Jason Rodriguez's Blog, page 5
March 6, 2015
Colonial Comics @ Bancroft Elementary School
Some info on a talk I’ll be giving in a week that’ll focus on real-life women superheroes represented in comics form.
I will be the keynote speaker for Bancroft Comics Week, giving a 20-minute talk to 1st-5th grade students about comics on March 13th. Not just any comics, however - since this is Women’s History Month I was asked to talk about real-world women superheroes that have been represented in comics form and I decided to center my talk around Elizabeth Glover, a woman who was featured in Colonial Comics: New England, 1620-1750 in a story written by erikaswyler and illustrated by Noel Tuazon.
If you haven’t read the book yet, Elizabeth Glover was the woman who brought the first printing press to America. This, alone, is a pretty amazing story. But when you dig deeper, as Erika Swyler did, you’ll learn that she was a single mom (her husband died on the journey to America, leaving her with kids, two debtors, and a printing press), who wasn’t allowed to run her own business in Puritanical America, who had one of her husband’s debtors run the shop, who was banking on Harvard opening up and bringing them business, and who decided to print books (including the Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in America) when Harvard’s opening was delayed. She was a highly adaptable and courageous woman who made a business and name for herself in the colonies against all odds before settling down and remarrying.
So the theme of the talk will be about the unsung heroes of history, the women whose stories were pushed aside so that the male narratives could come to the forefront. And how the concept of heroism goes beyond fighting in wars and other ways we tend to define “heroes” these days but also applies to the men and women who simply looked at what society demanded of them and, channeling Marlo from The Wire, said, “You want it to be one way, but it’s the other way.” No, I won’t quote Marlo in my talk.
And, of course, how we can capture these stories in comic books - because a hero is a hero, whether they’re wearing tights and a cape or not.
Anyway, I’m extremely thankful for this opportunity and I think it’s a great thing the folks at Bancroft are doing. Below is the full release for the event.
What? Primera semana del comic en Bancroft
Bancroft 1st Comic Week
Participants: 1st to 5th grade
Topic: Everyday women who are superheroes
Launching: Friday March 13 2:45 pm Assembly in the Gym
Keynote speaker Jason Rodriguez
Sponsors: Ana Martinez and Elizabeth Melchor
Learning Targets: Students will be able to design and write stories about women that are in their lives or somehow have made an impact on their lives (mothers, grandmothers, aunts, teachers, writers, musicians…).
How? Students will have a week to submit their creations to their teachers. The deadline will be March 20. Teachers will post students graphic novels in their hallways bulletin boards by March 25 and a judge will select one comic for each grade. The exhibition will stay up until the 30th for the judge to have enough time to look at all the art work displayed and announcement of the winners will be made on the Bancroft Radio March 31st. The winners will get a prize (collection of comics-graphic novels).
March 4, 2015
Book giveaway for Try Looking Ahead by Jason Rodriguez
Well, in order to get people talking about the May release of TRY LOOKING AHEAD, I started a GoodReads giveaway that’ll run for the next 70-some-odd days. I am going to give away one signed copy, but more importantly that signed copy will come with an original, hand-written short story that will be for you and you alone. All you have to do to request this copy and the story is click on the link above (or here, all good) and click “Enter to Win.”
So get on it! And, if you’re feeling extra awesome, feel free to pre-order TRY LOOKING AHEAD on Amazon for the crazy-low price of $7.16. More on the giveaway and the book below:
A free SIGNED copy of TRY LOOKING AHEAD along with an original sci-fi flash-fiction story hand-written with a good ‘ole fashioned quill just for the winner. TRY LOOKING AHEAD is a collection of young adult Twilight Zone-inspired shorts from writer and editor Jason Rodriguez.
The title comes from the TWILIGHT ZONE episode, “Walking Distance.” In this episode, the main character’s car break downs and, while it’s being repaired, he walks to his hometown only to find himself transported into his own past. He realizes how happy he was as a kid and how unhappy he is as an adult and decides that he doesn’t want to go back to the future. His father has a heart-to-heart with him and tells him, “Maybe when you go back, Martin, you’ll find that there are merry-go-rounds and band concerts where you are. Maybe you haven’t been looking in the right place. You’ve been looking behind you, Martin. Try looking ahead.”
The stories for this volume include:
1 - The Boy Who Could See Through Mountains: A young kid is able to see through the mountain that separates his village from their vile and evil enemies.
2 - Reggie & Becky: A boy can’t accept the fact that his dog is getting older, and wants to be an old dog.
3 - Detective Know-It-All and the Glittered Up Glue Stick: The world’s youngest detective knows the answer to every question and will work your case if the price is right (usually three candy bars, full size).
4 - Rocket Ruiz Builds a Warp Drive: Rocket Ruiz has competition at this year’s soapbox derby race, the son of Precision Automobile’s founder. His racer is rumored to be better than her’s, so her only hope to retaining the title is to build a warp drive.
5 - The Monster Hunter: A kid learns how to stop the monsters coming out of his closet, by shooting them with his finger gun. But when he journeys into his closet to kill the remaining monsters, he learns what it means to truly be a monster.
6 - The End of Stars: Only one girl in the village realizes that the sky is falling, but can she convince her neighbors in time before everything is destroyed?
7 - Anita’s Dreams: Anita is able to travel through time when she dreams and learns that sometimes the future is more hopeful than the past.
8 - Try Looking Ahead: A story about gender, identity, gravity, and family.
March 3, 2015
Can I just say that I am VERY excited to be doing...
Can I just say that I am VERY excited to be doing these.
In two weeks I’ll be doing my first of two events at the American Library in Paris. The first event, on March 17th @ 7:30 PM will be a discussion on comics with me and Laurent Seksik followed by a book signing. The second event, on March 20th @ 7PM, will be a comic making workshop for teens.
I’m very excited for both of these events and also excited to tour Paris with some side trips to Normandy and Reims, of course. For the comic making workshops, we’ll be playing Exquisite Corpse, just a short walk from where French surrealists first played Le cadavre exquis over 90 years ago.
So, if you happen to be in France, please come on by!
March 2, 2015
Two weeks ago, the rescue organization we work with (Homeward...
Two weeks ago, the rescue organization we work with (Homeward Trails) alerted their volunteers to a pregnant girl who was abandoned in the cold with a snowstorm on the way. The puppy room that the organization has was full, and she needed a home with a nice, safe room where she could have her puppies. My wife and I decided to take her in. I named her Lupa, after the wolf who nursed Romulus and Remus.
Lupa took to me instantly. My wife was out of town and maybe it was the fact that I offered some level of stability and protection for this scared, pregnant girl but, whatever it was, she wouldn’t leave my side. I slept in the guest bedroom with her for two weeks because she didn’t want to be alone, worked from home as often as I could and cancelled most of my plans just to hang with her while she got bigger and bigger.
At first I was able to leave her alone for a few hours at a time, but eventually she would put herself into physical danger just to get near me. Her first amazing bit of escapism involved digging a hole through the carpet/door to get out of her birthing room.
We had to crate her, but then she managed to push open the front of her crate and squeeze through the bars…
We eventually learned that if we kept her in the living room she would actually see me leave and just sit by the window, waiting for me to come back. This wasn’t ideal, since we didn’t want her giving birth near our other dogs, so anytime I left the house it filled me with anxiety that was moderately subsided by way of Skype.
On Saturday night, my wife and I had a bit of cabin fever so we went out for a quick bite to eat. When we got home, Lupa was obviously in labor and trying to get into her safe room. We let her down there and she began to tear apart EVERYTHING. Sheets, towels, an actual mattress, her fury knew no bounds. After an hour of thrashing she gave birth to a boy. We named him Romulus.
We watched in amazement as she ate the placenta and licked Romulus until he started breathing. When he first moved his little paws we both gasped and teared up a little bit. And then came Remus. We didn’t even see him come out - he was just there.
And then a third puppy and a fourth and a fifth. We finally decided to go to bed and, when we woke up, there was a sixth puppy there. We checked the sexes, four boys and two girls, and named the remaining four puppies Gaius, Augustus, Pompeia, and Livia.
She turned into a mother overnight. Protective of her babies and only trusting me and my wife around them. No dogs are allowed near her and she actually bit my friend Ben and tried to chase him out of the house for having the audacity of showing interest. She doesn’t try to escape her room anymore, and when she does come out she takes care of her business and wants to get right back with her puppies. My wife and I spent all day with her on Sunday, laughing as the dogs squeaked and whined and slept and tried to find a nipple to nurse from.
She did good. She has six healthy puppies which Homeward Trails will put up for adoption in eight weeks. If you have an interest, please message me or email me at jrodinator@gmail.com. We’ll try and get some individual pictures of them and put an oficial name to each pup as Lupa lets us hold them longer but, until then, you can get pictures of them in their pig piles.
And, one last thing before I sign off. Owning a dog is a responsibility, one that you promise to carry through with when you take one in. Love them and they will love you back, unconditionally. Don’t take in a dog if you can’t keep him or her for the long run, but if you find yourself in an impossible situation please never, ever take the easy way out and just abandon them. It is the most heartless thing you could do. There are many people out there, my wife and I included, who would rather these dogs have a warm place to live and be comfortable until they can find their forever home. So please, please, please - have a heart. And get your pet spayed and neutered. I know people like adopting puppies but it’s the older dogs who find themselves wasting away in shelters, becoming anti-social and unloved in their twilight years once the puppies are gone.
Anyway - here’s to Lupa for doing good, and here’s to a good life for Romulus, Remus, Gaius, Augustus, Pompeia, and Livia - may they never know the hardships their mom had to deal with.
February 25, 2015
Parks & Recreation
I watched this show from the very beginning, plowed through the first season and was reluctant to get into the second season because it just wasn’t doing it for me. Episode after episode piled up on my DVR and one day I decided to watch them and began to fall in love with the town and the characters that made up Pawnee.
It’s hard to really, truly explain how much this show meant to me. I think I was at the perfect age and at the perfect moment of my life when it started hitting its stride. As the characters began to develop and grow, I saw little bits of my past, present, and hopeful future in all of them. Andy and April began to remind me of me and my wife in our early years - goofy, throwing caution to the wind, and full of a certain life and resistance to adulthood that you master in your twenties but find yourself faking in your thirties.
With that, I began to transition to Leslie and Ben. Ben, the consummate nerd who has a day job he’s never truly comfortable with, mistakes from his past that still fill him with anxiety, and a creative streak that never seemed to get the credit he felt it deserved until the day he dropped Cones of Dunshire off at the accounting office. Leslie started to look like my wife, smart and ambitious, a person who knows what she wants in the broadstrokes even if she doesn’t know how to achieve it just yet. However, she never backed down from a challenge, and managed to navigate through the twists and turns of life with real heart and a love for the people around her.
And then there’s Gary/Larry/Terry/Garry Gergich, the man who lived the life he wanted despite the people around him constantly telling him that his life was useless. He has his highlander wife and his loving family and he just kept lucking into jobs of various stakes that kept him satisfied until the day he died - what a great future that would be. That’s the ideal, right?
Donna was a force through it all, the type of character who resisted change but eventually found a perfect balance in her professional and personal life that allowed her to capitalize on her good-natured side while still sporting a watch with lots of diamonds in it.
Tom found his stage, which is what he always wanted. It wasn’t success or riches that Tom was ever chasing, he was chasing an audience and acceptance, and he got it in spades.
And all the secondary characters and those we left behind. Craig found love in a person who found his negative characteristics endearing. Jean-Ralphio found a way to keep being Jean-Ralphio, which seems to satisfy Jean-Ralphio. Anne and Chris have their family and their careers and proved to be the type of people who were happy keeping a small life. Even Brandi Maxxxx found the respect she always felt she deserved without sacrificing who she is.
It was sappy and it was wonderful. Parks & Rec is not the funniest TV show of all time, I still think that show was Arrested Development. It’s not the highest rated or the most consistent, either. But when you look at how it treated its characters, how it gave each and every one of them an arc, how it shied away from cynicism and delivered positive and loving characters and plotlines week-after-week and persevered through a dwindling audience and a real lack of deserved accolades, all while remaining FUNNY, it’s easy to say that it was the greatest comedy in television history.
We can’t even call Parks & Rec a once-in-a-generation show, because nothing like it has ever existed and in our polarized and cynical society, it’s hard to see something like it ever coming again.
So thank you, Parks & Rec. Thank you to the creators and the actors and to Harris Wittels, this comedic genius who died way too young and who isn’t around to hear the words of praise and love that are being piled upon this show today.
This is a show that entertained millions of people, while also making us want to be better people. I am going to miss its characters, its jokes, but most importantly its message. I will honestly carry many of its moments and lessons with me for the rest of my life.
Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
February 22, 2015
We had a great time making comics yesterday at Fantom Comics....
We had a great time making comics yesterday at Fantom Comics. Part two of the workshop is on March 12th and then I’m doing workshops in Paris, VA, MD, Boston, Framingham, and Concord in the coming months.
February 10, 2015
fantoM/Make presents Making Comics with Jason Rodriguez! | Facebook
I guess this makes it official! Starting Saturday, February 21st I will be doing a series of comic making workshops at Fantom Comics. This is the same class I did at the Writer’s Center and Arlington Adult Ed except this time it’s free! So come on by for the first workshop and see if it’s something you’d like to continue with. And then, afterwards, stay a while to hang at The DC Conspiracy's 10th Anniversary Party with comics, gallery show, a cash bar, and food stuffs to nibble on. I think you'll dig it! RSVP at the link so I know how many people to expect!
Join us for the first in a series of comic-making workshops from the fantastic Harvey and Eisner-nominated writer and editor, Jason Rodriguez (Colonial Comics).
Sit in on this week’s session which will cover the basics of making comics - the business and the DIY parts. Then join us for the DC Conspiracy 10th Anniversary Party!
Future sessions will deal with creating an actual comic, panel-by-panel and scene-by-scene.
Schedule of Upcoming Workshops:
Feb 21 - Making Comics Pt. 1 - An Intro to Making Comics
March 13 - Making Comics Pt. 2 - A Moment in Time
April 16 - Making Comics Part 3 - Making Them Move
May 14 - Making Comics Part 4 - Scene Work
June 18 - Making Comics Part 5 - Making Your Comic
February 9, 2015
Pics of the DC Conspiracy (dcconspiracy) over the past ten...
Pics of the DC Conspiracy (dcconspiracy) over the past ten years. February 21st is our 10 year anniversary jam at fantomcomics. The party will include a comic making workshop (by me!) from 3-4PM, a Q&A from 5-6PM, and a cash bar and food stuffs from 6-9PM. We’ll also have a gallery show, comics, fun stuffs. DC-area people should RSVP at the link. For more pics of us over the years, check out the album.
January 29, 2015
Making Comics: a workshop with Jason Rodriguez (ages 12-18)
Paris! Yes, Paris, France! I will be doing a comic making workshop at the American Library in Paris on March 20th! RSVP now, Paris. All of you!
CurrentIssue
My first review for AAAS Science Books & Films was published in their January, 2015 issue! I reviewed the documentary SINGULARITY which is about theoretical point in the future where AI will become more intelligent than humans. If you’re a member of AAAS, you can find the review at the link. Otherwise, just know that I gave it a starred review and you should probably check it out!
