About Dr Simon Grennan
Dr Grennan is author of A Theory of Narrative Drawing (Palgrave Macmillan 2017) and Dispossession (one of The Guardian Books of the Year 2015), a graphic adaptation of a novel by Anthony Trollope (Jonathan Cape and Les Impressions Nouvelles 2015). He is co-author, with Roger Sabin and Julian Waite, of Marie Duval: Maverick Victorian Cartoonist (Manchester University Press 2019), Marie Duval (Myriad 2018) and The Marie Duval Archive (www.marieduval.org) and co-editor, with Laurence Grove, of Transforming Anthony Trollope: 'Dispossession', Victorianism and 19th century word and image (Leuven University Press 2015), among others.
Since 1990, he has been half of international artists team Grennan & Sperandio, producer of over forty comics and books (www.kartoonkings.com). Dr Grennan is Leading Research Fellow at the University of Chester and Principal Investigator for the two-year research project Marie Duval presents Ally Sloper: the female cartoonist and popular theatre in London 1869-85, funded by an AHRC Research Grant: Early Career (2014). www.simongrennan.com
Teaching
Doctoral Supervision and Postgraduate Teaching Director of Studies:
- PhD candidate (2014–18).
- Supervisor: two PhD candidates (2016 –19/21)
- MRes Art and Design
External Examination
- PhD Examinations: Central Saint Martins (2017), Loughborough University (2018)
- Undergraduate: Leeds Beckett University BA Fine Art (2014-18)
Research
Academic Awards
2014–16. AHRC Early Career Research Grant (£214,000 plus £6000 British Library contribution). Principal Investigator: Dr Simon Grennan (University of Chester). Co-Investigators: Professor Roger Sabin (Central Saint Martins), Dr Julian Waite (University of Chester). “Marie Duval presents Ally Sloper: the female cartoonist and popular theatre in london1869–85”. (AHRC Grant Reference AH/M000257/1).
2015. The Guardian Books of the Year. “Dispossession: a novel of few words”.
2013–15. Druwe Fund, KU Leuven (£75,000). Principal Investigator: Dr Simon Grennan (University of Chester). Co-investigators: Professor Jan Baetens (K U Leuven), Professor Ortwin de Graef (KU Leuven), Professor David Skilton (Emeritus, Cardiff University), Dr Frederik Van Dam (KU Leuven). “Dispossession: remediating a late work of AnthonyTrollope as a graphic novel”.
2008–11: Doctoral Scholarship. University of the Arts London (£39,000).
Images
1. Grennan, S, Roger Sabin and Julian Waite (2018) Marie Duval. London: Myriad Editions
2. Grennan, S. (2015) Dispossession: a novel of few words. London: Jonathan Cape
3. Grennan, S. (2018) Drawing in Drag. London: Book Works
4. Grennan, S. (2017) A Theory of Narrative Drawing. New York: Palgrave
Websites
Published Work
Monograph Publications
Grennan, S. (2017) A Theory of Narrative Drawing. New York: Palgrave
Grennan, S. (2015) Dispossession: a novel of few words. London: Jonathan Cape
Grennan, S. (2015) Courir deux lièvres. Brussels: Impressions Nouvelles
Forthcoming Monograph Publications
Grennan, S. (2018) Drawing in Drag London: Book Works
Original Databases and Resources
Grennan, S., Sabin, R., Waite, J. (2016) The Marie Duval Archive www.marieduval.org
Co-authored Publications
Grennan, S., Sabin, R., Waite, J. (2018) Marie Duval. London: Myriad Editions
Forthcoming Co-authored Publications
Grennan, S., Sabin, R., Waite, J. (2019) Marie Duval: maverick Victorian cartoonist. Manchester: University Press
Edited Publications
Grennan, S. and Grove, L. (Eds.) (2015) Transforming Anthony Trollope: 'Dispossession', Victorianism and 19th century word and image. Leuven: Leuven University Press
Chapters
Grennan, S. (2018) ‘The Marie Duval Archive’: memory and the development of the comic strip canon in Ahmed, M. and B. Crucifix (Eds.) Memory in Comics: archives and styles New York: Palgrave
Grennan, S. (2017) The Enduring Power of Comic Strips in Chorpening, K and R. Fortnum (Eds.) The Wiley Companion to Contemporary Drawing London: Wiley Blackwell
Grennan, S. (2017) The Influence of Manga on Graphic Novels in Baetens, J., Frey, H., and Tabachnick, S. (Eds.) The Cambridge History of the Graphic Novel Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Grennan, S. (2016) Failing recognition: habit, facture and imagination in the work of Andrei Molotiu and Carlos Nine. in Rommens, A. and Turnes, P. (Eds.) Abstraction and Comics. Liege: University Press of Liege.
Grennan, S. and Miers, J. (2015) ‘Dispossession’: time, motion and depictive regimes. in Grennan, S. and Grove, L. (Eds.) Transforming Anthony Trollope: 'Dispossession', Victorianism and 19th century word and image. Leuven: Leuven University Press
Grennan, S. (2014) Recognition and resemblance: facture, imagination and ideology in depictions of cultural difference in Hague, I. (Ed.) Representing multiculturalism in comics and graphic novels. London: Routledge
Grennan, S. and Skilton, D. (2014) 'Dispossession': considering drawing style, genre and register in Saltzman, E. and Tabachnick, S. (Eds.). Drawn from the Classics: Essays on Graphic Adaptations of Literary Works. New York: McFarland
Grennan, S. (2014) Competence in your own enactment: subjectivity and the theorisation of participatory art in Round, J. and Thomas, B. (Eds.) Real lives, real stories: narrative of ordinary and extraordinary people across media. Bristol: Intellect
Academic Peer Reviewed Journal Papers
Grennan, S. (2016) Misrecognising Misrecognition: the Capacity to Influence in the Milieux of Comics and Fine Art. Image [&] Narrative Issue 17.4.
Grennan, S. (2015) Arts practice and research: locating alterity and expertise. International Journal of Art and Design Education (iJADE), 34.2, P95 – 105.
Grennan, S. (2014) Drawing ‘Dispossession’: A New Graphic Adaptation of Anthony Trollope’s Novel ‘John Caldigate’. European Comic Art, Vol 7, Issue 2
Grennan, s. (2013) Register in the guise of genre: instumental adaptation in the early comics of Grennan & Sperandio. Studies in Comics, Vol. 4, Issue 1
Grennan, S. (2012) Demonstrating discours: two comic strip projects in self-constraint. Studies in Comics, Vol. 2, Issue 2
Academic Peer reviewed Conference Paper
Grennan, S. (2018) Journal serialisation and the patterning of events: Marie Duval parodies the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions of 1870, 1873, 1875, 1876, 1878 and 1880. British Association of Victorian Studies Conference, Exeter.
Grennan, S. (2018) The Comics of Marie Duval: Page, Stage and Street in 1870s London. Nordic Summer University ‘Comics and Society’, Turku.
Grennan, S. (2018) Drawing in Drag: self-observation, the dissenting subject and stylistic reformation in the production of a new pseudonymous comic album. ‘Creating Comics, Creative Comics Symposium, University of South Wales Cardiff.
Grennan, S, Ernesto Priego and Peter Wilkins (2018) Hypotactic correspondences between Tonkoma four panel manga, emotional ambiguity and story, in styling and drawing the comic ‘Parables of Care: creative responses to dementia care’. ‘Creating Comics, Creative Comics Symposium, University of South Wales Cardiff.
Grennan, S. and Roger Sabin (2018) The Marie Duval Archive: Memory and the Development of the Comic Strip Canon. Ninth International Graphic Novels and Comic Conference, Bournemouth.
Grennan, S. (2017) Language bordering depiction: Cohn’s ‘visual language’ theory contradicted by experience of the iconic sign. International Conference of Graphic Novels, Bandes Dessinées and Comics, Dundee.
Grennan, S (2017) Constrained drawing in Seth’s’ Clyde Fans Book One’. IAWIS/AIERTI Triennial Conference, University of Lausanne.
Grennan, Ian and I. Hague (2017) What happened and what happens: choice and the significance of pre-existent stories in comics and games narratives. Narrative and Alternative Stories Conference. University of Chester.
Grennan, S. Wilkins, P, Ernesto Priego (2017) Parables of Care: instrumentality, aesthetics and utility in devising a comic for dementia caregivers. Comics and Medicine Conference, Seattle.
Grennan, S and L. Hall (2017) Literary and historic ‘flâneuses’: observation, commentary, enterprise and courage in late nineteenth-century women’s professional lives. Talking Bodies Conference, University of Chester.
Grennan, S. (2016) Drawing contra enunciation: mark, body and mind in conceptions of trace and index, from Francis Bacon to Philippe Marion. iJADE conference, University of Chester.
Grennan, S. (2016) Dumping the Body: graphiation as mind, mark and trace. Seventh International Conference on Graphic Novels and Comics, Manchester Metropolitan University.
Grennan, S. and I. Hague (2016) Medium, Knowedge, Structure: capacities for choice and the contradiction of medim-specificity in games and comics. ACME Research Group Conference, University of Liege.
Grennan, S. (2016) Vision, Visulisation and Resemblance: depiction and abstraction in two comics by Nine and Molotiu. Comics in Culture Conference, Uniwersytet SWPS Warsaw.
Grennan, S. (2015) ‘Dispossession’: uses of encumbrance and constraint in visualising Trollope’s style, in a new graphic adaptation of his 1878-79 novel ‘John Caldigate’, Trollope Bicentennial Conference, KU Leuven
Grennan, S. (2015) Misrecognising misrecognition: the capacity to influence in the milieux of comics and fine art. Amsterdam Comics Conference
Grennan, S. and Sabin, R. (2015) Being at home abroad: Londoners ‘ong continong’ (on the continent) in the 19th century comics of Marie Duval, 6th Graphic Novel and Comics Conference and 9th Bande Desinee Society Conference, Paris.
Grennan, S. (2015) Journeys of the self: Marion’s partial ‘mediagenius’ and the motive reader in comparitive theories of intersubjectivity, 6th Graphic Novel and Comics Conference and 9th Bande Desinee Society Conference, Paris.
Grennan, S (2015) The facture of ‘Dispossession’: trace, colour, light and time in a new graphic adaptation of Trollope’s 1879 novel ‘John Caldigate’, Comics and Adaptation, University of Leicester.
Grennan, S., Sabin, R. and Waite, J. (2015) Depiction as comedy and truth: women’s dress in Marie Duval’s drawings for ‘Judy’ 1869 – 1885, Dressing and Undressing the Victorians, University of Chester.
Grennan, S. (2014) Rationalising practice as research: making a new graphic adaptation of a Trollope novel of 1879, League of European Research Universities SSH Group, Cambridge University.
Grennan, S. (2014) Plot, picture and practice: comics, picture books and illustrated literary fiction, Retreiving Illustration Conference, University of Agder, Norway
Grennan, S. and Hague, I. (2014) Play as narration: ‘Composition No1’ and ‘Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’ , 9th ComFor Conference, Berlin
Grennan, S. and Hague, I. (2014) It's a book! It's a game! It's 'Building Stories'! Play, Plot and Narration in Graphic Narrative, Fifth International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference, London
Grennan, S. (2014) 'Dispossession': Considering Drawing Style, Genre and Register in a New Graphic Adaptation of Anthony Trollope's 1878-79 Novel 'John Caldigate', International Association of Word and Image Studies Conference, Dundee.
Grennan, S. (2013) From time to time: the untold stories of depictive drawings, International Bande Desinée Society, University of Glasgow
Grennan, S. (2012) Empowerment requires power: absence, equilibrium and the capacity to influence in comics representations of cultural difference, Comics Forum, Leeds
Grennan, S. (2012) Demonstrating discours: two comic strip projects in self-constraint. First International Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels, Alcala de Henares
Grennan, S. (2012) Register in the guise of genre: instrumental adaptation in the early comics of Grennan & Sperandio. Third International Comics Conference, Bournemouth
Grennan, S. (2012) Drawing and adjudication: subjectivity and consensus in theory and practice. Drawing Research Network Conference, Loughborough.
Grennan, S. (2011) Demonstrating discours: two comic strip projects in self-constraint’ Comica Conference 'Transitions 2', London
Grennan, S. (2010) The story of the story: alterity, intentionality and subjectivity in comics theory and practice, paper presented to Comics Forum, Leeds
Grennan, S. (2010) Three experiments with drawing style: time and the displaced subject in comic strips, International Association for Media and Communications Research Conference, Braga
Grennan, S. (2010) Positioning style: genre and the displacement of the subject in contemporary English language comic strips, Graphic Novels and Comics Conference, Manchester
Grennan, S. (2010) Reading Seth through appropriation theory, College Art Association Annual Conference, Chicago
Conferences Organised
Grennan, S and Cheshire West and Chester City Council (2016) Light as Infrastructure. Two day international conference.
Exhibitions and Public Projects since 2014
Grennan, S and C. Sperandio (2018) Emblems ArtsNK, Sleaford.
Grennan, S and C. Sperandio (2017) The Social Fabric National Festival of Making, Burnley.
Grennan, S., Sabin, R., Waite, J. (2016) Marie Duval: Laughter in the First Age of Leisure. Guildhall Library, London.
Grennan, S., Sabin, R., Waite, J. (2016) Marie Duval: Laughter in the First Age of Leisure. Illustrative Festival, Berlin.
Grennan, S and C. Sperandio (2016) Town/House Kirkleatham Museum, Redcar.
Grennan, S and C. Sperandio (2014) Cargo Space A+D Gallery, Chicago.
Grennan, S and C. Sperandio (2014) Cargo Space Innova, Milwaukee.
Grennan, S and C. Sperandio (2014) Cargo Space Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis.
Grennan, S and C. Sperandio (2014) Cargo Space A+D Gallery, Chicago.
Qualifications
PhD. University of the Arts London (Wimbledon).