What: Trinity College welcomes three comic strip artists who will honor the late Will Eisner, America’s most influential comic artist. Jerry Craft, Joe T. Staton, and Andres Vera Martinez will discuss Eisner’s legacy as well as their own work at an event entitled "From Comic Strips to Comic Books to Graphic Novels." The event, sponsored by the Departments of American Studies and English at Trinity, is free and open to the public.
When: Friday, March 5, 2010 ~ 1:30 p.m.
Where: Boyer Auditorium, Albert C. Jacobs Life Sciences Center on the campus of Trinity College, 300 Summit Street, Hartford, Conn., 06106
Background:
Will Eisner (1917-2005) was America’s most influential comic artist, an artist who changed comic books, created comic strips, and is recognized at the “Father of the Graphic Novel.”
Jerry Craft is the creator of Mama’s Boyz and one of the few syndicated African-American cartoonists in the country. His award-winning comic strip has been distributed by King Features Syndicate since 1995. He has recently published his third collection of comics entitled Mama’s Boyz: The Big Picture. His illustrations have appeared in magazines, comic books, greeting cards, book covers, board games and the children’s books, Hillary's Big Business Adventure and Looking to the Clouds for Daddy. For more, visit
www.mamasboyz.com
In his thirty-year career,
Joe T. Staton has drawn some of America’s most popular comic and animation characters. He is equally at home drawing superheroes, from Green Lantern to the Huntress to his own character E-Man, humorous comics like Scooby-Doo, and serious graphic novels on topics ranging from Greek gods to educational works.
Andres Vera Martinez is a recent graduate of the MFA Illustration Program of New York’s School of Visual Arts who has already drawn one graphic novel,
Babe Ruth for the “Before They Were Famous” series of young adult books, and is developing other projects, including the graphic novel Tejano Ghost Stories and comics about his childhood, social issues, and modern adventures of Dracula. For more, visit
www.andresvera.com.
The panel is organized by Professor N. C. Christopher Couch of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Adjunct Associate Professor of American Studies at Trinity College, and will be moderated by Professor Thora P. Brylowe of Trinity’s English Department. The event is part of an annual, international celebration of Eisner’s legacy, Will Eisner Week. (www.willeisner.com/will_eisner_week).
This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Tracy Quigley at Tracy.Quigley@trincoll.edu or 860-297-2568.