Watch When Available!YouTube: https://youtu.be/LrceWULlU-0Sabaa Tahir (
A Thief Among the Trees: An Ember in the Ashes Graphic Novel) is joined by
James Otis Smith (
Black Heroes of the Wild West),
R. Sikoryak (
Constitution Illustrated), and
David Bowles (
Rise of the Halfling King) in this discussion about graphic novel adaptations. Moderated by
Adam Kullberg (Pop Culture Classroom) and sponsored by the CBC Graphic Novel Committee.
Participants
R. Sikoryak Constitution Illustrated Cartoonist R. Sikoryak is the author of
Masterpiece Comics, Terms and Conditions, and
The Unquotable Trump. He adapts the classics for various anthologies, including
The Graphic Canon, Fable Comics, and more. His comics and illustrations have appeared in
The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Nation, The Onion, MAD, and Spon
geBob Comics, as well as on
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He's done storyboards and character designs for Augenblick Studios on various animated projects. Sikoryak teaches in the illustration department at Parsons The New School for Design and previously at The Center for Cartoon Studies. Since 1997, he's presented his live cartoon slide show series, Caro
usel, around the United States and Canada. He lives in New York City with his wife, Kriota Willberg. Constitution Illustrated is in stores next week!
Sabaa Tahir A Thief Among the Tress: An Ember in the Ashes Graphic Novel Sabaa Tahir is the author of the An Ember in the Ashes series. She grew up in California's Mojave Desert at her family's eighteen-room motel. There, she spent her time devouring fantasy novels, raiding her brother's comic book stash, and playing guitar badly. She began writing while working nights as a newspaper editor. She likes thunderous indie rock, garish socks and all things nerd. This is Sabaa's first graphic novel collaboration.
David Bowles Rise of the Halfling King David Bowles is an award-winning Mexican-American author and translator, as well as an associate professor of literature and Nahuatl at the University of Texas Río Grande Valley. He has written over 20 books, among them Feat
hered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky: Myths of Mexico and Flow
er, Song, Dance: Aztec and Maya Poetry. September will see the release of his graphic novel Ri
se of the Halfling King, which Kirkus calls "an unmissable adventure of mythical proportions." Next spring, the first volume in his steampunk graphic novel series Clockwork Curandera will drop. David's work has also been published in multiple anthologies, plus venues such as School Library Journal, Apex, Strange Horizons, Rattle, Translation Review, and the Journal of Children's Literature. In 2017, David was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters.
James Otis Smith Black Heroes of the Wild West James Otis Smith is illustrator of the graphic novel adaptation Sh
owtime at the Apollo, by music writer Ted Fox. He studied writing and film before becoming a production artist for independent movies in New York. Years of growing up reading comics had taught him how to write with both words and pictures, which was good training to become a film and video editor. Missing the straightforward honesty of ink on paper, he eventually returned to his first love, comics. In addition to the Apollo Theater history, he drew the children's book adaptation of the fantasy novel
Ancient Lands by Jason McCammon and the mature-readers cyberpunk
Gang of Fools. As a childhood fan of old serials and the classic American aesthetic, he has long hoped to reclaim those stories lost in our oversimplified telling of our own history, and expand who and what we mean when we say America.
Black Heroes of the Wild West (coming September 2020 from TOON Books) is his first book as both author and illustrator.
James Otis lives in the last apartment free of cats in Brooklyn, New York.
Moderated by
Adam Kullberg Pop Culture Classroom
Adam Kullberg is the education director and interim executive director for Pop Culture Classroom, a Denver-based nonprofit.
Sponsored by the CBC Graphic Novel Committee
