You are cordially invited to see Thaddeus Howze who has been asked to attend said festival at the request of the talented speaker and educator, Shawn Taylor, along with artist and comic creator, Jaimel Hemphill, and comic creator and cartoonist Murphy Milburn to speak as part of a panel during this event.

The panel is a conversation about race, comics, representation and the potentials of the graphic novel to address such challenges in modern media.

Four Color Representation: Race and the Graphic Novel

1:00 PM – 2:15 PM
There will be a subsequent event featured with Jaimel Hemphil and Shawn Taylor, where the two creators talk about the skills necessary to create a successful graphic novel.

Graphic Novel Workshop: Your Story, Your Way

2:30 PM – 4:00 PM
There is liable to be something there for anyone who is a creator, artist or writer to meet and mingle with other such creatives. The event did mention needing to bring a vaccination card and masks are required for attendees.

The event will begin promptly at 9:30 AM at:
Las Positas College, Mertes Center for the Arts (Building 4000)

3000 Campus Hill Drive, Livermore, CA 94551

Biographies

Shawn Taylor

SHAWN TAYLOR is a writer and university lecturer. He strives to engage in critical pop cartography. This has taken the form of his hosting art installations exploring ideas of media representation, to being a founding author of www.thenerdsofcolor.org. He is also one of the founders of the Black Comix Arts Festival, a festival that highlights and promotes artists on the margins of the mainstream comic book industry. Recently, he has been acting as a creative consultant to several media companies.

Jaimel Hemphill

Educated at The Academy of Art in San Francisco, Jaimel Hemphill has applied his unique style to the classic hero archetypes. Shadow, BlackJacks and Son-Lar have been with him since the age of 13, forming the lynchpins of his comic universe. Populated by diverse heroes and villains like Cyberwings, Kidogi, and The Round, Jaimel hopes that his heroes represent the best in all of us.

Murphy Milburn

MURPHY MILBURN is an Independent Cartoonist based in San Francisco, CA who creates self-published alternative comic books as well as cartoon illustrations.

Thaddeus Howse

THADDEUS HOWZE is an award-winning writer, editor, podcaster and activist creating speculative fiction, scientific, political and cultural commentary from his office in Hayward, California. Thaddeus’ speculative fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals. He has published two books, ‘Hayward’s Reach’ (2011), a collection of short stories and ‘Broken Glass’ (2013) an urban fantasy novella. He is also the creator of a series of articles called Writing Craft: Mastering the Urge to Write .

In particular, Thaddeus serves as assistant editor for SCIFI.radio, the web site you’re reading this very moment. He is aided in this task by his encyclopedic knowledge of popular media and the comic book industry in particular.

We call him the Answer Man.

-30-