When I was looking back on 2020 in my January 2021 post, I wrote that the best decision I made was quitting my job at a multinational company in the summer of 2020 (in spite of the pandemic, etc). I was grateful for that decision each and every day of 2021. Though freelancing is hard, it is getting easier and easier to find work. I still could not support myself financially if I lived alone, but I do not live alone, and I can rely on a partner who supports my freelancing projects. All year round, I could work on projects that make sense, which is a wonderful feeling.
TEACHING
I got some teaching gigs in the spring term, and got even more in the autumn. This is fantastic, I love teaching. I have taught a history of comics class at METU, academic writing at AMFI, “Good and Evil,” a critical thinking course at Milestone, a comics making workshop at MOME, and two practical comics making and comics as thinking classes at MOME and METU. I have put some of my syllabi online, just follow the links. I will be teaching full time (though with 4 different contracts) in 2022.
INTERNATIONAL DISCUSSIONS OF COMICS
During the summer, I was asked to join the editors of the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics as the new book reviews editor. I really enjoy this work, which has allowed me to get to know some fantastic academics from all over the world.
In the summer, I was invited to take part in Lyon BD and attend the professional workshops for organizers of comics festivals. This was AMAZING! I have never been to a French comics festival before, and even with the restrictions due to COVID, I felt the love and culture of comics.
In October, I was invited to Lebanon, to speak at the American University of Beirut and to attend the Beirut Comics Art Festival. I learnt so much in Beirut and I met brilliant comics artists and students – I have posted about it on this site, too. In preparation for my trip, I interviewed Lina Ghaibeh, organizer of the festival and chair of the Arab Comics Initiative about Arab comics and about life in conflict-ridden Lebanon – link to the article on The Comics Journal. I have also written a report on the festival, here it is.
At the end of the year, I was invited to join the History in Comics Erasmus BIP project. We will organize a conference in September, 2022, so stay tuned! This is our website: historyincomics.org.
JOURNALISM IN HUNGARIAN
I continued writing to various cultural magazines and portals. This is a cause for continuous conflict in me, because these magazines and portals pay so little that if you write a good, long, well thought-out article, your wage is something like 1-2 dollars/hour. My journalistic work is collected here, and here is a list of the long and interesting things I could write about: on Alois Nebel, a cool Czech comic, report on horror in Hungary, report on conserving old paper documents, interview with writer Anita Moskát, interview with Anna Gács on memoirs.
POPULAR SCIENCE IN HUNGARIAN
I started writing about current academic topics in the field of comics studies in essays. I would like comics to be more accepted here and I would like to contribute to the canonization of comics studies as a valid academic discipline. I have written three essays: on Chabon’s Kavalier and Clay and its translation; on graphic medicine; on Paul Williams’s book on the origins of the graphic novel.
PUBLICATIONS
This year I haven’t written or published any articles in English -and that is okay. I feel I need more time to find a topic after my book – and I am still grateful every day that I could write a book and publish it with the Ohio State University Press. I published two book reviews, though.
IN 2022
I already have a number of teaching contracts and promises that I am very excited about. I am also looking forward to our meetings with the History in Comics research group, and I hope I’ll find a research topic and I start writing articles again.
I wish you the very best, creative energies, piece, long walks, friends for 2022!
- Keynote at IGNCCOne of the greatest honors of my life has been to keynote at the joint conference of IGNCC and IBDS (International Graphic Novels and Comics Conference, International Bande Dessinée Society) in Brussels on 4 July 2025.
- COMPLEX is published
THE choose your own adventure comic from the Balkans that you would not want to miss – brought to you by the Random Factor Comics Collective! - Versions of Me – Comics Anthology
Last autumn I had the pleasure to co-teach a one-week practical workshop on making comics and feminism. We exhibited and printed our comics!
Eszter Szép 