The Graphic Possibilities Podcast

In this episode of the Graphic Possibilities Podcast, we return to our audio commentary on comics. We turned to Dr. Christina Knopf for this commentary to learn about comics and politics. Dr. Knopf specializes in political communication. She is a rhetorician and sociologist studying the rhetoric of the popular arts - comics, cartoons, letters, films, animations, and shows - for what and how it communicates about our social-political reality. Her work particularly focuses on depictions of war and the military and of politics and campaigns, with an interest in concerns of gender, race, health, community, and civic engagement. Her book, Politics in the Gutters: American Politicians and Elections in Comic Book Media, was published in 2021 by the University Press of Mississippi. Politics in the Gutter make clear the assertion that politic intersecting with comics is a recent occurrence is wrong. Instead, she demonstrates how politics and comics have been and continue to be in dialogue. The audio commentary provides an important overview for those looking to learn more about this important subfield of comic studies. You can find more bibliographies by visiting the Graphic Possibilities Comic Research Guide available through the MSU Library.

Dr. Lonny J. Avi Brooks is an associate professor in communication at California State University, East Bay. As the Co-Principal Investigator for the Long Term and Futures Thinking in Education Project, he has piloted the integration of futures thinking into the communication curriculum. As a leading voice in Afrofuturism, Brooks contributes prolifically to the field through diverse mediums, including numerous journals, book chapters, conferences, exhibitions, and festivals in the United States and worldwide. He is a co-creator alongside Ahmed Best and Jade Fabello of Afrorithm Futures Group, an afrofuturist story collective and consultancy that creates tools to empower corporations, educational institutions, and individuals to imagine new, more equitable, and inclusive visions of the future.

In this conversation, we talk about his views on Afrofuturism as a community practice, especially in light of his research on foresight and developing tools to create new future visions.  Dr. Brooks is one of the featured interviews in Afrofantastic: The Transformative World of Afrofuturism, a new documentary available at pbs.org. 

In this episode, we spoke with Dr. Tobias c. van Veen. 

Dr. van Veen is Visiting Scholar at the ReImagining Value Action Lab at Lakehead University and Visiting Professor in Humanities at Quest University. He holds a doctorate in Philosophy and Communication Studies from McGill University. His transdisciplinary research and teaching address the philosophy of race, sound, and technology in critical media studies. 

He has published widely on Afrofuturism, posthumanism, and electronic dance music cultures (EDMC). tobias is lead editor of the “Black Lives, Black Politics, Black Futures” special issue of TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies (2018), editor of the Afrofuturism special issue of Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture (2013), and co-editor of the Journal’s special issue “Echoes from the Dub Diaspora” (2015). 

In 2020 he launched the Afrofuturist Studies & Speculative Cultures series on Lexington Books. A sound/media artist, filmmaker, and tactical turntablist since 1993, tobias has exhibited and curated interventions, events, and broadcasts worldwide. An award-winning broadcaster and photojournalist, tobias hosts the Other Planes: Afro/Futurism podcast on CreativeDisturbance.org and curates the sound-art label IOSOUND.ca.

In our conversation, we delve into the history of Afrofuturist sound and the vital impact of Detriot Techno in that history.

In this episode I talk with Dr. Qiana Whitted. Qiana Whitted is professor of English and African American Studies at the University of South Carolina. A graduate of Hampton University with a PhD from Yale University, her research and teaching focus on Black literary and cultural studies, and American comics and graphic novels. She is the author of the 2020 Eisner Award-winning book, EC Comics: Race, Shock, and Social Protest, the 2009 book, “A God of Justice?”: The Problem of Evil in Twentieth-Century Black Literature, and co-editor of the 2012 essay collection on Comics and the U.S. South. Rutgers University Press will publish her newest collection, Desegregating Comics: Debating Blackness in the Golden Age of American Comics, on May 12, 2023. Dr. Whitted is also the editor of Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society. 

In this conversation, we talk about her views on Afrofuturism in comics, especially in light of her research on EC Comics and how speculative stories involving the black experience shape our collective understanding of this notable comic publisher.

We speak with Dr. Michael Dando in this episode about comics, hip-hop, and education. Dando is a multicultural education scholar focusing on hip-hop culture and the representation of self. In collaboration with Professor John Jennings (writer) and artist David Brame, Dando has revived Lion Man, one of the characters in All Negro Comic #1, created in 1947 by Orrin Cromwell Evans.  The new Lion Man comic offers a new generation of readers a chance to follow the adventures of the seminal black comic character.  In this conversation, we explored his vision of the transformative potential for Afrofuturism and how those ideas can inspire youth and transformation education.

In this episode, we spoke with the award-winning screenwriter, producer, and graphic novelist Rodney Barnes. Barnes has established himself as a creative force in Hollywood, working on projects such as The Boondocks on Adult Swim and Wu-Tang: An American Saga on Hulu. Barnes's writing credits include Marvel/Hulu series Runaways and Starz's American Gods.  In addition, Barnes currently serves as the executive producer for HBO's Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.  

Beyond television, Barnes has written extensively for comics. Killadelphia debuted from Image Comics in 2019. Written by Barnes with art by Jason Shawn Alexander, this story of a homicide detective turned vampire hunting former President John Adams features insightful political commentary and dynamic drama. Barnes founded Zombie Love Studios, a graphic novel production studio dedicated to telling horror and suspense stories. His latest project Blacula: The Return of the King, is a modern retelling of the classic Blaxploitation film.  

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Chesya Burke. Burke is an Asst. Professor of English and U.S. Literature. Having written and published over a hundred fiction pieces and articles within science fiction, fantasy, comics, and horror, her academic research focuses primarily on the intersections of race, gender, and genre. Her primary areas of study are African American literature, race and gender studies, comics, and speculative fiction.   

As a part of our continuing engagement with the Graphic Possibilities Open Educational Resource (OER), the Graphic Possibilities Research Workshop (GPRW) is reaching out to comic scholars to provide audio commentary about vital conversations linked to comics.  In this episode, Dr. Anna Peppard offers an overview of sexuality in American Comics. Peppard has a Ph.D. in Literature from York University. She is an adjunct lecturer and former Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada postdoctoral fellow in the department of Communication, Popular Culture, and Film at Brock University. She has studied representations of race, gender, and sexuality within a variety of popular media genres and forms, including action-adventure television, superhero comics, professional wrestling, and sports culture.

In this episode, Dr. Julian Chambliss speaks with Curt Pires about New America, his newest Comixology original. Pires is a bestselling writer, producer, and creative that splits his time between Calgary, Canada and Hollywood. He is the creator of several Comixology originals, including YOUTH, LOST FALLS, and MEMORIA. He is the founder of TECC CONTENT, a vertically integrated publishing and production house.

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Rachel Marie-Crane Williams, the newly-minted Dean of the Division of Liberal Arts at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA). She is the author of Run Home If You Don’t Want to Be Killed: The Detroit Uprising of 1943 (2021) and Elegy for Mary Turner: An Illustrated Account of a Lynching (2021). What has she learned about telling the story of race in the United States through comics? What lessons can we take from her experience in the classroom? In this conversation, we ask Professor Williams to reflect on using comics to tell stories about race and social justice.

You can find more about Dr. Williams' work here: http://rachelwilliams.squarespace.com/ 

As always, check out more Graphic Possibilities content here: https://graphicpossibilities.hcommons.org/

We are excited to be speaking with Marek Bennett, who joined us to speak about his contributions to the comics anthology Turner Family Stories: From Enslavement in Virginia to Freedom in Vermont, as well as some of his recent and upcoming comics projects!

Marek Bennett is a New Hampshire-based based cartoonist, musician, and educator , who leads discovery-based Comics Workshops for all ages throughout New England and the world beyond!  His comics work includes the Daisy Turner book, the graphic novel series, The Civil War Diary of Freeman Colby, as well as drawing, translating, & editing for The Most Costly Journey (2021) with the bilingual El Viaje Project. His crowd-funded cartoon travel memoirs include Sharjah Sketchbook (2020) and SLOVAKIA: Fall in the Heart of Europe (2013).

Marek is currently running a kickstarter for Freeman Colby volume three that runs until June 3rd. Go find it over at kickstarter.com, and stay tuned to the end of the episode for a preview from Marek himself!

Kickstarter link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/marekbennett/the-civil-war-diary-of-freeman-colby-vol-3-1864 

We are proud to present the first episode in a short series of interviews with cartoonists who worked on the comics anthology Turner Family Stories: From Enslavement in Virginia to Freedom in Vermont. Edited by Jane Beck and Andy Kolovos, this anthology presents some stories from Daisy Turner, a black woman born in Vermont in 1883. Working with six New England cartoonists Turner Family Stories presents two of Daisy’s accounts from the life of her father, Alec Turner, by Marek Bennett and Joel Christian Gill, and two stories from Daisy’s own life by Francis Bordeleau and Lilllie Harris. The comics adapted from Daisy’s interviews are linked together through a story by Grafton native Ezra Veitch, based on a childhood encounter he and a friend had with Daisy one afternoon. Center for Cartoon Studies graduate Robyn Smith drew the volume’s cover. The book also features a Foreword by Gretchen Gerzina, Introduction by Graphic Possibilities’ own Julian Chambliss (!) and a Preface by Jane Beck.

P.S. Thanks for y'all's patience in the gap between episodes. Graphic Possibilities has been BUSY this Spring!! 

We are proud to present the first episode in a short series of interviews with cartoonists who worked on the comics anthology Turner Family Stories: From Enslavement in Virginia to Freedom in Vermont. Edited by Jane Beck and Andy Kolovos, this anthology presents some stories from Daisy Turner, a black woman born in Vermont in 1883. Working with six New England cartoonists Turner Family Stories presents two of Daisy's accounts from the life of her father, Alec Turner, by Marek Bennett and Joel Christian Gill, and two stories from Daisy's own life by Francis Bordeleau and Lilllie Harris. The comics adapted from Daisy's interviews are linked together through a story by Grafton native Ezra Veitch, based on a childhood encounter he and a friend had with Daisy one afternoon. Center for Cartoon Studies graduate Robyn Smith drew the volume's cover. The book also features a Foreword by Gretchen Gerzina, Introduction by Graphic Possibilities' own Julian Chambliss (!) and a Preface by Jane Beck.

So, with that introduction, we’re excited to be speaking with Joel Christian Gill today!

Joel Christian Gill is a cartoonist and historian who speaks nationally on the importance of sharing stories. He is the author of the acclaimed memoir Fights: One Boy's Triumph Over Violence cited as one of the best graphic novels of 2020 by The New York Times and for which he was awarded the 2021 Cartoonist Studio Prize. He wrote the words and drew the pictures for Fast Enough: Bessie Stringfield’s First Ride and the award-winning graphic novel series Strange Fruit: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History, as well as 3 volumes of Tales of The Talented Tenth, which tell the stories of Bass Reeves, Bessie Stringfield, and Robert Smalls. He is currently at work on the graphic novel of Ibram Kendi's National Book Award-winning Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, forthcoming from Ten Speed Press in 2023. Gill has dedicated his life to creating stories to build connections with readers through empathy, compassion, and, ultimately, humanity. He received his MFA from Boston University and his BA from Roanoke College.

Karlos K. Hill is an associate professor and chair of the Clara Luper Department of African and African-American Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oklahoma. He is a community-engaged scholar and historian of the history of lynching, racial violence, and their legacies in the black experience.

Hill has helped create an infrastructure to help provide high-level training on teaching the Tulsa Race Massacre through the annual Tulsa Race Massacre Oklahoma Teachers Summer Institute. Several hundred Oklahoma educators have participated in the summer institute, impacting thousands of middle school and high school students.

Hill is the author of three books, Beyond the Rope: The Impact of Lynching on Black Culture and Memory, The Murder of Emmett Till: A Graphic History and The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre: A Photographic History, which will be released in March. He is a board member for the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission, the Clara Luper Legacy Committee, and the Board of Scholars for Facing History and Ourselves.

You can find out more about his work at his personal website.

In this episode Julian and Justin are joined by guest host Dr. Gordon Henry to speak with comics creators Alina Pete, who is Nehiyaw (Cree) and Kel McDonald about their new comics Kickstarter, The Woman and the Woods and Other North American Stories: an all-new anthology of fantastic comics inspired by original North American folktales―from the thrilling tale of Chokfi the trickster rabbit, to the stirring story of the White Horse Plains― as told by Indigenous creators.

We talk with Alina and Kel about the significance of bringing together an all-Indigenous group of creatives, as well as the necessary responsibilities in faithfully following storytelling protocols set down by each group. Then, Gordon and Alina speak to the tension between literature and oral traditions over who gets to tell the stories and which stories, before getting into how comics offer ways of representing these storied beings who travel with these stories -- especially when some of these storied beings can never be named. We hear from Kel and Alina about the power of graphic narratives to reach kids and educators, and to bring authentic folktales to unfamiliar audiences through visually representing diverse populations. AND, while we were recording, the Kickstarter reached a significant milestone: $80,000! At time of posting (9am), the Kickstarter is live for two more weeks and ends on September 10th, 2021 at 11:59pm (and it's nearing $90,000!). Go check it out! 

Alina Pete is a Cree artist and writer from Little Pine First Nation in western Saskatchewan. They are best known for their Aurora award-winning webcomic, Weregeek (weregeek.com), and for their Shuster-nominated anthology, Life Finds a Way. Alina also writes short stories, poems and RPG supplements, and their work has been featured in several comic anthologies, including Moonshot Volumes 2 & 3.

Kel McDonald has been working in comics for over a decade—most of that time has been spent on their webcomic Sorcery 101. More recently, they have organized the Cautionary Fables and Fairytales anthology series while contributing to other anthologies like Dark Horse Presents, Smut Peddler, and Sleep of Reason. They have also worked on Buffy: The High School Years. They recently finished their creator-owned series, Misfits of Avalon, and the Eisner-nominated Stone King. They're currently working on their self-published series, The City Between. Their work can be found at  kelmcdonald.com.

Guest host Gordon Henry is an enrolled member of the White Earth Anishinaabe Nation in Minnesota. Dr. Henry is also a Professor in the English Department at Michigan State University, where he teaches American Indian Literature, Creative Writing and the Creative Process, in Integrative Arts and Humanities. He serves as Senior Editor of the American Indian Studies Series (and the series sub-imprint Mukwa Enewed) at Michigan State University Press. Under his editorship the AISS has published research and creative work by an array of scholars, working in a variety of disciplines, related to the larger field of American Indian Studies.

Eric Berlatsky is Professor of English, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, and Director of the PhD in Comparative Studies at Florida Atlantic University. He is the author of  The Real, The True, and The Told: Postmodern Historical Narrative And The Ethics of Representation  (The Ohio State University Press, 2011), and is the editor of  Alan Moore: Conversations  (University Press of Mississippi, 2012). He has also authored or co-authored articles on The Flash, Black Lightning and Moon Girl, Ms. Marvel, Superman, Spider-Man (and the villain Vermin), Watchmen, Posy Simmonds' Gemma Bovery, Hanif Kureishi's The Black Album, Dickens' David Copperfield, Paul Auster's Ghosts, narrative frames, and other stuff, most of which found its way into the books.

Sika Dagbovie-Mullins is associate professor in the Department of English at Florida Atlantic University where she specializes in modern and contemporary African American Literature and Critical Mixed Race Studies. She is author of Crossing B(l)ack: Mixed Race Identity in Modern American Fiction and Culture (U of Tennessee P, 2013) and co-editor of Mixed-Race Superheroes (Rutgers UP). Her articles have appeared in journals such as African American Review, The Journal of Popular Culture, and Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender, and the Black International.

Buckle in for the latest installment of the Graphic Possibilities Podcast, a double-length episode with Brandon Easton! 

We got to hear about Brandon's experiences teaching comics within the NYC public school system, along with some lessons on visual literacies and strategies that Brandon deployed to meet students where they are at with intentional text selection. Brandon enlightened us on the challenges in writing non-fiction comics, particularly true crime comics and biographical ones vs storytelling through long-standing pop culture properties. Lastly, Brandon gives us sneak previews of his upcoming work on Mister Miracle and Shilo Norman, his experiences within the comics industry, and leaves us with the imperative to get out there and MAKE. Give this one a listen! 

Bio: Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Brandon attended Ithaca College and then earned his MFA in Screenwriting at Boston University. After teaching U.S. History and Economics in NYC public schools, Brandon relocated to Los Angeles and broke into the TV writing scene with the Warner Bros. Animation 2011 reboot of THUNDERCATS followed by TRANSFORMERS: RESCUE BOTS. His original graphic novel SHADOWLAW won the 2013 Glyph Award for Best Writer, and Brandon was also nominated for an Eisner Award for the African-American inspired WATSON AND HOLMES graphic novel. Brandon is currently on the writing team of the STAR TREK: YEAR FIVE graphic novel series from IDW Publishing and a writer for the DC COMICS FUTURE STATE: SUPERMAN event series released in January 2021. Brandon has been announced as a writer for a variety of upcoming DC series including MISTER MIRACLE: THE SOURCE OF FREEDOM, SUPERMAN: TRUTH & JUSTICE, SUPERMAN: RED AND BLUE and BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT. More of his work can be found on his twitter

Texts & creators mentioned: John Burger, War of the Worlds, Naruto/One Piece, Dragon Ball Z, Ziggy, Spider-Man Noir, Jeffrey Thorne, Brandon Thomas, Robert Roach, Kevin Grevious

In this episode, Julian, Justin, and Nicole speak with Will Kent, the Wikidata Program Manager at Wiki Education. Will enlightened us about the uses, extensions, and applications for Wikidata, but also the critical need for open-access repositories of data -- like Wikidata. We also hear from Will about some entry and higher-level Wikidata pedagogical activities in the classroom. Following up on his talks with Graphic Possibilities, Will tells us about some really incredible groups working with Wikidata, including Black Lunchtable and Women in Red, collectives that are engaging with Wikipedia to enact discursive action by reclaiming digital spaces and recovering erased voices of black artists and women, respectively. Finally, we ask Will the big question: "How does working with Wikidata further our understanding of something we're working on?"  To our surprise, Will has three answers right away -- listen in to find out what he has to say, and join us on April 22nd, 2021 for our follow-up Wikidata event!

Pedagogical links:

Black Lunchtable

Women in Red project

Scottish Witches

Wikiproject Comics

WikidataCon 2019

In this episode, Justin and Nicole speak with the MSU Comics Forum Keynote Scholar: Professor Deborah Elizabeth Whaley. Professor Whaley joined us for a conversation about her recent book, Black Women in Sequence, particularly the precarious-but-powerful relationship between fandoms, creators, and critics in regards to manga. We hear from Professor Whaley about her creative pedagogies with regards to critical-making in the classroom, and the significance of offering new approaches to teaching not only for students, but for ourselves as educators. Following up on her successful graduate research workshop with the MSU English Department, Professor Whaley enlightens us with some accessible entry-points into digital exhibitions and digital humanities. Finally, we end up geeking out about Stephen King's Dark Tower series, and look ahead to some of Professor Whaley's myriad projects, including the forthcoming Keywords for Comics Studies that she has co-edited with Ramzi Fawaz and Shelby Streeby. 

Deborah Elizabeth Whaley is an artist, curator, writer, poet, and Professor at the University of Iowa. From 2017-2020, she served as Senior Scholar for Digital Arts and Humanities where she was an ambassador and liaison for the digital humanities, as well as director of the Public Digital Humanities graduate certificate. Currently, she is an administrative fellow in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Office of the Dean. Her recent and critically acclaimed book is Black Women in Sequence: Re-inking Comics, Graphic Novels, and Anime(2015); it explores graphic novel production and comic book fandom, looking in particular at African, African American, and multiethnic women as deployed in television, film, animation, gaming, and print representations of comic book and graphic novel characters.

In this episode, Justin speaks with PhD Candidate Daniel Fandino about his work conducting archival research with Japanese-American popular culture, particularly as these ideologies manifest in both Japanese and American comics. Justin talks with Daniel about his experiences participating in the 2020 HistoryMakers Fellowship workshop during Summer 2020, and discusses his accordion model of designing lesson plans utilizing the HistoryMakers video archive. Comics and creators mentioned: The Umbrella Academy, New Mutants, Strange Academy, and We Only Find Them Where They're Dead.

Assembling the Marvel Cinematic Universe can be found here.

You can find out more about The HistoryMakers here.

LEADR at MSU

CHI Fellowship at MSU

Tokyo 6420

Find more of Tim's work at his website.

Intro/Outro music is "Happy Level" by SketchyLogic. Their work can be found here.