{"id":20157,"date":"2021-08-26T08:27:37","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T12:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=20157"},"modified":"2021-08-26T08:38:57","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T12:38:57","slug":"mice-comics-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2021\/08\/26\/mice-comics-2\/","title":{"rendered":"MICE Comics Expo Highlights Massachusetts Creators"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pictured above: MICE Comics Expo in the Before Times. (\u00a9Greg Cook 2019)<\/em><\/p>\n

After MICE (the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo)<\/a> was cancelled last year to stem the spread of covid, the free annual comics expo returns with a Mini-MICE outdoor marketplace highlighting 64 Massachusetts creators outdoors at Starlight Square at 84 Bishop Allen Drive in Cambridge\u2019s Central Square on Aug. 28 and 29, from noon to 4:30 p.m. There\u2019s a different exhibitor roster each day. The artists\u2019 creations have ranged from Sponge Bob to independently produced zines (mini comics, as the artists call them) about elves and monsters, adolescent adventures and queer pride. Here are some comics to check out:<\/p>\n

\n
\"From<\/a>
From Liz Bolduc\u2019s “Cast Pearls Before Swine.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Liz Bolduc<\/a>\u2019s autobiographical comics have spoken about the pain of growing up, a grandmother getting cancer, waitressing, and managing it all.<\/p>\n

\n
\"From<\/a>
From Barrington Edwards’s “The Legend of Dr. Yakoob.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As Barrington Edwards<\/a> and Cagen Luse<\/a>, whose \u201cLunchTime ComiX\u201d is published in DigBoston, have been drawing their own comics, they\u2019ve also been working to support other creators of color, through workshops, meet-ups and, last spring, organizing the first \u201cBoston Comics in Color Festival.\u201d \u201cThe comics world, as most of the world, has been white-male-dominated. We grew up on these comics and we loved them, but there was really only one perspective given,\u201d Luse told The Bay State Banner<\/a>. \u201cWe wanted to amplify voices, we wanted to create more artists and storytellers of color in the comic medium.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"\u201cStrange<\/a>
\u201cStrange Fruit: Volume II\u201d by Joel Christian Gill. (Fulcrum Books)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Joel Christian Gill<\/a> has been bringing attention to African American history through his nonfiction comics. \u201cWe\u2019ve lost our empathy. We\u2019ve lost our ability to look at somebody else and feel like them,\u201d Gill told me in 2018<\/a>. \u201cThis is my way of sharing bits and pieces of Black humanity so that people look at Black people not as a monolithic whole but as individuals with something to contribute.\u201d In his graphic novel memoir “Fights” he told his own story about facing bullying and racism and sexual abuse while growing up. The New York Times called it one of the \u201cBest Graphic Novels of 2020,\u201d<\/a> saying, \u201cGill shows how comics can be a powerful medium for articulating violence without replicating it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"From<\/a>
From “Dias de Consuelo” by Dave Ortega. (Courtesy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dave Ortega<\/a>\u2019s \u201cDays of Consuelo\u201d recounts his family\u2019s story of three generations of Mexican women navigating the tumultuous years of the revolution and subsequent clashes between the Mexican government and Roman Catholic Church, before immigrating into the United States. Begun as a six-issue series, he\u2019s working to collect the epic story into one graphic novel.<\/p>\n

Previously: <\/em>In \u2018Dias de Consuelo,\u2019 Dave Ortega Recounts His Grandmother\u2019s Immigration Story<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"From<\/a>
From Maria Photinakis’s “Extraordinary Times.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After the covid pandemic broke out, Maria Photinakis<\/a> began a visual diary documenting her young family\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\n
\"From<\/a>
From Ingrid Pierre\u2019s graphic novel \u201cDo Not Resuscitate.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ingrid Pierre<\/a>\u2019s graphic novel \u201cDo Not Resuscitate\u201d tells the story of a woman grieving her fianc\u00e9\u2019s death \u201cwhen he returns from the grave to live with her as a corpse.\u201d Pierre also draws a webcomic about growing up mixed-race in America called “Secret Black Woman.”<\/p>\n

\n
\"From<\/a>
From Ansis Purins\u2019s \u201cSuper Magic Forest.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ansis Purins<\/a>\u2019s new humorous comic \u201cSuper Magic Forest\u201d is part Yogi Bear, part \u201cLord of the Rings,\u201d part magic mushroom hallucination, and part ecological fable. An idiot elf, failing at gathering berries for a grand elf banquet, instead comes upon a handheld video game console accidentally left to litter the woods by humans. This sets off a comic quest to bring the device to a guardian wizard to stem humanity\u2019s corrupting influence on nature and other monsters being let loose upon the world.<\/p>\n

\n
\"From<\/a>
From Shel Reinertson\u2019s “Hot Summer Bod.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shel Reinertson<\/a>\u2019s surreal comics contemplate melting down during summer heat (literally) and preparing to go outside again after pandemic isolation.<\/p>\n

\n
\"From<\/a>
From Catalina Rufin\u2019s “Winged Feet.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Catalina Rufin<\/a>\u2019s autobiographical comics plumb awkward-funny moments of adolescence, sexuality, running cross country, dying your hair. Rufin also draws oddball adventure comics about barbarians, their unacknowledged children, and fairies.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Sarah<\/a>
Sarah Shaw\u2019s “My Brief Foray Into Contact Tracing.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You may have seen Sarah Shaw<\/a>\u2019s nonfiction comics about doing covid contract tracing and a retired nurse volunteering to administer vaccines in The Boston Globe this spring.<\/p>\n

\n
\"From<\/a>
From Karl Stevens\u2019s graphic novel \u201cPenny: A Graphic Memoir.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New Yorker cartoonist Karl Stevens<\/a>\u2019s latest graphic novel \u201cPenny: A Graphic Memoir\u201d looks at life via the philosophical, existential and ironic musings of a cat amidst clueless humans. \u201cShe makes the most out of life inside four walls, finding universes of meaning in furniture and philosophizing about the world beyond the window,\u201d The New York Times wrote<\/a> this spring.<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, nature, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, (hopefully) weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2021 or the respective creators.)<\/em><\/p>\n

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Pictured above: MICE Comics Expo in the Before Times. (\u00a9Greg Cook 2019) After MICE (the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo) was cancelled last year to stem the spread of covid, the free annual comics expo returns with a Mini-MICE outdoor marketplace highlighting 64 Massachusetts creators outdoors at Starlight Square at 84 Bishop Allen Drive in Cambridge\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14139,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,107],"tags":[191,464],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20157"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20157"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20180,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20157\/revisions\/20180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}