The Graphic Possibilities Podcast

In this episode, I’m joined by Owen Gottlieb. Owen is an Associate Professor of Interactive Games and Media and the Founder and Lead Research Faculty of the Initiative in Religion, Culture, and Policy (RCP) at the RIT MAGIC Center and MAGIC Spell Studios. Owen leads the Interaction, Media, and Learning Lab. The lab is focused on interventions that expand our understanding of learning, exploration,...

In this conversation I spoke with Dr. Walter Greason and Tim Fielder about “A Graphic History of Hip Hop #1.” This new comic project explore the history and impact of Hip Hop and was created in conjunction with New York City Department of Social Studies and Civics. In this conversation we learned about how the project came to be and what they hope to accomplish.

In this episode, I spoke with author Gamal Hennessy about his new Kickstarter project, a book to teach readers about the freelance comic book publishing.

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 com...

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, incl...

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 critica...

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: Rac...

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 Lio...

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 serve...

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 s...

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 U...

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 pr...

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 stor...

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 throu...

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 pr...

In this episode, we are joined by Karlos K. Hill, who spoke with the MSU community in a zoom webinar about his recent comic, The Murder of Emmett Till: A Graphic History . Karlos spoke with us about the life and legacy of Emmett; about bearing witness to and doing deep justice work to narratives of racial violence; the absolute necessity of community-engaged scholarship; and enhancing the pedagogi...

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 th...

In this episode we speak with Valentina Denzel and Sadam Issa from Michigan State University’s Graphic Narratives Network about the use of comics in language-specific and multilingual classrooms! Sadam Issa is an Assistant Professor at the Linguistics Department and Michigan State University. His research interests range from discourse analysis and sociolinguistics, to research on anxiety in the c...

In this episode, which we recorded back in November of 2020, we speak with Eric Berlatsky and Sika Dagbovie-Mullins, co-editors of the edited collection “Mixed-Race Superheroes” from Rutgers University Press. 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,...

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 t...

Episode 7: "Will Kent" (April, 2021) 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 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 regard...

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 designi...

In this episode, Ronny, Julian, and Justin speak with Professor Elizabeth LaPensée about her work creating, illustrating, and writing Indigenous comics and games. We talk with Beth about the graphic power of Deer Woman, the importance of being seen and seeing ones identity represented in comics, and practices of critical-making with students.  Elizabeth LaPensée is an award-winning designer,...

In this episode, we speak with Tim Fielder, who is an Illustrator, concept designer, cartoonist, and animator born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and raised in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He has a lifelong love of Visual Afrofuturism, Pulp entertainment, and action films. He holds other Afrofuturists such as Samuel R Delany, Octavia Butler, Pedro Bell, and Overton Lloyd as major influences. Tim has worked o...