Graphic Possibilities is a research workshop in the Department of English at Michigan State University. This research workshop engages with comics through two interrelated branches, critical inquiry and engaged pedagogy, as a means of bringing together faculty and graduate students with current and burgeoning interests in comic studies. Critical inquiry manifests in any number of ways through comics, including treating comics as data, comics as scholarship, and comics as critical-making, what Stacey Robinson and John Jennings term to be a methodological approach that insists scholars engage with broader critical and cultural conversations through the act of making comics. Alongside of this, we explore how scholar-practitioners can make pedagogical interventions about/through the comics medium in an effort to develop new strategies for teaching and working with comics pedagogically.
Faculty coordinator: Julian Chambliss
Graduate Coordinators: Nicole Huff, Brittany Atkins, and Ritesh Khandelwal
FEATURED PUBLICATIONS:
Chambliss, Julian Carlos, Nicole Huff, Kate Topham, and Justin Wigard. 2022. “Days of Future Past: Why Race Matters in Metadata” Genealogy 6, no. 2: 47. https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy6020047
Topham, Kate, Julian Chambliss, Justin Wigard, and Nicole Huff. 2022. “The Marmaduke Problem: A Case Study of Comics As Linked Open (Meta)data”. KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies 6 (3):1-8. https://doi.org/10.18357/kula.225
Upcoming Events
The Legacy of Love and Rockets: A Conversation with Jaime Hernandez
Join us for an in-depth conversation with Jaime Hernandez, co-creator of the groundbreaking comic series Love and Rockets. Since its debut in 1981, Hernandez’s work—created alongside his brothers Gilbert and Mario—has reshaped the landscape of American comics, blending the DIY spirit of Southern California’s punk scene with a refined cartooning style influenced by Charles M. Schulz and Alex Toth. Over four decades, Love and Rockets has grown into one of the most significant achievements in literary comics, celebrated for its complex characters, interwoven narratives, and enduring cultural impact. Hernandez’s contributions to the medium have been recognized with the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, induction into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame, and the Aesop Book Prize for his children’s book The Dragon Slayer: Folktales from Latin America. This conversation will reflect on Hernandez’s artistic legacy, his creative process, and the ongoing influence of Love and Rockets on comics and storytelling today.
Sponsored by the Department of English Graphic Possibilities Comic Research Workshop, Chicano/Latino Studies, Department of Art, Art History and Design, and The College of Arts & Letters Engaged Pedagogy and Programming Fund Grant.
When: October 2nd @ 7:00PM
Where: Wells Hall B210/310
Free and Open to the Public
