay News magazine. A translated Tweet that Andersson made about Destroyer magazine has been retweeted here .

Following the end of Destroyer magazine, the Vice website interviewed Andersson in 2012 and reported that he was running a website that also foregrounded images of young boys. In the interview, Andersson defends his publications and talks about why he likes shotacon manga.

Update - More details added.

this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history

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Briefly: Education

Kyoto University Will Offer Japan's First Manga Ph.D.

By The International Herald Tribune

• June 13, 2011

For students who would rather read comics than study, a doctorate in manga might be a good fit.

Kyoto Seika University announced last week that it would offer Japan’s first Ph.D. program in manga, the illustrated books that are drawn in a characteristic Japanese comic-book style.

The manga department will admit its first students next spring to a current grouping of 839 undergraduates and 33 at the master’s level. Of those in the master’s program, 20 are from other countries including South Korea, China, Germany and Latvia.

The university expects some non-Japanese to apply to its manga doctorate program, said Kazumasa Ikeda, a university spokesman.

While the bachelor’s and master’s programs emphasize artistic skill training and theoretical studies curriculums, the doctorate program revolves more around academic studies in the university’s hope that scholarly research will make a solid contribution to the advancement of manga studies.

— MIKI TANIKAWA

University of Birmingham announces new fellowships

While most British universities have adjusted to a new landscape of government cuts by dropping courses and spending less, the University of Birmingham has announced a program to hire as many as 50 faculty members.

This will be accomplished through the Birmingham Fellowships. They last five years and are intended to lead to permanent academic jobs, with successful applicants receiving financial and career support as a way for the university to nurture the next generation of researchers.

“This is a prestigious opportunity for early-career scholars from around the world to join a vibrant academic community and to establish their academic careers at Birmingham,” said Adam Tickell, pro-vice-chancellor for research and knowledge transfer.

The appointments, which are open to postdoctoral researchers, will normally be made at the lecturer level. The fields of study include criminology, high-energy physics, 20th-century music, sustainable energy, immunology, and memory and exile.

Fellows will be given the opportunity to teach undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

— D.D. GUTTENPLAN

An earlier version of the item on a PhD program on manga in Kyoto misspelled the name of the author Miki Tanikawa as Tanakawa.

How we handle corrections

Call for Papers – Mechademia: Second Arc, 18.2 “Studio Ghibli”

Japanese animation is many things. On the very first page of the excellent Anime: A Critical Introduction , animation scholar Rayna Denison uses the phrase “a shifting, sliding category of media production”, and further in the same book Dr. Denison also refers to anime as a “cultural phenomenon”. But outside Japan, and especially in Western media, Japanese animation is (still) often synonymous with the persona of Hayao Miyazaki and the films he has directed at Studio Ghibli. In fact, Jaqueline Berndt specifically points to this as one of the shortcomings in contemporary scholarly approaches to Japanese animation, writing that “Non-Japanese scholars tend to assume that [Hayao Miyazaki’s] movies are typical of anime as a whole because of their mere presence in Japan”.

But just because some of these assumptions may be incorrect, does not mean that all of them are. Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli are the subjects of almost 20 English-language scholarly books, from Helen McCarthy’s Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation – Films, Themes, Artistry , which will be celebrating its 25th anniversary later this year, to last year’s – and very different in scope and in tone Studio Ghibli: An Industrial History (also by Prof. Denison), as well as a full collection of essays on Princess Mononoke , and two different entries in the BFI Film Classics line of handbooks (on Grave of the Fireflies and on Spirited Away ). Miyazaki and Ghibli have also been the subjects of a special section in the Journal of Ecocritical Humanities , and other essays discussing particular aspects of and approaches to Ghibli films, or comparing them to other works, such as non-Japanese animations – appear frequently in edited essay collections and peer-reviewed journals – an excellent recent example is Miyazaki’s monstrous mother: A study of Yubaba in Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away , in a recent issue of Feminist Media Studies .

Now, it appears that plans are underway for another major contribution to Miyazaki/Ghibli studies, with a dedicated “Studio Ghibli” issue of Mechademia: Second Arc , set for a Summer 2026 publication date. Prof. Denison will serve as one of the editors, joined by Dr. Jaqueline Ristola (University of Bristol).

One of the goals of the issue will be to significantly expand the potential critical approaches to undertake in connection with Ghibli, such as “investigations into the studio’s wider politics, its industrial activities, and cultural impact in Japan and around the world”.

Papers for the issues can address topics such as:

• New theoretical approaches to studying Hayao Miyazaki’s films
• Analyses of Japanese academic approaches to Studio Ghibli
• Sound and Studio Ghibli films
• Studio Ghibli’s animation aesthetics – e.g. background art, CG aesthetics, hand-drawn animation
• Studio Ghibli’s other directors (Isao Takahata, Yoshifumi Kondō, Gorō Miyazaki, Tomomi Mochizuki, Hiromasa Yonebayashi, etc.)
• Producers at Studio Ghibli (Toshio Suzuki, Yoshiaki Nishimura, Eiko Tanaka, etc.)
• Studio Ghibli CEOs/Leaders (Toshio Suzuki, Koji Hoshino, Yasuyoshi Tokuma, etc.)
• Studio Ghibli’s below the line workers (animators, inbetweeners, colorists, etc.)
• Studio Ghibli’s Art Museum and the Ghibli Park
• Advertising, partnerships, sponsors and Studio Ghibli
• Studio Ghibli’s environmental activism

Authors are invited to submit essays of between 5,000 and 7,000 words. The submission deadline for the issue is July 1, 2024 .

Full details about the CFP are available on the Mechademia website.

Call for Papers – Mechademia: Second Arc, 18.1 “Death and Other Endings”

In the classic study Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation , Susan Napier identifies “the apocalyptic” as one of the three major “modes” of Japanese animation. But this is a relatively narrow approach – a much broader one would move to consider both East Asian popular culture products, expressions, and activities in general, and a more abstract idea of “endings”. And it it this approach that Mechademia: Second Arc is proposing for the upcoming Volume 18.1, currently set for publication in the Winter of 2025 with Prof. Anne Allison (Duke University) serving as the issue’s editor.

“Death and Other Endings” seeks papers that address the subject of endings of whatever kind, embedded in conditions of current times, and given a particular narrative, portrayal, or form in popular/media culture.

Some potential topics for the issue can include (the list is not exhaustive):

• Technological imaginaries and/or development in end-of-life or postmortem care (robots, AI)
• Surveillance and security apparati used to “end” various threats to public safety
• Recovery or memorialization following national disasters (3.11 or others)
• Global warming and/or environmental justice: effects of and activism around climate disaster
• Shifts in life-stage and life-cycle: What are the “ends” driving social aspirations and lives today?
• Temporality in an age of never-ending digitality and online connectedness
• What do reports of sexlessness, disconnection, and solo sociality signal in terms of endings and /or beginnings of desire, sexuality, or relationality?
• National borders, border-crossing, and (non)citizenship: What is the biopolitics of life, whose lives are valued (and whose is not), is there a necropolitics “ending” certain bodies?
• How are apocalyptic, end-time or dystopic stories particular to Japan?
• What has “ended” in the way of work, family, reproduction, and growth today, and is this ending something to mourn?

Call for Papers – AX 2024 Academic Symposium: Edo Japan

Usually – and by their nature – academic conferences are not open to general, non-academic audiences, and for that matter, not really intended for them. But at the same time, nothing requires academic discussions to exclude the public, especially when members of the public may be interested in the same themes and topics that scholars are. And it is this understanding that lies at the heart of the Academic Program track at the Anime Expo convention, the largest in the U.S. I first proposed this track in 2011, and was its Executive Producer through 2017. And now, for 2024, the Academic Symposium is once again accepting submissions for papers with a “scholarly perspective on anime, manga, cosplay, and their fandoms”.

The theme of AX 2024 is Edo Japan , and authors are encouraged – but not required – to consider it. Proposals can address topics and subjects such as:

• Japanese culture, past and present
• Japanese festivals and holidays
• Japan as Place, modern or historical
• Performing artists like geisha
• Histories of Japan, real or imagined

So, if you are studying a topic related to anime/manga, and want to share your research with a general, non-academic audience, here is your chance!

For consideration, submit a title, 150-word abstract, and short bio by the April 19 abstract submission deadline. All selected participants will be offered complimentary admission to AX.

Additional details (H-Net Network on Japanese History and Culture)

Online Symposium – Queer and Feminist Perspectives on Japanese Popular Cultures

The full schedule is now available for the upcoming online symposium Queer and Feminist Perspectives on Japanese Popular Cultures, organized by a team of scholars from Concordia University (Canada), UNSW Sydney (Australia) and Tulane University (USA), and supported by the Media, Gender and Sexualities Study Group (University of Tokyo). The goal of the symposium is to explore points of contact between Japanese popular culture broadly defined – including anime/manga, videogames, fashion, literature, and other fields and areas – and feminist studies, with an emphasis on issues of and intersections among gender, sexuality, race, queerness, disability, and class.

Over three days, the symposium will feature more than 20 speakers, representing institutions from the U.S., Canada, Australia, Italy, Japan, and other countries, as well as two keynote addresses. Emory University professor Erika Kanesaka, the creator of the website CuteStudies.com , will speak on the topic of “Cute and the Asian American experience”, and Laura Miller, the Eiichi Shibusawa-Seigo Arai Endowed Professor of Japanese Studies, University of St. Louis-Missouri, will speak to “Taking Girls Seriously”. Dr. Miller is the author of Beauty Up: Exploring Contemporary Japanese Body Aesthetics (University of California Press, 2006) and co-editor of, among other titles, Manners and Mischief: Gender, Power, and Etiquette in Japan (University of California Press, 2011) and Modern Girls on the Go: Gender, Mobility, and Labor in Japan (Stanford University Press, 2013). Just some of the articles on Japanese popular culture she has written include Extreme makeover for a Heian-era wizard , Japan’s Cinderella motif: Beauty industry and mass culture interpretations of a popular icon , Behavior that offends: Comics and other images of incivility , and Rebranding Himiko, the shaman queen of ancient history .

The symposium is free, but registration is required , and a Zoom link will be sent to all individuals who register for the event.

5:30 p.m. – 6:45 p.m. BL and queer studies

• A utopian poetics of female observers inside/out in BL Manga Marianne Tarcov (McGill University) Emma Wang
• Who put the ♂ in M♂M? Locating the breedable male body in shōshika BL Yoshika Han Jaclyn Zhou (University of California, Berkeley)
• The bishōnen as void, and void again: Understanding Rio Kishida’s Summer Vacation 1999 through a framework of zero River Seager

‘Cats, Single Ladies, and Manga: Feminist Fantasies of Cohabitation in East Asian Discourses’ lecture

Over the past ten or so years, the Japanese program at Baruch College (City University of New York) has hosted a series of mini-seminars and talks by individual speakers on topics related to Japanese animation and comics. The series started in 2015 with Globalized Manga Culture and Fandom and continued with Alt Manga: Alternative Manga Symposium (April 2016), Manga/Comics and Translation (April 2017), Manga/Comics against Human Trafficking (April 2018), and, in 2019, Untold History of Japanese Comics: Prewar and LGBTQ+ Manga . And, after an understandable hiatus, it has continued, with the latest one scheduled for next week.

The speaker, Dr. Grace En-Yi Ting is an assistant professor in the gender studies programme, The University of Hong Kong, and author of, among other publications, the essay The desire and disgust of sweets: Consuming femininities through shōjo manga (U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal) and the Gender, manga, and anime chapter in the Routledge Companion ot Gender and Japanese Culture . Entitled Cats, Single Ladies, and Manga: Feminist Fantasies of Cohabitation in East Asian Discourse , the talk is an examination of Japanese popular culture’s approach to themes of “heteronormative pressures regarding marriage and reproduction”, as expressed in particular in the manga The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again Today and its 2023 anime adaptation.

Thursday, April 4 12:50 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Baruch College 55 Lexington Ave, VC-4-165 New York, NY 10010)

The talk is open to members of the Baruch community and the general public, but registration is required . Additional details and the registration link are available on the Baruch Japanese Program website.

Comment/Response – “Do female anime fans exist?”…

Any kind of writing about anime will at some point have to consider anime’s audiences and their activities and practices. And in fact, studies that ask questions like “what anime fans do, and how, and why” are prominent in the field. As far back as 1994, writing for the journal Bad Subjects: Political Education for Everyday Life , Annalee Newitz examined “ Japanese animation fans outside Japan “, and in 2001’s Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation , Susan Napier devoted an appendix to the topic of “Western audiences and Japanese animation”. Other notable studies include Brent Allison’s chapter “Interviews with adolescent anime fans” (in The Japanification of Children’s Popular Culture: From Godzilla to Miyazaki and Lawrence Eng’s Strategies of engagement: Discovering, defining and describing otaku culture in the United States (in Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World ), as well as the full monograph Anime Fan Communities: Transcultural Flows and Frictions , by Sandra Annett.

The history of anime fans outside Japan can be traced to at least the 1980’s, if not earlier. Now that this history is established, the conditions are in place for scholarship that engages with the history critically. And one such recent engagement is the essay by Aurélie Petit (Concordia University) that examines the discussions that took place in early anime fan communities, and argues that these discussions have played a major role in shaping how anime fans interact between themselves and with the “external” world, and to some extent how the idea, concept, and image of the “anime fan” is now defined.

Petit, Aurélie (2022) “Do female anime fans exist?” The impact of women-exclusionary discourses on rec.arts.anime . Internet Histories , 6 (4), 352-368.

anime is still synonymous with far-right ideologies of white and male supremacy “Do female anime fans exist?”…, p. 353

Highlighting New Publications – JAMS v. 4

When it first launched in 2020, the open-access Journal of Anime and Manga Studies represented a major new development in the establishment of anime and manga studies as a defined academic field. Since the launch, it clearly thrived, with each new issue a range of new authors, and covering a diverse array of topics under the general umbrella of Japanese animation and comics. JAMS’ latest volume (2023) was formally released on December 3, and its eight articles once again do a great job of representing some of the most innovative scholarly writing on anime/manga that is currently available in English. And – all of it is free to read!

The issue opens with a letter from the JAMS editor-in-chief, summarizing the year’s developments and activities for the journal, the most prominent among them the Mechademia/JAMS track of scholarly presentations held as a part of the year’s Anime Expo convention. The letter also highlights the continuing upward trends in the journal’s readership, to over 2,000 pageviews per month at the conclusion of 2023, as well as the journal’s top five most read articles – the leader by far is A Survey of the Story Elements of Isekai Manga (volume 2) – currently, the 4th-ranking result in Google Scholar for a search for the term “isekai”, and the first result that is an actual peer-reviewed article.

The volume’s main section opens with Inclusive Media Mix: Shaping Communication through A Silent Voice . In this essay, Yuta Kaminishi (Habib Institute for Asian Studies, University of Idaho) expands the concept of the “Japanese media mix” that Marc Steinberg proposes and applies it to activities of different types – and involving different participants – than those that Steinberg envisions.

Interview with the Anime Scholar – Dr. Bill Ellis

Several weeks ago, the American Folklore Society, the leading organization for the study and advancement of folklore and expressive cultural traditions wordwide, broadly defined, announced that its 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award was being bestowed on Dr. Bill Ellis, emeritus professor, Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Ellis is a pre-eminent folklore scholar – and, over the last fifteen years, he has written extensively on the intersections between folklore in general and fairy tales specifically, and anime/manga. Some of his major publications in this area include the chapter “Folklore and gender inversion in Cardcaptor Sakura”, in the 2009 essay collection The Japanification of Children’s Popular Culture , one of the first English-language studies of that particular manga, as well as The fairy-telling craft of Princess Tutu: Metacommentary and the folkloresque , and the chapter Anime and manga: The influence of Tale Type 510B on Japanese manga/anime in the Routledge Companion to Media and Fairy Tale Cultures . Dr. Ellis also contributed the “Anime and manga” section to the Greenwood Publishing Group reference volume Youth Cultures in America .

And, to mark this, I am extremely excited to be able to sit down with Dr. Ellis, and to hear his thoughts on anime, manga, and folklore all fit together!

MK: As an experienced and established folklore scholar, how did you become interested in Japanese comics?

Bill Ellis: To begin with, I should note that I have always been seen as something of an outsider in folklore studies.  My training was in and English program, rather than folklore studies per se, notably Medieval English literature and the American Renaissance.  I was hired by a small campus of Penn State University (freshmen and sophomores only) on the basis of my experience in teaching remedial composition and my work with Ohio State’s Center for Textual Studies, which was preparing a standard edition of everything (yes, everythingI ) written by the author Nathaniel Hawthorne.  I edited two volumes of his business letters written when he was American consul at Liverpool and contributed to four other volumes of letters and notebooks.  On the strength of that, I earned tenure from Penn State, which considered my work in folklore a whimsical and irrelevant digression from “mainstream” research.

My first awareness of the anime/manga came in the late 90s by way of my teenaged daughter, who for a time dated a boy who was a fan of Dragon Ball Z.

By disposition I was always something of a lone-walker, doing things not because one gained academic credit by doing so, but because I thought the topics important for some reason.  Examples of these off-beat topics included alien abductions, adolescents’ legend-trips, Satanic cult rumors and panics, topical black humor referencing disasters (e.g., Challenger Shuttle jokes and later the much larger corpus of September 11 humor), and Facebook games.

Manga Subgenres – The GNCRT View

How do we categorize different kinds of Japanese comics? What categories or labels do we use? For that matter, who even decides what categories or labels we even have access to? These questions are provocative, but as it turns out, they are not rhetorical. Outside Japan, and particularly in the U.S., there are actually specific organizations that are tasked with assigning labels to different kinds of published materials, and probably the most important organization of this type is the Library of Congress. Unless you are somehow involved with the Library of Congress classification system in your work, or have studied it in a library/information science graduate program, the activity of the Library of Congress that are you probably most familiar with is the system of terms to organize entries in library catalogs both by subject and by genre.

Since November 2022, “manga” has been included on the approved Library of Congress list of terms as both a subject heading (for materials about manga) and a genre term – for actual manga titles. And, as it turns out, last year, the Metadata and Cataloging Committee of the American Library Association Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table presented a proposal to the Library of Congress endorsing the establishment of several specific terms that would apply to “manga subgenres”. In particular, the Committee endorsed four broad terms, with these potential recommended descriptions:

• shonen: “Manga emphasizing action and adventure, often with slapstick humor, a journey featuring personal growth, heroes with spiky hairstyles ,and themes of friendship, determination, and teamwork.”
• shojo: “Manga emphasizing personal feelings and emotions, often centered on relationships, with a distinctive artistic style featuring lithe characters and big eyes, decorative panel dividers and layered panels.”
• Boys love: “Romance manga with beautiful, androgynous male leads, featuring exclusive mutual attraction and a plot driven by emotion and psychological obstacles. For comics about realistic gay experiences, see Gay comics.”
• Yuri: “Manga depicting the homosocial, spiritual bonds and relationships between adolescent girls, often with a floral motif of lilies. For comics about the lesbian experience, see Lesbian comics.”

One Piece in Anime and Manga Studies

One of the most memorable anime-related events of 2023 was the worldwide Netflix launch of a live-action series adapting the long-running One Piece manga and anime series, by far one of the most successful and globally recognized entertainment properties of all time in any medium. As could be expected, viewers were initially cautious about just how the live action series would turn out, but, reviews and audience reactions were largely positive.

For the purposes of this site, however, what is particularly interesting is not so much the reaction of critics and fans, but, rather, whether One Piece has received any extent of attention from anime/manga scholars. And, as it turns out, the answer to this question is very much yes. In fact, with at least eight English-language publications on it so far, the way that scholars have examined One Piece since the manga first began publication in Japan in 1997, presents some very interesting, even if not yet very extensive, examples of different scholarly approaches to Japanese comics and animation!

One Piece deserves our attention not only because it is the most successful Japanese mangas of all time, but also because it reflects on dilemmas of IR in a surprisingly elaborate manner – Ákos Kopper, Pirates, justice and global order in the anime “One Piece”

• Nakamura, Konoyu. One Piece: Diversity and borderlessness . In Marybeth Carter, & Stephen Farah (eds). The Spectre of the Other in Jungian psychoanalysis: Political, psychological, and sociological perspectives (pp. 175-184). Abingdon, UK: Routledge. Anime constitutes prime material to be analysed and interpreted in a Jungian manner. This chapter focuses on ONE PIECE, a fantastic sea adventure. The protagonist is a 17-year-old named Luffy who journeys with his friends, called ‘the team of straw’, in search of a legendary treasure, the titular ONE PIECE. Here Konoyu Nakamura explores the idea of ‘the team of straw’ as an individual. She discusses the ‘variety and differences’ that these characters represent not only in terms of the differentiation of an individual but also in relation to the diversity represented by the cultural and national borderlessness that societies face today.

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PhD student who published research paper telling how he masturbated for three months over extreme Japanese comics featuring young boys is investigated by police for child porn offences

• Karl Andersson researched Japanese comics at University of Manchester
• He published a paper in which he masturbated to comics featuring young boys
• A police investigation has been launched to see if he broke child porn laws

By Matt Powell For Mailonline

Published: 14:15 EDT, 7 September 2022 | Updated: 16:54 EDT, 7 September 2022

View comments

A police investigation has been launched to establish if a University of Manchester student broke child pornography laws by publishing a research paper about how he masturbated to extreme comics featuring young boys.

A parliamentary committee also heard a representative of the university reveal that that no checks were carried out before they accepted PHD student Karl Andersson.

Mr Andersson was researching subcultural Japanese comics that depict the sexual encounters of young boys, he claims to have masturbated to the same subject matter for three months and made notes on each session.

Karl's own thesis describes the material - known as shota - as a genre of self-published erotic comics that feature 'young boy characters in a cute or, most often, sexually explicit way'.

Speaking at a House of Commons Education Committee hearing, Nalin Thakkar, the University of Manchester's vice-president for social responsibility, confirmed the university was working with the police as it investigated the Swedish first-year PhD student.

Under UK laws, it is illegal to possess indecent images of children under the age of 18, including cartoon images as featured in the manga comics. 

Police are investigating a University of Manchester student, Karl Andersson (pictured), and his controversial research paper to see if any child pornography laws were broken

Professor Thakkar told MPs today that the incident highlighted a 'blind spot' in terms of certain types of controversial research.

He admitted the university was unaware of Mr Andersson's history of publishing sexually suggestive pictures of young boys in gay publications in Sweden and said lessons about vetting students had been learned.

The university's own investigation into the now suspended student could not establish where the research for the paper, subtitled 'Using masturbation as an ethnographic method in research on shota subculture in Japan', was carried out.

One account suggests that some of Mr Andersson's research was done after he was funded for his PhD by Manchester, while another claims it occurred entirely in Germany.

 Professor Thakkar said he had informed Manchester police of both accounts.

The University of Manchester is also conducting its own investigation into Mr Andersson and his PhD supervisor, Dr Sharon Kinsella - who herself specialises in 'Lolita complex subcultures'. 

Professor Thakkar said the supervisor, who was thanked in the paper 'for always encouraging me to go where my research takes me', claimed to only have been made aware of the paper in February after it was approved for publication.

 He also stressed that the shocking research had not been conducted under the guidance or with the support of the university.

Karl Andersson (pictured) is currently suspended from researching subcultural Japanese comics that feature young boys at the University of Manchester

The University of Manchester said they had had 'significant complaints' that they were 'taking very seriously' and confirmed they were conducting a detailed investigation into the individual's work.

Visual anthropologist Karl claims after conducting interviews and carrying out surveys, his research hit a wall and he decided to copy his participants by only masturbating to shota comics and noting down his thoughts and feelings.

He says he did this for three months and also had a ban on any other type of porn, sex or any other 'sexual relief'.

Karl wrote: 'I therefore started reading the comics in the same way as my research participants had told me that they did it: while masturbating.

'In this research note, I will recount how I set up an experimental method of masturbating to shota comics, and how this participant observation of my own desire not only gave me a more embodied understanding of the topic for my research but also made me think about loneliness and ways to combat it as driving forces of the culture of self-published erotic comics.'

Karl writes that he'd just come out of a long-term relationship when he began the experiment which contributed to his 'eagerness'.

Mr Andersson is now being investigated after publishing a paper in which he began masturbating after 'hitting a wall' in his studies

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He wrote: 'For a period of three months, I would masturbate only to shota comics. For this purpose, I would use d*jinshi and commercial volumes that I have bought or been given during fieldwork in Japan.

'In short: I would masturbate in the same way that my research participants did it. After each masturbation session I would write down my thoughts and feelings - a kind of critical self-reflection - in a notebook, as well as details about which material I had used, where I had done it, at what time, and for how long.

'I would not be allowed to have any other sexual relief during this 'fieldwork' in my own sexuality: no regular porn, no sex with another person, no fantasies or memories - it had to be shota every time.

'I happened to live alone during this experiment, and I had newly become single after a long relationship - these factors probably contributed to my willingness and eagerness to explore this method.'

Karl argues that the research gave him 'not only gave me a more embodied understanding of the topic for my research but also made me think about loneliness and ways to combat it as driving forces of the culture of self-published erotic comics'.

The student (pictured) claims to have embarked on a three-month stint of masturbating to the same subject matter as his 'research participants' and make notes on each session - shunning regular pornography and sex

Professor Thakkar also explained to the committee that Mr Andersson's proposal for his PhD was rejected by an ethics committee in June - which he said was 'very rare'.

Concerns were raised about the 'design' of a project in which the student would undertake 'observations of shota comics' including 'semi-structured interviews' with users.

MPs also pressed Professor Thakkar over why these concerns had not been passed to police at the time. He said that the proposed project did not involve the personal use of shota comics in the same way as his earlier research did.

 Professor Thakkar said the university 'completely understands and shares the deep concerns raised by the public'.

He also said he could not 'see any benefit' to taxpayers in pursuing the research area, but conceded this was not his areas of expertise.

Share or comment on this article: PhD student who published paper about masturbating over extreme comics investigated for child porn

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The osamu tezuka story: a life in manga and anime.

By Toshio Ban and Tezuka Productions

Translated by Frederik L. Schodt

Berkeley, California: Stone Bridge Press,

ISBN: 978-1611720259, paperback

Tezuka Osamu is hardly a household name in the United States, even in the fan communities that so eagerly consume the products of the Japanese pop culture industry that Tezuka was instrumental in building after World War II. In Japan, however, Tezuka is revered as a “god of manga ,” a pioneer in the development of comics and animation, and, as one recent biographer described him, an almost-superhuman figure, “like Walt Disney, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Tim Burton, Arthur C. Clarke, and Carl Sagan all rolled into one.” 1 A remarkably prolific artist, author, and entrepreneur, Tezuka created a staggering 150,000 manga pages, sixty animated films and series, and a host of iconic characters—from the Jungle Emperor, known to American audiences as Kimba the White Lion, to Tetsuwan Atom, the endearing robot beloved internationally as Astro Boy. Ranging widely across styles and genres—he was just as comfortable penning sci-fi epics and lighthearted animal tales as hard-edge suspense stories and softcore pornography—Tezuka’s imagination, popular appeal, and sheer productivity drove the postwar boom in manga and anime that swept Japan and eventually spread around the world.

The Osamu Tezuka Story is a biography in manga form drawn by Ban Toshio, one of Tezuka’s closest associates, and the team of illustrators at Tezuka Productions, the comics and animation studio that Tezuka founded. It was originally serialized in Japan from 1989 to 1992, in the years immediately following Tezuka’s death. The English translation of what is a truly monumental volume (914 pages, including a short introduction and a comprehensive listing of Tezuka’s manga and anime works) was done by Frederik Schodt, a well-known authority on Japanese comics and a longtime friend and interpreter for Tezuka.

This book traces Tezuka’s life and career in deep chronological detail, setting his personal story against the dramatic historical backdrop of Japan during the Shōwa Period (1926–1989). Tezuka’s lifespan, in fact, overlapped almost exactly with the reign of the Shōwa Emperor. He was born two years after Hirohito ascended to the throne and died just one month after Hirohito’s passing. The eldest child of a privileged, progressive-minded family in the suburbs of Osaka, Tezuka was a bright and precocious youth with many interests, including reading, nature (especially insects), astronomy, movies, and music. Tezuka followed in the footsteps of his many ancestors who were distinguished physicians, training to be a medical doctor. But his true passion was always manga, and he compulsively drew cartoons and honed his skills as an artist and storyteller from the time he was in primary school. Ban’s graphic biography meticulously charts Tezuka’s rise from a young up-and-comer on the Osaka manga scene to Japan’s most popular comic artist to a pioneer in cinematic and television anime to a leading force in the internationalization of Japanese popular culture.

Readers already familiar with Tezuka’s work will find much in this volume of interest. The origins of many of the characteristic themes in Tezuka’s creations can, for example, be traced to formative personal experiences. His concern for the environment and fascination with metamorphosis grew from his childhood obsession with collecting beetles and moths, and his pacifist leanings and apocalyptic imagination grew from the trauma of surviving the wartime firebombing of Osaka. The influence of American comic books and Hollywood movies on Tezuka was also profound, and his fixation on Disney cartoons is well-documented here. He watched Snow White more than fifty times and Bambi more than eighty. Ban also explores Tezuka’s stylistic genius and the numerous innovations he brought to manga, from a bold cinematic style rich in visual effects (such as close-ups and cutbacks) to the groundbreaking development of long-format “story manga.” For readers without previous exposure to Tezuka’s work, however, this book may be more overwhelming than enlightening. Even a dedicated fan of Japanese pop culture could easily feel lost in the whirl of manga series and anime productions touched upon only fleetingly here and, even by the end of this long biography, be uncertain of what set Tezuka apart as an artist and pioneer beyond his incredibly prolific output over the postwar decades.

Some of this volume’s most fascinating insights are into the inner workings of Japan’s publishing industry and the emergence of anime as a major cultural force. Tezuka rose to prominence in a time of tremendous, seemingly insatiable demand for manga, as Japanese children, and increasingly adults as well, eagerly sought distractions after wartime deprivation and through the struggles of postwar recovery.

In this environment, competition—both among publishers and individual manga artists—was often cutthroat, and much of this book recounts the constant rivalries among editors desperate to get their monthly cartoon pages from the chronically overcommitted Tezuka. Ban’s narrative also sheds valuable light on the process of producing manga and anime, revealing how important teamwork and craft were to modern cartooning as they had been to ukiyo-e production in the Tokugawa Period, and documenting how technological change in printing and animation shaped the evolution of Japanese pop forms. Significantly, Tezuka’s story also demonstrates how minimal the financial rewards were in Japan’s postwar mass entertainment industries, how common failure was for publishers and entrepreneurs (including Tezuka himself), and how passion rather than profit fueled the golden age of Japanese comics and cartoons.

Tezuka’s personal story as presented here appears as a virtual microcosm of Japan’s collective experience of national reconstruction, unprecedented growth, and international reintegration after World War II. Tezuka, like our image of the Japanese people as a whole during the intense decades of the “miracle economy,” was hardworking, even workaholic; focused, even single-minded; highly competitive and fired by a “burning ambition and energy” (514). Tezuka’s career mirrored not just Japan’s economic resurgence from wartime devastation, but also the incremental return of Japan to the peaceful, cultured community of nations. Tezuka was an eager international traveler and an enthusiastic advocate for Japanese manga and anime overseas. Indeed, even long before “soft power” became an expressed goal of the Japanese state, Tezuka was regularly dispatched abroad to promote Japanese popular culture by the Japan Foundation and was even named a “Manga Ambassador” in 1980, lecturing on his work at the United Nations. Perhaps not coincidentally, Tezuka’s trademark manga character—one that he worked on from the early 1950s up until his death—was the phoenix, an apt symbol of a reborn Japan rising from the ashes of war and the isolation of defeat.

Like most triumphalist narratives of Japan’s postwar “miracle economy,” however, The Osamu Tezuka Story tends to stress the accomplishments rather than the costs of the nation’s (and Tezuka’s) success. Women, for instance, only appear occasionally in the narrative here. Tezuka’s family only play bit parts as well: his wife is only mentioned for the first time on page 486, and his children rate far less attention than the legions of impatient editors pressuring him for their monthly manga pages. Ban’s account also glosses over the fact that for many years Tezuka lived alone in a small apartment so that he could better concentrate on his work, returning home to his family for at most a couple of days a week. Moreover, even though Tezuka was deeply interested in nature and wrote largely for an audience of Japanese schoolchildren, some of the most pressing environmental and social issues of Japan’s high-economic-growth decades—industrial pollution, educational stress, bullying—receive little or no attention in this biography.

Dedicated fans of Tezuka Osamu’s imaginative and varied work, as well as those deeply steeped in the history of Japanese pop culture, will undoubtedly relish this book. Although it clearly also has potential as a classroom text, with its valuable perspectives on the evolution of manga and anime in postwar Japan, instructors and students alike could well find it a challenging source. Not only is the volume long, but it is also surprisingly dense for a graphic work, with a biographical narrative that is notably lacking in drama. For all the colorful characters that flowed from Tezuka’s pen, he himself was more salaryman than adventure hero, leading an almost ascetic life of dedication to his work. The seemingly endless stories of Tezuka’s struggles with his editors and the recitation of the many honors bestowed upon him grow tiresome quickly. Moreover, even though Ban tries to provide a balanced view of Tezuka the man and the artist, the biography does become gratingly hagiographic at times. Schodt’s translation is excellent and the book is presented, only appropriately, in the traditional Japanese format, reading from right to left. Curiously, however, given this attention to authenticity, Japanese personal names are not presented in the customary order with family name first, but here are cavalierly inverted in Western fashion.

For all its merits, The Osamu Tezuka Story pales in comparison to the compelling, inspiring, enchanting, and electrifying tales woven by Tezuka himself. If nothing else, this meticulous biography reminds us of the tremendous originality, energy, and range of one of the great talents of twentieth-century Japanese popular culture and encourages us to revisit, or to experience for the first time, the genius of Astro Boy, Black Jack, Phoenix, and Tezuka’s other enduring creations. ■

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NOTES 1. Helen McCarthy, The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga (New York: Abrams ComicArts, 2009), 8.

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Julia Powles

PHD comics' Jorge Cham on misery, hope and academia

Jorge Cham, creator of the cult comic strip Piled Higher and Deeper , or PHD, is probably the most gut-achingly funny/tragic counsellor you could recommend to a PhD student -- or to any confounded friend, lover, or parent trying to understand what he terms, with some flourish, the "global misery phenomenon" of graduate school.

Cham is a full-time cartoonist, but the deep scars wrought by a PhD programme (in robotic engineering) remain his constant muse.

His webcomic has been running since he started grad school in 1997, is syndicated worldwide, and attracts a loyal following among that peculiar breed of poorly-paid, slightly masochistic overachievers, bravely hunting the frontiers of knowledge, free food, most random societies on campus, and unrequited supervisor approval.

PHD follows the travails of four main characters in grad school: the nameless, hapless hero that bears considerable resemblance to Jorge; Cecilia, the reluctant geek constantly frustrated by undergraduates; Tajel, the free-living social sciences student always willing to rally for a cause; and Mike Slackenerny, that person -- every research group has one -- who has been there longer than anyone can remember. The students' harried encounters with the demanding, loveless Professor Smith and absent-minded Professor Jones form the foundation for many priceless recurring gags, poking fun at the lows of grad student life.

Recently, Jorge was in the UK on an academic world tour , talking about 'The power of procrastination'. His thesis has something for all of us -- grad students and otherwise.

The power of procrastination

"The first thing to note", says Cham, "is that procrastination is not the same thing as laziness. Laziness is when you don't want to do anything. Procrastination, its close but distinct cousin, is when you don't want to do the one thing you really ought to be doing, right now. It's not that you don't want to do it, it's just that you find doing everything else possible, from some completely obscure hobby to categorising the entire internet, like the Yahoo dudes did when their supervisor was on summer break, more appealing."

How much time do you spend on a given comic?

I doodle and brainstorm on a notebook I always carry with me. It can take anywhere from five minutes to eight hours to work out a comic. Drawing it on the computer (using a Cintiq) usually only takes one hour.

Simon Singh has written a whole book about mathematics and The Simpsons . Have you got some examples of deep-coded nerd gags in your comics?

I always try to generalise things because my audience spans so many disciplines, but I do have a running gag that pi/2 is always the answer, and I've lost count how many times I've hidden 1.57 into my comics over the years.

Can you give away anything about your characters?

Increasing the ratio of female professors is a big topic I hope to address in the future. The nameless grad student was given a name in The PHD Movie (the film adaptation of the comics), but it's not clear yet whether that's canon or not.

The comics will eventually follow the characters to the completion of their time in grad school. One graduated several years ago (and is now a Post-doc), and I think another will graduate in the next year or two.

Gabrielle Caplan

You mentioned The PHD Movie . I've heard there's a sequel in the pipeline. Tell us about it.

Yes, we're trying to make a sequel to The PHD Movie ! A few years ago we made what I think is the first independent movie adaptation of a webcomic, and it was a great success in the academic world. It screened at over 500 universities and research centres worldwide (including Antarctica) and got great reviews.

Recently, I've gotten a lot of inquiries whether we're going to make a follow-up so I decided to give the fans a chance to make it happen by launching a Kickstarter . What's different about these movies is that they involve real scientists, researchers and staff members at a real top university (Caltech) in the acting and producing roles.

Part of the message we want to convey is that people in academia are not robots, that they have different passions, talents and even a sense of humour. So, the movie is in the hands of the internet to make it a reality.

Do you have a favourite PHD series?

I started listing out some of my favourite series, but then I realised another reason it's great to be a creator online is that it sort of doesn't matter how many people appreciate any particular piece of work you do. As long as you create something that has meaning to you, you will most likely find others who also connect with it, and the connection will probably be deeper than if you tried to create something that you think everyone would like. It's also easier to take risks because if people didn't particularly like something you did, you have your whole archive there for people to also sample and find something they like.

Is there one comic that stands out as particularly special to you?

One particular comic I've done that comes to mind is a version of Alice in Wonderland where Cecilia gets pulled through her monitor into Thesisland, as a metaphor for her feeling lost on her research. It's a series of comics I feel that works on different levels (character, arc, story, artwork, punch-lines). I also wrote and drew them during the first few weeks my son was born, so it's special also because I was somewhat inspired by that. It's not one I'm particularly famous for, but every once in a while someone will come up to me to say it's their favourite too.

You can see the 11 part series online, starting here and ending here .

The PHD Movie is available to watch for free all this month . You can fund the sequel through this Kickstarter campaign

This article was originally published by WIRED UK

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Asian Scientist x PHD Comics: Where Art & Science Collide!

Are you tired of being a starving grad student and wondering if it’s possible to be a non-starving artist?

Here’s your chance to meet Jorge Cham, the brains behind PHD Comics , a wildly popular comic strip about life (or the lack thereof) in academia.

Jorge, who has a PhD in robotics from Stanford University, will be speaking at a public masterclass on science communications on 8 July 2017, from 2 to 4.30pm at Singapore Management University’s Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium.

Brought to you by Asian Scientist Magazine , the talk will cover the following:

• • How Jorge broke out of academia into the world of comics, books, online TV and movies.
• • How to turn doodling not just into a viable career, but a media empire.
• • How to effectively communicate challenging, technical concepts to a layman audience.
• • How science needs art, and vice versa.

If you’ve ever read PHD Comics and said, “that’s me!” or secretly pined for a life outside the windowless lab, come attend Jorge’s first-ever public talk in Singapore.

Geeks and non-geeks alike are welcome!

Date : 8 July 2017 Time : 2:00 to 4:30 PM Venue : Singapore Management University, Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium, 60 Stamford Rd, Singapore 178900

Get your tickets now: http://peatix.com/event/266027

#PHDComicsSG #AsianScientist

20 Comics Follow the Lives of Graduate Students and the Challenges of Academia

The lives of graduate students are a unique blend of academic rigor, personal growth, and numerous challenges. These individuals are pursuing advanced degrees, such as Master’s or Ph.D. programs, and are deeply involved in research, teaching, and scholarly activities. While the pursuit of knowledge and expertise is rewarding, the path to academia is rife with its own set of challenges.

Graduate students are committed to their academic pursuits. They spend countless hours conducting research, reading scholarly articles, and preparing for exams or comprehensive assessments. The intellectual demands are high, and they must continually push the boundaries of knowledge in their field. “ PHD Comics ” perfectly captures the lives of graduate students and the challenges of academia. The comics provide a humorous and relatable window into the world of higher education, resonating with graduate students, researchers, and academics who understand the unique struggles and idiosyncrasies of academic life.

Credit: PHD Comics

For more info: Instagram | Facebook | Website

#1. How’s it going?

#2. Lab Safety

#3. Manuscript

#4. Academic edition

#5. Academic conclusions

PHD Comics, also known as Piled Higher and Deeper , is a web comic strip written and drawn by Jorge Cham . It follows the lives of several graduate students as they navigate the challenges of academia. The comic is known for its humor, insight, and relatability. PHD Comics was launched in 1997 and has quickly become a favorite among graduate students and academics alike. The comic has won numerous awards, including the Web Cartoonists’ Choice Award for Outstanding Comic Strip. He has a strong online presence through their website and Instagram account, where he has an audience of 234,000 followers.

#6. Vacations

#7. Posting on Instagram

#8. Lifestyle Influencer

#9. Different Nightmares

#10. Personal Projects

#11. Drawing

The comics humorously depict the everyday struggles, challenges, and quirks of life in academia. They often touch on topics such as research, teaching, publishing, conferences, and the academic job market. The series features a set of recurring characters, each representing different facets of the academic world, including the graduate student, the advisor, and the postdoctoral researcher. These characters are relatable to anyone who has been through or is currently in academia. Jorge Cham’s art style is simple and distinctive, making the comics easy to recognize. The characters often have exaggerated features and facial expressions, adding to the humor.

#12. Social media

#13. What about research?

#14. That’s a valid career goal

#15. What’s this?

#16. Google is bestfriend

Cham experienced firsthand the trials and tribulations of graduate school, including the long hours, intense research demands, and the emotional rollercoaster that often accompanies doctoral studies. He found that humor was an effective way to deal with the stress and challenges. Creating the webcomic served as a form of catharsis for Cham. By turning his experiences into humorous and relatable comic strips, he was able to share his frustrations and triumphs with others who were going through similar experiences. This allowed him to find humor in the often absurd world of academia.

#17. Different Views

#18. There’s a conference

#19. Can’t Avoid

#20. Still Dreaming

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10 Moments all Grad Students Know: Featuring illustrations from Jorge Cham’s PhD Comics illustrations

Every grad student faces the pains and struggles that only we can understand. Sure, our lives may look beautiful to professionals in the real world or undergraduates; but what the outside world does not know is that is there is college, and then there is grad school. College is fun. Grad school is hard. Read the list below to get a laugh, relate, and realize that others know what you’re going through in the daily life of a graduate student.

1.     Your life is summed up in one word: research.

http://phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=286

2.     You are still trying to perfect the impossible balance between research, school, and studying.

http://phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=329

3.     Trying to remember what you ate today…or was that yesterday?

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=582

4.     You consider caffeine to be your favorite food group. The only down side is the twitching and involuntary body movements you now experience regularly.

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=384

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=385

  {eblogads}

5.   You are so exhausted that you don’t even have the energy to try to sleep.

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=19

6.     You avoid your dissertation advisor like a debt collector since you still haven’t finished the task at hand.

http://phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=177

7.     You feel like a fake and wonder when the other members of academia will catch on.

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=728

8.     Speaking to people outside of grad school becomes difficult because you now use words that are not applicable to daily life.

http://phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=405

9.     Trying to figure out what a dissertation actually is while you’re trying to work on one.

http://phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=287

10.            Realizing your research is valuable and the process was worthwhile; even after repeated critique, rejection, and denial by countless scholars, publications, and departments.

http://phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1676

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Remember, when going to graduate school, be prepared for a different experience from your undergraduate years. When you enroll in a graduate degree program, it’s best to be and stay motivated by professional and academic goals. Read about other things PhDStudent advises to consider when deciding to go to graduate school here , here , and here .

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Canada to introduce new rules around off-campus work hours for international students

From: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

News release

International students enrich Canada’s social, cultural and economic fabric. That is why, in recent months, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has introduced reforms to the International Students Program, to ensure system integrity while protecting students from fraud and financial vulnerability.

April 29, 2024—Ottawa— International students enrich Canada’s social, cultural and economic fabric. That is why, in recent months, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has introduced reforms to the International Student Program, to ensure system integrity while protecting students from fraud and financial vulnerability.

The Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, announced today that the temporary policy allowing students to work more than 20 hours per week off campus will come to an end on April 30, 2024, and it will not be extended. This fall, we intend to change the number of hours students may work off campus per week to 24 hours.

Students who come to Canada must be here to study. As such, allowing students to work up to 24 hours per week will ensure they focus primarily on their studies, while having the option to work, if necessary.

As we head into the summer session, students who have a scheduled academic break can continue working unlimited hours.

In developing this change, we looked at the needs of students, policies in other countries, as well as research that has shown that academic outcomes suffer the more a student works while studying. It also strikes the appropriate balance so students have the option to work without compromising academic outcomes. More details will be shared in due course.

We also continue to develop the new Recognized Institutions Framework to reward post­secondary institutions that set high standards for selecting, supporting and retaining international students. We will continue to support and protect international students from financial vulnerability and keep protecting the integrity of the International Student Program.

“Working off campus helps international students gain work experience and offset some of their expenses. As international students arrive in Canada, we want them to be prepared for life here and have the support they need to succeed. However, first and foremost, people coming to Canada as students must be here to study, not work. We will continue working to protect the integrity of our student program.” – The Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

Quick facts

Recent studies conducted in the US and Canada have shown that there is a considerable decline in academic performance for students working more than 28 hours per week, and that working more than 24 hours per week increases the chances that a student will drop out of their program.

Most countries that welcome international students set limits on the number of hours they may work while they study. Australia recently changed its policy to allow a student to work 48 hours every 2 weeks. In the US, students must meet additional criteria before being permitted to work off campus at all.

In December 2023, the Government of Canada raised the cost-of-living threshold that students must meet to be approved for a study permit so they are financially prepared for life in Canada and are not as dependent on working.

International students who begin a college program delivered through a public-private curriculum licensing arrangement on or after May 15, 2024, will not be eligible for a post-graduation work permit when they graduate. Those who already started this type of program prior to May 15, 2024, will still be able to access a post-graduation work permit, provided they meet all other criteria .

The new letter of acceptance (LOA) verification process has been a success. Since its launch on December 1, 2023, through April 1, 2024, IRCC has

•  received almost 162,000 LOAs for verification
• confirmed nearly 142,000 LOAs as valid directly with designated learning institutions (DLIs)
• identified almost 9,000 LOAs that didn’t match any LOA issued by a DLI or that the DLI had already cancelled before the foreign national applied for a study permit

Associated links

• Statement: Minister Miller issues statement on international student allocations for provinces and territories
• Notice: Update on public-private college partnership programs for international students
• Notice: Additional information about International Student Program reforms
• News release: Canada to stabilize growth and decrease number of new study permits issued
• News release: Revised requirements to better protect international students
• News release: Changes to International Student Program aim to protect students
• Website: Work off campus as an international student

Aissa Diop Director of Communications Minister’s Office Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada [email protected]

Media Relations Communications Sector Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada 613-952-1650 [email protected]

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Innovative Ways to Create More Urban Green Spaces

Creating more green spaces in urban areas can not only add natural beauty to cities, but it can also improve the health and well-being of its residents. In addition, increasing biodiversity in urban areas can reduce smog and air pollution, retain rainwater, and trap CO2.

PLT recently published a collection of three new activities for middle school students to Discover Your Urban Forest . Here we share more ideas to get inspired and envision new ways to add green spaces to urban areas: 

Creating Mini-forests

The idea of mini-forests was conceived by Akira Miyawaki, a young graduate student in the 1950s. He observed that mature forests in Japan had greater biodiversity than landscaped gardens. Mature forests take centuries to grow and acres of land. Miyawaki wondered if there was a way to speed up the process, to engineer a mature forest to grow quickly in a small space.

Miyawaki’s idea was successful. By discovering which species were native to Japan, he was able to select trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants that would naturally grow in old forests. Under the right conditions, his methods produced forests quickly in small spaces – sometimes in 1/10th of the time it would take for a diverse forest to grow naturally.

The Miyawaki method is simple:

• Small patches of urban land are identified.
• Native tree species that would naturally be found in a local mature forests are selected.
• Time is invested in preparing the soil.
• Finally, large numbers of young seedlings are planted. 

Tiny forests can thrive anywhere. Crowded and polluted urban areas that need the most help maintaining clean air and water are suitable locations for mini-forests. The benefits of adding native trees to urban areas extend beyond their beauty. Trees remove carbon dioxide and air pollution, reduce water pollution, and serve as a noise buffer. They also provide habitat for other organisms such as birds and insects. Even though mini-forests are small, they can even restore biodiversity to cities almost as well as a larger natural forest.

Urban mini-forests also allow people to connect with nature without leaving the city. Living in a dense city can make it difficult to visit a forest. By bringing the forest to urban areas, residents will have a unique opportunity to learn about environmental issues such as biodiversity, climate change, and habitat loss.

Urban Food Forests

Even in dense urban areas, there are strips and pockets of land that some would say are underutilized. For example, the patch of grass between the sidewalk and the curb. Ron Finley saw that small strip as an opportunity to grow fruits and vegetables in his neighborhood.

South Central Los Angeles is one of many “food deserts” in the country, which has limited access to healthy, affordable food. In these areas, fresh produce can be hard to come by, and Ron says he “knew what it’s like to drive 45 minutes just to get a fresh tomato.” 

Ron’s neighborhood “guerilla gardening” was met with resistance when he was cited by the city for gardening without a permit. However, he believed people have the right to grow food in their neighborhood so he worked with fellow green activists to start a petition and eventually was able to change the law. 

Ron continues to work with the South Central LA community to build urban gardens that can be examples for other cities. His dream is to transform food deserts into food forests across the country, and even around the world.

PARK(ing) Day

In an effort to call attention to the need for green spaces in urban environments, a San Francisco art and design studio founded PARK(ing) Day. On PARK(ing) Day, which is held the third Friday in September, city parking spots are transformed into pocket parks all across the USA.

PARK(ing) Day displays can be as simple as grass sod spread on the concrete, a park bench, and some potted trees. Others have taken it farther by adding cornhole games, creating horticultural displays, setting up playground equipment, offering yoga classes, and setting up mini libraries.

(PARK)ing is a way to envision urban spaces used in a different way – one that is more community-centric instead of car-centric.

Project Ideas for Your Students

Want to start a mini-forest near you? Students can lead the way by learning about native trees, soil nutrients, tree life cycles, and resource needs. When young people are involved in the planning and design of mini-forests and other environmental and community improvement projects, they will invest time and energy in protecting and maintaining these special areas. Here are some ideas to get started.

Visit pocket parks

Pocket parks are small parks in urban neighborhoods. Have your students research existing pocket parks near their school or in the closest urban area. Visit the pocket parks and note the people that are using the park. Who is visiting and what are they doing there? What does the park feature? Are there benches? Playgrounds? What measurable effect does a visit to a favorite park or green space have on you? Make a list of positive attributes you notice about the park, and a list of negative attributes. Design your own pocket park based on the knowledge you gathered.

These STEM enrichment ideas for one of PLT’s popular activities, I’d Like to Visit a Place Where…., will take your students outdoors to learn more about a local park or urban green spaces near them.

Identify areas for an urban garden, pocket park, or mini-forest

Walk around your neighborhood and identify areas that are not being used. For example, perhaps there is a vacant lot or an unused parking lot. Brainstorm ideas for converting the unused land into a garden, pocket park, mini-forest or another type of urban green space. If you don’t have a chance to walk around the neighborhood with students, you can also use Google Maps to explore your local area without leaving your home or classroom.

Learn what makes a city park great, such as local wildlife, spaces for public enjoyment, and community activities, with this Detroit Parks Coloring Book . Use these coloring pages (available for download, print, and color) for students to explore the parks around the city of Detroit, Michigan. Then, discuss with students ways your community might conserve and enhance its public spaces with the help of organizations, like the non-profit Detroit Riverfront Conservancy , that work to support community public spaces.

Towns and cities rely on community stewards to help take care of and utilize local parks. Find out how students in Santa Cruz, California and Madisonville, Louisiana worked with their local community to maintain and beautify parks in their neighborhood.

Research edible and native plants to grow where you live

Before planting can begin, you’ll need to know what kinds of plants will grow in your area. Mini-forests and pocket parks thrive with native plants. If you’re planting an urban garden, find plants that will grow well in your gardening zone and growing conditions. Don’t limit yourself to planting seeds or seedlings every year. Trees, shrubs, and other perennials can provide a food source for years to come. You can plan a pocket park or urban garden, even if you don’t have the space to implement it yet.

Create your own mini-forest

Shubhendu Sharma, an eco-engineer inspired by Miyawaki, developed a step-by-step approach that can yield a forest ecosystem in a space the size of six or seven parking spots. Mimic Sharma’s approach by finding a small area on your school’s campus and create a mini-forest with your students.

• First, identify the native species by surveying natural forests growing locally.
• Next, loosen and nurture the soil, and add microorganisms to support a nutrient-rich growing environment.
• Third, plant the seedings in four different layers. The layers should include a shrub layer, a sub-tree layer, a tree layer and a canopy layer.
• The fourth step is to carefully tend the emerging forest for a few years by watering and weeding.
• Finally, let it grow!

Participate in PARK(ing) Day

PARK(ing) Day is being celebrated internationally. Arrange a field trip to the closest urban area to see how this event is being used to make statements that are as much environmental as they are political and cultural. If a field trip is not an option, arrange for a virtual field trip. Students can make a photo journal of the creative and inspiring displays. Follow up with an engaging discussion of what each PARK(ing) display is trying to communicate to the community.

Inspire your students to design their own PARK(ing) Day display. What do they want to include? What statement are they making? Better yet, work as a class to participate in an actual PARK(ing) Day event to draw attention to urban green spaces.

Discover Your Urban Forest: Grades 6-8 Activities

Discover Your Urban Forest  features three new PLT activities for educators of students in grades 6-8. Designed to be flexible, the activities can be used as individual, stand-alone lessons, or all together as a cohesive unit of instruction using a storyline technique.

• Decisions, Decisions — Decisions about community land use are complex and often involve many people in many ways.

Students use trees as a backdrop to develop a land-use plan.

• Environmental Justice for All — Everyone has an equal right to a healthy environment—but does everyone have a healthy environment?

Students propose actions to resolve various scenarios and then research issues related to environmental justice in their own state.

• Forest in the City — The trees in our communities provide many benefits: they improve air quality, store carbon, and conserve energy. Trees also enhance human health by reducing blood pressure, decreasing stress, and elevating attentiveness.

Students conduct a survey to investigate the social and psychological effects of the urban forest.

Rebecca Reynandez

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NYCC 2023: Marvel Comics Reveals a New Ultimate Universe

Your first look at next year’s 'ultimate spider-man,' 'ultimate black panther,' and 'ultimate x-men,' three new series just revealed at new york comic con..

The invasion is over and the Ultimate Universe is assembling!

Spinning out of Jonathan Hickman’s ULTIMATE UNIVERSE #1 next month, learn more about Hickman and Marco Checchetto 's  ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN ,  Bryan Hill and Stefano Caselli 's  ULTIMATE BLACK PANTHER , and  Peach Momoko 's  ULTIMATE X-MEN , three new series launching next year as part of Marvel’s new Ultimate line!

At today’s Marvel’s Next Big Thing Panel at New York Comic Con , fans witnessed the birth of the all-new Ultimate Universe. Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski and writer Jonathan Hickman laid out Hickman’s ultimate vision for a revolutionary new era of Marvel Comics, including announcements for ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, ULTIMATE BLACK PANTHER, and ULTIMATE X-MEN. 

All launching early next year, these represent the initial sagas set in an all-new Ultimate realm, marking the perfect place for new fans and longtime comic readers to jump in at the ground level of the next big chapter of Marvel Comics storytelling.

Fans can get everything they need to know in next month’s ULTIMATE UNIVERSE #1 , where Hickman and artist Stefano Caselli team up to unleash the full impact of this new age! Jonathan Hickman and Bryan Hitch’s   ULTIMATE INVASION   limited series saw the rise of a new pantheon of heroes. Now, see them band together in this special foundational one-shot packed with previews and insights of what’s to come!

[ RELATED :  New Cover and Interior Artwork from Jonathan Hickman and Stefano Caselli's ‘Ultimate Universe’ #1 ]

Read on to learn more about what awaits and see the Ultimate Universe come to life in an all-new trailer!

ULTIMATE UNIVERSE #1

ULTIMATE UNIVERSE #1 Written by JONATHAN HICKMAN Art by STEFANO CASELLI Colors by DAVID CURIEL Cover by  BRYAN HITCH On Sale November 1

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #1

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #1 Written by JONATHAN HICKMAN Art and Cover by MARCO CHECCHETTO On Sale January 10

Revolutionary writer Jonathan Hickman and acclaimed artist Marco Checchetto ( DAREDEVIL ) bring you a bold new take on Spider-Man , with the debut title of the new line of Ultimate Comics! After the events of  ULTIMATE INVASION , the world needs a hero… who will rise up to take on that responsibility? Prepare to be entangled in a web of mystery and excitement as the all-new ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN comic redefines the wall-crawler for the 21st Century!

Teasing the series, Hickman said, "ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN is a book I never thought I'd be writing. It's a bit of a Peter B. Parker situation..."

ULTIMATE BLACK PANTHER (2024) #1

ULTIMATE BLACK PANTHER #1 Written by BRYAN HILL Art and Cover by STEFANO CASELLI On Sale February 7

In the wake of ULTIMATE INVASION, Khonshu and Ra—the force known together as Moon Knight —are seeking to expand their brutal control of the continent of Africa. In response, the lone bulwark against them, the isolated nation of Wakanda , will send forth its champion…its king…the Black Panther! From the creative minds of Bryan Hill ( BLADE ,  KILLMONGER ) and Stefano Caselli ( X-MEN RED ,  AVENGERS ) comes a bold new take on the world of Black Panther and Wakanda!

"I was invigorated by this opportunity because in addition to my immense respect for Jonathan Hickman’s detailed storytelling, the idea of shepherding this bold new take on Black Panther in this event gives me a platform to do the kind of broad, epic, storytelling I’ve always wanted to do in comics," Hill said.

“My influences range from the history of BLACK PANTHER comics to Ryan Coogler’s incredible work with the recent films, to Frank Herbert’s worldbuilding capacity of  Dune ," he added. "This is something people won’t expect, in the best of ways, and full credit to Marvel and editors Wil Moss and Michelle Marchese for bringing this creative possibility to me."

ULTIMATE X-MEN (2024) #1

ULTIMATE X-MEN #1 Written by PEACH MOMOKO Art and Cover by PEACH MOMOKO On Sale March 6

Visionary creator Peach Momoko reinvents mutantkind for the Ultimate age! In Japan, when a young student named Hisako Ichiki  develops armor powers, she discovers she’s a mutant—and she’s not the only one! Meet a new generation of mutants, filled with original and familiar X-Men characters. Together, they’ll learn what it means to be mutant in the Ultimate Universe as they explore their emerging powers and the startling ways they connect to folklore, legend, and magic!

“I am very honored to be a part of the new Ultimate Universe,” Momoko said. “I am very careful in delivering the unique X-Men mutant elements while still being true to my vision and voice."

"I am also very proud (and surprised) that I was given enough freedom from C.B. Cebulski and Jonathan Hickman to create a brand-new X-Men character," she shared. "It might not be the normal portrayal of a super hero…but I am excited to introduce everyone to a new chapter to my Momoko-verse.”

Check out all three covers now and experience the beginning of Marvel’s new Ultimate line when ULTIMATE UNIVERSE #1 hits stands on November 1.

Grab these comics and more at your local comic book shop! Or redeem then read your digital copy on the  Marvel Unlimited app  by using the code found in your print comic. Find and support your local comic book shop at  ComicShopLocator.com .

To read your Marvel comics digitally, download the  Marvel Unlimited app  for  iOS  and  Android  devices. Gain an expansive catalog of 30,000+ comics spanning Marvel Comics history, plus access your entire digital library including comics redeemed from print.  

Find  more schedules  and get the latest Marvel news and announcements at New York! New York Comic Con 2023 runs Thursday, October 12 through Sunday, October 15.

For all the latest Marvel news from NYCC 2023, follow along live on Marvel.com , YouTube , Instagram , X (Twitter) , Facebook , TikTok and Twitch .

The Hype Box

Can’t-miss news and updates from across the Marvel Universe!

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Witness Doom's quest for power, join Spider-Man's hunt for Morbius, discover the final secrets of the Krakoan Age, and more in this week's comics!

Celebrate 60 years of Daredevil, witness the greatest betrayal in X-Men history, and more in this week's comics!

Deniz Camp and Juan Frigeri's 'Ultimates' #1 hits stands on June 5.

Learn about 'Ultimate Black Panther' #6, 'Ultimate Spider-Man' #7, 'Ultimate X-Men' #5, and 'Ultimates' #2, all on sale this July!

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Air Force 1 x Tiffany & Co.

Air Force 1 เป็นที่รู้จักครั้งแรกในปี 1982 และสร้างนิยามใหม่ให้รองเท้าบาสเก็ตบอลตั้งแต่คอร์ทพื้นไม้ไปจนถึงพื้นคอนกรีต แถมยังเป็นสนีกเกอร์บาสเก็ตบอลคู่แรกที่ใช้ Nike Air แต่ความล้ำนวัตกรรมก็ยังต้องหลีกทางให้ความเป็นไอคอนในแนวสตรีทของรุ่นนี้