{"id":3265,"date":"2013-11-01T16:20:50","date_gmt":"2013-11-01T20:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bsuenglish.wordpress.com\/?p=3265"},"modified":"2018-11-12T13:13:11","modified_gmt":"2018-11-12T18:13:11","slug":"dr-debbie-mix-interviews-comic-book-author-christina-blanch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/english\/blog\/2013\/11\/01\/dr-debbie-mix-interviews-comic-book-author-christina-blanch\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Debbie Mix Interviews Comic Book Author Christina Blanch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Comic book author, graduate student, teacher, and\u00a0business owner <b>Christina Blanch<\/b> will be speaking on <b>Monday, November 4, at 7:30 in LB 125<\/b> as part of the <a href=\"http:\/\/bsuenglish.wordpress.com\/2013\/09\/25\/dr-debbie-mix-introduces-the-marilyn-k-cory-speakers-series\/\">Department of English\u2019s Marilyn K. Cory Speakers Series<\/a>.\u00a0 In advance of her talk, she agreed to answer a few questions from English Department faculty member Debbie Mix about comic books, creative writing, and scholarship.<\/em> <i><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline\">Debbie<\/span>: How did you get interested in reading and writing about comics?\u00a0 Is it challenging to think and write about something you love from an academic perspective?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline\">Christina<\/span>: I picked up a copy of Prince Valiant when I was young that my parents had. I thought it was so cool that this was a book for adults that had pictures and words. It just fascinated me. I drifted away from comics in the late teen years but found them again when I had my first child and was teaching him to read. I never really thought about using comics until I was reading a series called <i>Y: The Last Man<\/i> by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra. I was writing a lecture at the time on culture change, and in the book, all of the males on the planet die suddenly. Talk about culture change! I had always used popular culture in my teaching so using comic books wasn\u2019t a stretch. And it got the students\u2019 attention, which is something that is so important in teaching.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, it is challenging to look at comics, which I do love, from an academic perspective. Sometimes it makes me sad because I realize a book I love really sends a wrong message, but there is always something to learn\u2014good or bad. On the flip side though, analyzing comics really shows how incredibly complex the medium is and usually I end reading the books with a totally new perspective so it\u2019s like reading a completely new book. That is awesome.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline\">Debbie<\/span>: What kinds of scholarship (or what fields of study) do you draw on in your academic work on comics?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline\">Christina<\/span>: All fields, really. Luckily my Master\u2019s is in Anthropology, and we have to study everything about human culture. That\u2019s what I love about using comics\u2014you get to use everything you know. My doctorate will be in Educational Studies, which has helped me tremendously in learning how students learn, and I draw on that a lot.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline\">Debbie:<\/span> How did you come to write\u00a0<i>The Damnation of Charlie Wormwood<\/i>? Can you talk a bit about the process of writing a serialized narrative? Of collaborating on that project?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline\">Christina<\/span>: I taught in Ball State\u2019s prison program for about eight years and during that time I met one of my best friends, Chris Carr. After the program was canceled, Chris came to me and asked if I would like to write a book with him about our experiences, but from a fictional point of view. I said that I would love to create a comic about it. We found Chee, our amazing artist, and a home for it, on <a href=\"http:\/\/thrillbent.com\/\">thrillbent.com<\/a>, and with that, <i>The Damnation of Charlie Wormwood<\/i> was born. The collaboration is wonderful. Chris and I get together and create rough outlines for the story. We take turns writing the issues, and then we edit each other\u2019s work and send it to our editor, Mark Waid. Then Chee gets the script and does his magic. He is amazing. After that it goes to Troy Peteri, our outstanding letterer, then back to our editor Mark for final assembly and then up on the net on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Writing a weekly comic is a lot different that one that comes out each month. Instead of one hook, you need four. In seven or eight screens something has to happen, be resolved, and then something has to happen to keep the reader want to come back the next week. \u00a0This is both Chris\u2019s and my first comic, so talk about jumping in the deep end! But we are having a great time, and we are all so proud of our final work.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline\">Debbie<\/span>: Are there particular artists, characters, and\/or series that you think will be especially important to the future of comics?\u00a0 What comics or series do you think our readers should check out?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline\">Christina<\/span>: At the moment there are so many good comics out there it\u2019s crazy! <i>Locke and Key<\/i> (which is just wrapping up), <i>Daredevil<\/i>, <i>Saga<\/i>, <i>Hawkeye<\/i>, the <i>X-Men<\/i> books, <i>Superior Spider-Man<\/i>, <i>East of West<\/i>, and so many others are so great. New books like <i>Hinterkind<\/i>, <i>Coffin Hill<\/i>, <i>Lazarus<\/i>, <i>Velvet<\/i>, <i>Pretty Deadly<\/i>\u2014I think all of these are changing comics. The best way to decide what comics you should read is to go to your local comic book store and ask. Let them know types of movies and television shows you watch, or books you read, and they can suggest something. There is something for everyone. And of course, they should check out <i>The Damnation of Charlie Wormwood<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline\">Debbie<\/span>: Can you give us a preview of your talk?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline\">Christina<\/span>: Comics reflect culture. Since comics are immediate, with issues in series coming out once or even twice a month, the authors and artists are influenced tremendously by what is happening around them. My talk will be a tour through 75 plus years of comic books and how they can be seen as cultural mirrors.<\/p>\n<p>Please join us to hear more from Christina Blanch on <b>Monday, November 4, at 7:30 in LB 125<\/b>.\u00a0 This talk is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Comic book author, graduate student, teacher, and\u00a0business owner Christina Blanch will be speaking on Monday, November 4, at 7:30 in LB 125 as part of the Department of English\u2019s Marilyn K. Cory Speakers Series.\u00a0 In advance of her talk, she agreed to answer a few questions from English Department faculty member Debbie Mix about comic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1655],"tags":[312,390,982],"class_list":["post-3265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-community","tag-christina-blanch","tag-debbie-mix","tag-marilyn-k-cory-speaker-series"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Dr. Debbie Mix Interviews Comic Book Author Christina Blanch - Ball State English Department<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/english\/blog\/2013\/11\/01\/dr-debbie-mix-interviews-comic-book-author-christina-blanch\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dr. Debbie Mix Interviews Comic Book Author Christina Blanch - Ball State English Department\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Comic book author, graduate student, teacher, and\u00a0business owner Christina Blanch will be speaking on Monday, November 4, at 7:30 in LB 125 as part of the Department of English\u2019s Marilyn K. 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