Admission: 10$
Date: February 19, 2020 (Wed)
Time: 7PM
Location: The Center for Fiction | 15 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217

A couple weeks ago, I was invited by Professor Woolley to attend a panel containing about graphic novels that reveals more about culture, sexuality, and race – more about a more realistic term of hero, than a mythical superhero.

It was led by Joseph Illidge, an editor for DC comics and Warner Bros., interviewing comic writers and artists, such as Robin Ha, Khary Randolph. and Vita Ayala.

The interview mainly entailed about how these artists grew up drawing what everyone else was drawing in the art community. During their younger years, it was mostly about heterosexual or white culture and then one day, they realized, Why aren’t there any stories about my ethnicity, culture, or sexuality?

They spoke about how they grew as artists, some of their perspective and personal stories about why they decided to write more topical statements, such as sexism, racism or homophobia.

At the end of the interview, the artists were doing a signing for their comics and Professor Woolley nudged all the City Tech students to network and get to know the artists that were interviewed.

I’m not someone who really enjoys the action genre, so Robin Ha’s work really resonated in me. She was a Korean-American artist, so I understood her culture and the troubles she went through, and although our backgrounds were completely different, I somehow understood what sort of things she had experienced. So, I bought her book (which I also got for 10$ off because I was a part of the meeting), and lined up to meet her.

Once I got to her, I told spoke to her more on a personal level, about how I really understood where she was standing. I also managed to talk to Khary Randolph and Robin Ha about how they just push their work out on social media and they ended up giving me tips!

The day after is also an interview I am moderating with another classmate for Robin Ha, which is another networking group that I will blog about!