On Thursday, May 5, SUNY Oswego campus and community members are invited to a pop-up comic book release party and minicomics festival from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in Penfield Library’s Lake Effect Café.
The free event will celebrate the release of "True Monster Comics," the spine-chilling second issue of the Politix & Comix anthology series, created by students and coordinated by Joshua Plencner, assistant professor of political science.
Attendees are welcome to bring their own refreshments, check out in-progress student minicomics projects, borrow from a community library and read comics in public, and enter to win one of three signed, ultra-limited-edition copies of "True Monster Comics."
This unique anthology project began life as an assignment in Plencner’s fall 2019 section of POL 328: "Politics and Literature" and was re-animated for students again this spring. Building on the organizing theme of “political monsters and monstrous politics,” students designed, created and submitted their own single page of original comics art that connected to “monstrosity” in some way.
“Students used this creative opportunity to dive into really serious issues, only some of which we touched on in class discussion," Plencner explained. "They totally put themselves into the work. From abortion politics to immigration and creeping nationalism, and from mental health and social media to ongoing struggles for Black liberation, the anthology submissions are amazing in the breadth of how students are thinking about what political monsters look like today, where they lurk and how we should talk about what they mean.”
During the semester students read examples of “monster theory,” or scholarship studying monsters, as well as a range of comics and graphic novels that depict monstrous politics, including several recent series from publisher Image Comics such as "The Department of Truth," "Bitch Planet" and "Bitter Root," the classic dark superhero tale "Watchmen," writer/artist Emil Ferris’s monumental graphic novel "My Favorite Thing is Monsters," and writer Bill Campbell and artist Bizhan Khodabandeh’s newly published historical graphic novel "The Day the Klan Came to Town."
As the festival highlights, Plencner’s class also focused extensively on making comics.
“All politics is about action," Plencner said. "It’s about doing things in the world. By making minicomics and zines and sharing them together, we give ourselves the chance to imagine things differently and start shaping the future we want to live in.”
For more information on the event, email joshua.plencner@oswego.edu