Acclaimed comic creators in Arkansas in April
Local comics scholar and Henderson State University (HSU) professor Randy Duncan has sent news that some acclaimed comics creators will be visiting Arkansas this month. Duncan is well known in the field as the co-founder of the Comics Arts Conference, an academic conference that meets annually at WonderCon Anaheim and the San Diego Comic-Con International. Locally, he teaches courses at HSU on comics and has also written extensively on the subject including being co-author of the newly released Creating Comics as Journalism, Memoir and Nonfiction.
Duncan sent word that the visiting artists be taking part at events at the HSU campus in Arkadelphia and also at the upcoming Arkansas Literary Festival in Little Rock.
At HSU on April 14, Andy Warner, whose comics have focused on the Syrian crisis, will give a public lecture called Drawing Journalism: Andy Warner’s Comics. The event takes place at 12:30 p.m. in Arkansas Hall room 209.
The following day, April 15, comic artist and illustrator Sonny Liew, who will be traveling from Singapore for his visit to Arkansas, joins Warner for a comics workshop and portfolio review at 11 a.m. in the Russell Fine Arts building, room 144. The public is invited to attend the event.
On April 21, Scott McCloud, a legend in the field and author of work such as Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, Making Comics and his recent graphic novel The Sculptor, will also make a trek to the state where he will visit with HSU’s Nonfiction Comics class at 1:30 p.m. in Arkansas Hall room 207. Visitors are welcome to sit in on the class that day too.
Along with the HSU events, a few of these comics creators ( Warner and Liew) will also be part of a comics panel at the Arkansas Literary Festival on April 16.
According to the festival site, Warner “has produced nonfiction and journalism comics, including Irene 6, that have been published by the United Nations Human Rights Council, Medium, Popular Science, Showtime Network’s Years of Living Dangerously, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Buzzfeed.”
Liew’s bio on the site states that he is a “comics artist, painter, and illustrator whose work includes the New York Times bestseller The Shadow Hero and his newest work, The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye. His Malinky Robot series won the Best Science Fiction Comic Album Award.”
Cole Closser will also be part of the panel mix. He is “the author of two published graphic novels, Little Tommy Lost, nominated for a Will Eisner Comic Industry Award and featured in Best American Comics, and his most recent work, Black Rat, featured in The Globe and Mail and on The New Yorker. The panel will be at the Central Arkansas main library at 1 p.m. at 100 S Rock Street.
It’s a good month for the comics scene in Arkansas!