Blog
Drawing a Dialogue, Episode 62: Class Consciousness
Cathy G. Johnson
Using a Marxist lens, remus and Cathy discuss class consciousness in the comic book industry. remus talks about class under Capitalism, sharing definitions of the proletariat, bourgeoisie, and the petite bourgeoisie.
Read MorePromoting Literacy with Comic Art Education
Cathy G. Johnson
Comic art education is an incredibly effective tool to promote literacy in young people. In this post, I explain the importance of both reading and visual literacy, and then share a lesson plan idea titled “Adaptation.”
Read MoreDrawing a Dialogue, Episode 61: Professional Practices in Comics
Cathy G. Johnson
Cathy and remus catch up after a summer break! Cathy shares the details of her career transition into more higher ed teaching, including her new courses in the Visual Narrative MFA program at Boston University. She then goes into depth about her new Professional Practices class at the Center for Cartoon Studies. What are the professional skills that cartoonists need in 2025? How can we reevaluate our relationship to “success”? What do comics students actually need to know??
Read MorePhotos: Comics are Liberation! Keynote Speaker at Rhode Island Library Association Conference
Cathy G. Johnson
This past May I was honored to visit the Rhode Island Library Association Conference as their Keynote Speaker! It was a pleasure to meet so many amazing library professionals and talk about the incredible power that comic books are able to offer young people.
Read MoreDrawing a Dialogue, Episode 60: What's up With AI?
Cathy G. Johnson
On this episode of Drawing a Dialogue, remus and Cathy discuss AI technologies. What is the history of artificial intelligence? What are the current conversations surrounding AI, and what is it actually capable of?
Read MoreFreedom to Read Rhode Island has PASSED!
Cathy G. Johnson
The Freedom to Read legislation has passed in the state of Rhode Island! Back in March I had the pleasure of speaking at a press conference in support of passing the bill.
Read MoreDrawing a Dialogue, Episode 59: The Studentcast!
Cathy G. Johnson
The students speak out! Cathy interviews the Boston University Visual Narrative MFA graduating class of 2025. George, Joy, Francis, Sam and Jade share what it’s like to be a student in a comic masters program, important lessons they learned, and what future comics students should know. And most importantly…what’s Cathy actually like as a teacher??
Read MoreComics are Liberation! Keynote Speaker at Rhode Island Library Association Conference!
Cathy G. Johnson
I am proud to share that I will be the keynote speaker at the Rhode Island Library Association Conference 2025! My speech is titled “Comic Books are Liberation!,” and I’ll be addressing the incredible power of teaching comic book making to children.
Read MoreComic Workshop at the Providence Public Library!
Cathy G. Johnson
Last year I had the pleasure of teaching a 4 week-long comic drawing workshop series at the Providence Public Library, and I’m so happy to be returning again this year!
Read MoreMy Teaching Philosophy for the Art Studio
Cathy G. Johnson
Art education is a liberatory practice. When I teach, I want my students to discover. Through their art materials, students are observing, deeply engaging with the world around them. My students are documenting every detail of their subject, to ultimately know the world on an intimate level. Creating is a living memory, chronicling our past with breathing images.
Read MoreVisual Narrative MFA at Boston University, Class of 2025
Cathy G. Johnson
For the second year, I had the pleasure of teaching a wonderful group of grad students in Boston University’s new Visual Narrative MFA program! This year I taught Thesis and Concept Studio courses, so we worked together all year developing final thesis projects.
Read MoreDrawing a Dialogue, Episode 58: Freedom to Read RI
Cathy G. Johnson
Cathy recently spoke at the Rhode Island state house in a press conference supporting the Freedom to Read Act in Rhode Island. The legislation is meant to address book bans and censorship for libraries, schools, readers and creators. On this episode of Drawing a Dialogue, remus and Cathy discuss the bill, its history, and its future.
Read MoreFreedom to Read Rhode Island
Cathy G. Johnson
I recently spoke at a press conference in the Rhode Island statehouse to lend my voice in support of the Authors Against Book Bans Rhode Island chapter and the new legislation for the Freedom to Read in Rhode Island.
Read MoreDrawing a Dialogue, Episode 57: Swann Fellowship and the Library of Congress
Cathy G. Johnson
remus has just gotten back from their awesome fellowship with the Swann Foundation, which supports scholarly research and writing projects in the field of caricature and cartoon. remus shares their exploration the Library of Congress, where they gathered research in the SPX collection and Gale’s Archives of Sexuality and Gender. Join us!
Read MoreDrawing a Dialogue Presents, Episode 9: Karen Czap (Trans Cartoonists in the DIY Scene #6)
Cathy G. Johnson
Karen Czap is an Ignatz Award-nominated cartoonist, author of Fütchi Perf and Four Years. Their coloring work can be found in The Breakaways, Freestyle, BUNT!, and more. Czap lives and works in Providence, RI as a member of the Binch Press / Queer Archive Works studio co-op. In this interview, we talk about the comics community, publishing with friends, conventions, and of course, the X-Men.
Read MoreLibrary Workshop at East Greenwich!
Cathy G. Johnson
Thank you so much to the wonderful East Greenwich Free Library for having me visit! We had a very fun teen comic making workshop for ages 12-18. All students were so creative and dedicated!
Read MoreWrite RI x Comic Art Ed!
Cathy G. Johnson
I will be teaching two 4-week long workshop series aimed at guiding Rhode Island teenagers through the development, writing and drawing of their own comic book stories. These workshops were developed in collaboration with Write RI and School One in Providence, Rhode Island, and will be taught both virtually and in-person. Students are invited to submit their final comic stories in a contest to be collected and printed into a state-wide anthology.
Read MoreDear Comics Students Starting Your Final Semester...
Cathy G. Johnson
Dear Comic Student, it’s time. You are arriving at your final semester of comics school. Maybe you spent all winter break working on your comic. Or maybe you meant to, and it didn’t happen. Maybe you actually did do a lot of work and it just doesn’t feel like it. Maybe it feels like you should have gotten more work done than you did. Or maybe, maybe you really did do nothing. Maybe you slept in very late, everyday. You played video games. You watched a lot of TikToks. But what this accomplished was rest. You have rested. You have filled your gas tank. And now it’s time to really get started.
Read MoreIllustrated Storytelling Group
Cathy G. Johnson
The Illustrated Storytelling Group at LitArts Rhode Island is a writing group for authors who use visual mediums to tell their stories. Focus will be on comics, graphic novels, and manga but we welcome all types of illustrated books!
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