Great news for those in New York City and nearby: Columbia University is putting on a new seminar that looks fascinating. Check out the details below.

Columbia University Libraries is proud to present "Comic New York," a two-day symposium bringing together comics creators and academics to discuss the intertwined histories of American comics and the city in which they were born: New York.

"New York has always been right at the center of the movements that have shaped American culture - and comics and graphic novels are no exception. We take our name, Columbia University in the City of New York, seriously, and we're delighted to be able to study, talk about, and collect, works from and of this city that are iconic, subversive, ambitious, grandiose, earnest, sophisticated - everything that New York is itself," Jeremy Dauber, one of the event organizers and professor at Columbia's Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, said.

A series of panels held March 24th and 25th will explore the impact New York has had on generations of comics talent, as well as the political, periodical, and underground nature of the comics themselves. The symposium, which is free and open to the public, will be hosted in Columbia's Low Library from 10 AM to 6:30 PM on Saturday the 24th and from 10 AM to 5 PM on Sunday the 25th.

The event will include a keynote address by X-Men author Chris Claremont. Claremont will engage in a conversation with renowned comic book writer and editor Louise Simonson in celebration of his recent donation of his complete archives to Columbia's Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Also in participation are comics legends Bill Griffith, creator of "Zippy the Pinhead;" MAD fold-in artist Al Jaffee; Ben Katchor, creator of "Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer" and many other picture stories; and Marvel Comics fixtures John Romita Sr. and his son, John Romita Jr.  They will be joined by other established cartoonists who continue to challenge the boundaries of the medium: Peter Kuper, Dean Haspiel, Ariel Schrag, Denis Kitchen, Emily Flake, R Sikoryak, Lauren Weinstein, and many more.

This event is organized by Professor Dauber; Danny Fingeroth, of the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art; and Karen Green, Columbia's Graphic Novels Librarian. Green began the graphic novels collection in 2005; it now numbers over 2200 titles, and serves a variety of research and teaching purposes.

The full program may be found at the symposium website: http://conferences.cdrs.columbia.edu/comicny/.  For further information, contact Karen Green at klg19@columbia.edu.