Jason Rodriguez's Blog
August 3, 2017
Yesterday we finished our month-long comic book workshop with...
Yesterday we finished our month-long comic book workshop with the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC)/Latino Youth Leadership Council (LYLC). Under the coordination of Shout Mouse Press and their story leaders, Santiago Casares, Liz Laribee, Evan Keeling, and I led a series of nine workshops aimed at teaching first-generation Latinx teenagers how to express themselves through cartooning. The end result of the workshop is a collection of cartoon memoirs about their experiences before and after coming to America. Why they immigrated, the troubles they faced, and what they want their futures to look like.
These teenagers are BRAVE. They told us stories about death, depression, struggle, and hope. They cried. We cried. And they came back every week, ready to continue the process of sharing their stories.
July 3rd was the first workshop. The teenagers invited us into their house and initiated us into their circle of trust. We each had to get up in front of them and tell them who we’ll be dedicating our work too. We each got up and talked about the people who have had profound influence in our lives and in the lives of our families. We spoke our palabra, and began the process of earning their trust.
The first week was dedicated to stories. The second week was dedicated to layouts. The third and fourth week had us moving from thumbnails to non-photo blue pencils, inks, and markers. Many of the teens lacked confidence in their drawings, at first. But, by the end, they were proud of the comics that they made. They didn’t worry about every little line, about every bit of perspective. They pushed through their fears and doubts and found ways to express themselves in tiny boxes upon tiny boxes.
On our last day, we spent about an hour in a circle again. This time, everyone got up and talked about their experiences. Everyone expressed their gratitude. When it was my turn, I looked at these teenagers and I just saw STRENGTH. I told them that I see my cousins in them, that being here feels like family. I told them how proud I was of them. I knew they all saw that I was crying, but I didn’t care. I was overwhelmed by what we accomplished as a team. By what they did week after week.
At the same time, word was coming out that Donald Trump and the GOP were enacting a plan to halve the number of immigrants who are allowed in this country. While our teens were putting final lines and text on their stories of impossible decisions and absolute courage, a handful of men were rolling out policy that would have an extreme negative impact on their lives, on their families lives, and on their friends lives.
To listen to these 16 teenagers talk about the lives they lived, and what they’ve been through - to listen as their throats became scratchy, at times, and their eyes occasionally welled up in tears - and to understand that they wanted to make their lives better AND this country better - and to hear the talk coming from our current administration yesterday…it was a lot. It was a lot to take.
We’re publishing their memoirs in 2018 through Shout Mouse Press. The book will have their comic memoirs, interviews, and biographies. You will understand their struggles and their dreams the same way we did when we were leading these workshops, and you’ll understand why the policies of the current administration are hurtful and wrong.
You can find more information on the project at this link: http://www.shoutmousepress.org/layc
June 20, 2017
Latin American Youth Center
In February of 2015, Kathy Crutcher wrote me on the recommendation of friend and fellow comics editor Matt Dembicki, and asked if I’d like to do a comics workshop at the Gaithersburg Book Festival in exchange for a free table. Kathy’s email signature had her as the founder of Shout Mouse Press, a non-profit publisher that specialized in coaching teen writers, primarily from disenfranchised communities, and publishing their creations. I loved Shout Mouse’s model, and as I was packing up on my table after the book festival, I told Kathy I’d love to work with them in the future.
Later that year, in November of 2015, Kathy wrote me because she just finished reading ARISTS against POLICE BRUTALITY, the anthology I co-edited with Bill Campbell and John Jennings for Rosarium Publishing. Shout Mouse had just published OUR LIVES MATTER, a book where 30 teen authors from Washington DC wrote personal essays about race, inequality, violence, and justice against the backdrop of the #blacklivesmattermovement. Kathy and I had a drink and discussed the similarities between our books and ways that we could work together in the future.
The opportunity came in late 2016, two weeks after the Presidential Election. I just finished sending Colonial Comics: New England, 1750-1775 to my publisher and was planning Civics Tracts when Kathy wrote and asked if I’d be interested in participating in a project where first-generation Latinx teens would speak back to the current political climate by telling their personal stories in comic book form. I was on board from the start and started putting together my comics team.
Liz Laribee and I met with Kathy in December. We brought Evan Keeling and Santiago Casares on shortly after. We found a partner in the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) and submitted a grant application to the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. The grant was approved, and starting in July we’ll be running a series of 8 comic-making workshops for a book that will be released in early 2018.
I’m very proud to be working with this team. We all met for the first time last night, and the amount of passion and energy in the room was infectious. We’re all coming together with the mission to help 18 young teenagers, young LEADERS, tell their stories of why they came to America, their hopes and dreams, and the problems they deal with day-to-day.
Workshops begin July 3rd. The book is set to be published in early 2018. Please follow the attached link for updates on the project. And thank you, as always, for your continued support.
June 13, 2017
Washington DC! I’ll be on two panels this year at Awesome...
Washington DC! I’ll be on two panels this year at Awesome Con.
On Saturday June 17th @ 12:30PM I’ll sit with Arsia Rozegar and Carolyn Belefski to talk about my experiences with Kickstarter, primarily with my recent project THE LITTLE PARTICLE THAT COULD. This board book about particle physics (written by me, illustrated by Noel Tuazon, colored by Rob Croonenborghs, lettered by Jason Hanley, and with a cover by Dylan Todd) was originally asking for $4.5k and went on to raise $11.5k. I’ll be talking a lot about the marketing I put into the project, scaling to well above my expectation, and fulfilling rewards, I’m sure.
And then at 3:30PM on Saturday I’ll be moderating a panel on using comics to tell the history of DC. I did a short on the 1865 Washington Nationals for DISTRICT COMICS, but mainly I’m gonna sit back and let editor of DISTRICT COMICS and reDISTRICTED, Matt Dembicki, talk about his projects along with Jane Freundel Levey, managing editor of Washington History and consulting curator for the new George Washington University Museum, Rick Rosendall, immediate past president of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, and Mary Ann Zehr, English teacher at the Francis L. Cardozo Education Campus
If you’re around, come on by! I won’t have a table at the show this year but I will have some copies of THE LITTLE PARTICLE THAT COULD and COLONIAL COMICS with me if you want to buy some, guerrilla style.
May 2, 2017
#TransformiveEd:Exploring Difficult Subjects through Comics
COLONIAL COMICS will be represented at this year’s American Alliance of Museums’ Annual Conference in St. Louis! #TransformiveEd: Exploring Difficult Subjects through Comics will discuss how museums can use comics to present and explain some of the difficult subject matter from their collections. Colonial Comics editor Jason Rodriguez will join:
- Evan Keeling, cartoonist and Smithsonian exhibit specialist,
- Jenny Robb, curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum,
- Rafael Medoff, director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, and
- Lawrence-Minh Davis, curator of the Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American Studies Center
in a panel moderated by Liz Laribee, Colonial Comics II contributor and the cartoonist behind Amira in America, a comic book and reference guide on refugee resettlement.
If you or anyone you know will be at #AAM2017, stop on by the Forces of Change track on Tuesday May 9 10:30-11:45 am!
Additionally, there will be two comics workshops at the show lead by Evan Keeling! CFM Lounge: Imagining Comics Futures Workshop on Monday, May 8, 2-3 PM and Tuesday, May 9, 2-3 PM. I’ll be hanging around the workshops, most likely, making some comics.
February 18, 2017
Update #11:...
Update #11: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/JasonRodriguez/the-little-particle-that-could/posts/1808854, wherein my godson models his new SCIENCE LIFE tattoos and I talk about the importance of keeping our kids creative and curious.
Excerpt:
Kids have always fascinated me. They’re tiny scientists from the moment they’re born. Opening their eyes is their first experiment. Then it’s testingmuscles and neurons - figuring out how to control a hand. How to stand and how to walk and how to form words. One failed hypothesis after another; always trying a different approach to a task they’re trying to master.
It’s kind of depressing to think that we now have to assure them that, yes, science is real. Yes, climate change is real. Yes, vaccines are safe. Yes, evolution is real. These kids have spent their early years as some of the bravest scientists imaginable - sacrificing life and limb just to figure out how to pull themselves onto your lap - and we have to tell them: “Yes. Curiosity and perseverance and methodology will continue to produce observable, repeatable, and defensible results. That is a real thing, no matter how many people tell you that it isn’t.”
February 1, 2017
We’re announcing the Little Particle Street Team! Every...
We’re announcing the Little Particle Street Team! Every week I’ll be announcing new promotions that’ll get you some free swag. All you have to do is follow the instructions for that week and you’ll get that swag for FREE with your reward.
Sharing is Caring - 2/1/2017-2/7/2017: Street Team! Who wants free stickers?
The purpose of this Kickstarter is to print a book, sure - but my purpose with this book is science advocacy. And what better way to show you’re an advocate of science than with some fantastic, high-quality stickers to put on your laptop? How do you get these stickers? Simple - all you have to do is share the Kickstarter on any social media platform and send me a link to the share via the Kickstarter messaging system (here’s a handy link for you). If your share isn’t public (i.e., friends-only on Facebook), send me a screenshot of the share. If you share the link to this Kickstarter, you’ll get one sticker. If you share the link AND say a little bit about WHY you supported this book and why others should, as well, you’ll get both stickers. NOTE: This offer is only available to Street Team members who get a physical reward. It is not available to people who pledge at the $1 or $5 level.
If the project is successfully funded, these stickers will be offered as add-ons, but the Street Team gets free swag.
January 30, 2017
The Little Particle That Could
Good morning! We launched THE LITTLE PARTICLE THAT COULD Kickstarter today. Story by me, art by Noel Tuazon, colors by Rob Croonenborghs, cover by Dyan Todd, and letters by Jason Hanley.
I know there’s a lot going on right now and the question some of you may be asking is, “Why are you launching a Kickstarter?”
The answer is: because there’s a lot going on right now. Through the COLONIAL COMICS series, I’ve been able to put out nonfiction comics for middle graders/young adults that teach them about a history we’re forgetting. In the future, I’ll be co-editing the CIVICS TRACTS series to teach young adults (and a lot of adults) about the roles and history of our government. THE LITTLE PARTICLE THAT COULD represents the first step in a third track I’d like to focus on - science. Science is wonderful, and I want to help kids understand exactly how wonderful science is, because science is under attack right now.
THE LITTLE PARTICLE THAT COULD is the first step towards making difficult but fascinating science (in this case, particle physics) accessible to kids. The book is about two elementary particles who try to become friends. One is a graviton, a theoretical particle that guides the force of gravity; this invisible thing that pulls you down to earth (we say theoretical because the graviton hasn’t been found yet - we just think it exists). The other is a photon, which is the source of the electromagnetic radiation we know as light. There are a countless number of these two tiny particles all around us. We can’t see them, but one’s keeping us from floating into space and the other’s responsible for everything we see. The story follows the two particles away from earth and across the universe and into a black hole, a place where there are so many gravitons that they pull photons towards them.
If that doesn’t capture a kids imagination…I don’t know what will.
Please like, share, pledge, etc. I promise you - this is my first step in a long journey towards defending science for the sake of future generations, part of a longer journey focused on teaching our history and our government. If we have a successful KickStarter, it will go towards seeding similar projects.
This is how I want to spend, at the very least, the next four years of my life. Thank you for your support.
January 17, 2017
Hello everyone! Today is the official release date of COLONIAL...
Hello everyone! Today is the official release date of COLONIAL COMICS: NEW ENGLAND, 1750-1775. It’s a beautiful book that I’m very proud of, and all of the creators involved have done a truly wonderful job bringing to life underrepresented stories from the period.
It’s a really great book. A timely book. In an era of division and protest, it’s nice to be able to draw parallels to a time when we came together as a series of colonies to form a new country. We didn’t have all the answers then, and we have made a lot of mistakes since, but the COLONIAL COMICS series likes to celebrate the people and stories who were largely lost to our American narrative so that they can be celebrated as the heroes (and villains, in some instances) that they were.
Over on the FaceBook page (https://www.facebook.com/ColonialComics/) I’ve already shared previews from 10 of the stories, including stories about Nathan Hale’s college days, young Benjamin Franklin, Crispus Attucks and Newton Prince, Colonial-era counterfeiters, Molly Ockett, the New England triangle trade, the Stamp Act riots, and Mercy Otis Warren.
I’ll continue to post previews through Monday, as the stories get closer to the American Revolution and feature tales of grave robbers, the tea trade, civil disobedience, and a shot heard around the world.
Please feel free to share the FaceBook page (we’re approaching 500 likes!), or any individual posts on the page. Tell your local bookstore to order a copy (we’re published through Fulcrum Books and distributed through IPG), or order/share the book through Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-Comics-II-England-1750-1…/…/. If you’re interested in a review copy, please reach out to me and let me know!
Thank you all for your continued support. And don’t forget to check out the first volume in the series, COLONIAL COMICS: NEW ENGLAND, 1620-1750: https://www.amazon.com/…/dp/1938486307/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2…
November 15, 2016
Civics Tracts
It’s been a week, and I’ve done a lot of convalescing and thinking over that week and not as much posting, but now I think I’m really ready to start doing something. And that something is CIVICS TRACTS - a series of disposable comics tracts aimed at educating the public on the role and function of government and their part in this complicated machine.
My friend Chris Artiga-Oliver turned me onto this,we started a FB group, and I just posted my first information gathering post. I wanted to introduce the group on Tumblr, so that I can direct some folks to it in an effort to bring some early helpers in. Here’s a high-level look at what we’d like to do.
Jack Chick, for all of his faults, develop a publication and distribution model that worked very well. Disposable comics with a consistent format that aimed for maximum distribution and education on a topic. Of course, he was educating people on a pretty hardcore concept of Christianity, and his distribution was targeted primarily at perceived sinners, but the model was sound. We want to emulate that model, but substitute Christianity for non-partisan civics lessons and substitute perceived sinners for the people who may not understand the role and function of government. My thought is that an informed populace will make for an informed voting population, and comics would be a great way to educate the public.
The tracts will have a simple, four color cover, B&W interiors with footnotes to sources for additional information, and pointers to a Civics Tracts website that has additional tracts, resources, and data. We will probably Kickstart the efforts two or three tracts at a time,at first, focusing on micro-donations with rewards being nothing but packs of tracts that the funders would distribute themselves - to family and friends, local comic and book stores, coffee shops and diners, DMVs and doctor’s offices. Either targeted distribution in cooperation with these places or just leaving them lying around, waiting to be picked up.
We have needs. Civics and Kickstarter experts. Writers, historians, and artists. People who work within the government. Reviewers and devil’s advocates. Web developers and designers. Distributors and fans. But, mainly, people who believe in the concept and who want to see it succeed, but who won’t feel the need to shoulder any burden outside of what they have time for. And all of this done regardless of what side of the political spectrum you fall on. These are going to be educational, non-partisan comics. Plenty of my friends are signing on to handle the partisan stuff, I’d like to do something non-partisan and educational.
I’m going to be setting up some administrative stuff - webpages and templates, style guides and rules. And I’m hoping that my friends in history and comics join the group and help us shape it into something meaningful and worthwhile. This is something that I really believe in. Hopefully some of you will, as well, or at least help me make it into something you can believe in, too.
January 19, 2016
My collection of Middle Grade, sci-fi and fantasy, flash-fiction...
My collection of Middle Grade, sci-fi and fantasy, flash-fiction stories, Try Looking Ahead, came out over six months ago. I’m still very proud of it. However, it didn’t sell that well. It happens! Some books catch fire, some don’t. Many of the 12 stories that were in the book have already been published elsewhere, but there was one story that I particularly loved that was only in the collection: The titular “Try Looking Ahead.” Folks who read the collection have told me that they loved this story, too. As a writer, I want my stories to be read…so my publisher agreed to let me publish this story on my blog. If you like it, please feel free to pass it along. The spot illustration (above) was done by Stacey Robinson. Ok, here goes…
___________________________
When Charles was five, his father got him a bicycle, a real
bicycle with two wheels, an upgrade from his current tricycle. His father put a
helmet on his head and patted him on the back, and said, “You just pedal, and
I’ll hold the seat to keep you steady. Just try looking ahead and you’ll be
fine.”
Charles put his feet on the pedals and started moving his
legs and the real bicycle with two wheels started moving and his father was
holding onto the seat, keeping Charles steady. Charles tried looking ahead, but
after some time he looked back and saw his father waving in the distance.
Charles got scared and swerved and his bike slid out from under him and he hit
the ground, hard.
“That’s OK,” his father told him. “Just try again. Look
ahead. Always look ahead.”
Before getting on his bike, Charles closed his eyes and
tried to look ahead. He tried to see what would come next.
_____________
When Charles was eight, his father signed him up for
baseball. All of his friends were playing, and he wanted to play with them,
even though he never cared much for baseball. Charles’s father took him to the
batting cage to teach him how to hit, even though Charles’s father never really
knew how to play baseball either. But his father tried to teach him anyway,
handing him a helmet and a bat and giving him the only advice he could think
of, “When you’re waiting for the ball to come, just try looking ahead. The
moment that ball comes out, swing as hard as you can.”
Charles gripped the bat and stared ahead at the mechanical pitcher,
and, as soon as a ball popped out, he swung his bat as hard as he could. He
probably could have swung his bat three more times before the ball actually
reached him. Charles stood there and watched the ball pass him by. He looked
back at his dad, who shrugged, and suggested, “Try swinging later, I guess.”
Charles looked ahead and swung later, but he still missed.
He eventually hit a ball, and he also eventually realized that he didn’t care
much for baseball.
_____________
When Charles was 13, his father bought him a telescope. None
of his friends had telescopes so it took Charles some time to warm up to the
idea that he had one. Eventually, he took his telescope out back and pointed it
up to the sky and tried to find something, anything, worth looking at up close.
He couldn’t find a thing.
Charles told his father that space was boring. His father
told him that he’d love him no matter what, unconditionally, through thick and
thin…but if Charles ever said that space was boring again, he’d have to move
out.
Charles laughed because he knew his father was joking, but
then his father put down his book, and said, “Seriously, though, space isn’t
boring. Space is amazing. Did you ever wonder why the moon rises every night
and sets every morning?”
“Because it’s revolving around the earth,” Charles replied.
Everyone knew that.
“But do you know what that means?”
Charles started to open his mouth but then realized that he
didn’t know what that meant.
“The moon is revolving around the earth because it’s falling
into the earth.”
Charles thought about that for a second, and then asked,
“But why doesn’t it hit us?”
“Because the earth’s falling into the sun, causing the moon
to always miss the earth. All of the planets in our solar system are falling
into the sun, but they’re always missing because the sun is falling into the
center of our galaxy. The sun never gets there, however, because the center of
our galaxy is always falling into the center of our local group of galaxies,
which, in turn, is always falling toward our local supercluster of groups,
which, in turn, is always falling into the center of the universe.
“Everything you can see is always falling toward something.
And the fact that most things aren’t hitting anything is one of the most
amazing, non-boring things you will ever witness.”
Charles imagined his own feet, pressed against the floor of
his house. He realized that if the floor were to disappear, he’d fall until he
hit another floor. He never realized that he was always falling into the earth
and that the only thing stopping him from getting hurt was the ground that was
constantly stopping his fall.
Charles’s father saw the confusion on his son’s face. “Don’t
think about falling,” he said. “Just try looking ahead.”
Charles went back outside and peered into his telescope. He
spent an hour staring at a giant rock that was falling toward him, always
missing.
_____________
When Charles was 16, he told his father a secret. His father
made a joke at first but then hugged him and told him that no matter what
happens next, always try looking ahead.
_____________
When Charlie was 18, her father bought her a car. It wasn’t
a great car. It was actually in terrible shape. It was ten years old and had a
rearview mirror that fell off and a door that rattled and a radio that couldn’t
play MP3s and a rear defrost that wouldn’t defrost. But it was all Charlie’s
dad could afford, and he knew that she would need a car in college.
“Sometimes you’ll feel the need to get away, I’m sure,” he
told her. “And when you do, just get in this car and try looking ahead. Drive
all the way home if you want and never look back. I’ll be here with the light
on.”
Charlie drove all the way home only once, during her first
year of school, when she was feeling incredibly homesick and alone. She spent
the whole night talking to her father outside the house, with her old telescope
pointed up to a giant rock that was falling toward her but always missing her.
She remembered why she went to college and drove back the
next morning.
She looked ahead for the next eight years.
_____________
When Charlie was 30, her girlfriend came to visit her lab.
Charlie showed her the most recent pictures of bright and beautiful objects
trillions of miles away that were falling into other bright and beautiful objects
but always missing because everything was always falling into something else.
Charlie told her girlfriend that even right now they’re falling into each other
but that, since they both weigh about the same, their falling sort of cancels
out.
“What if I were heavier?” Charlie’s girlfriend asked.
Charlie thought about that for a second, laughed, and said,
“You’d have to meet my dad first.”
“I’m just trying to look ahead,” Charlie’s girlfriend
replied. “Just like you always told me to do.”
_____________
When Charlie was 40, she took her wife and daughter to her
father’s sixtieth birthday party. It was at the old house, which hadn’t changed
much over the years. At some point that night, she looked outside the window to
see her daughter standing on her toes, trying to look into her old telescope.
Charlie was about to go outside with her daughter but saw that her dad was
already out there, undoubtedly telling her daughter about large objects falling
into them but always missing.
Undoubtedly telling her to always try looking ahead.
_____________
When Charlie was 55, she sat down next to her father, who
was lying in bed, eyes closed and breathing steady.
She kissed his forehead, thanked him for everything, and
told him that no matter what happens next, to try looking ahead.
_____________
When Charles was five he opened his eyes.
“What did you see?” his father asked.
“I saw me riding this bike,” Charles answered.
