JULIA ROUND

Julia Round (MA, PhD) is an award-winning writer and independent scholar. She is one of the founders and editors of the academic journal Studies in Comics (Intellect Books) and of the book series Encapsulations: Critical Comics Studies (University of Nebraska Press). Julia also co-organises the annual International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference, now in its sixteenth year (Brussels and online, June/July 2025). She is a Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University, UK, where she was previously Associate Professor of English and Comics Studies  (2008-2025), Head of the University's Narrative, Culture and Community Research Centre, and Programme Leader for the MA English and Literary Media course. She has also taught at University of the Arts London (Associate Lecturer, 2008-09) and Bristol University (Postgraduate Tutor, 2003-05).

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Julia's research examines Gothic, comics, and children's literature, and she has published widely in these areas and spoken at lots of international conferences and conventions. Her books include the monographs Gothic for Girls: Misty and British Comics (University Press of Mississippi, 2019), Gothic in Comics and Graphic Novels: A Critical Approach (McFarland, 2014), the co-authored Readers' Guide to Essential Criticism: Comics and Graphic Novels (Bloomsbury, 2022), and the co-edited collections Horror and Comics (University of Wales Press, 2025), Multimodal Comics (Intellect, 2024), The Routledge Companion to Literary Media (Routledge, 2023) and Real Lives, Celebrity Stories (Bloomsbury, 2014). Gothic for Girls won the 2019 Broken Frontier Award for Best Book on Comics and Julia has previously won the Inge Award for Comics Scholarship (2015) for her work on The Walking Dead. In 2024 she won the Kinnard Award for Comics Education. 

 

Julia loves using comics to bring forgotten histories and genres to life, and to explore the way the medium can engage readers and inspire confidence. She published her first short comic, 'Doll Parts' (art by Catriona Laird), in the anthology Wilma: Whatever Happened to Girls' Comics? (Inkpot, 2017), and a second story, 'The Haunting of Julia Round' (art by Letty Wilson), in the anthology Retro (Inkpot, 2018). Many more have followed, including 'Borrowed Time' (art by Morgan Brinksman) which was published in #6 of the 2000AD fanzine Sector 13  (2019), 'Hell or High Water' (art by Scott Twells) which appeared in the award-nominated anthology Anno Domini 1900 (2024), and 'The Shadow' (art by Cat Laird) which was in Uncanny Tales: Ladies Edition (2026), an anthology adapting ghost stories by understudied female writers. 

 

Julia's work focuses on highlighting marginalised comics and readerships and generating open access resources to help readers and scholars access these. You can read free extracts of lots of her work on this website and watch some of her lectures. Her award-winning book Gothic for Girls: Misty and British Comics is available from all usual outlets and mainstream booksellers. Her current project is a large edited collection with a global team, focusing on creating dialogues between understudied international comics cultures. 

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