The Public Life of Comics

Hear 4 cartoonists talk about their recent projects and discuss how comics can be a particularly effective medium for communicating and educating people about social issues.

This event is in coordination with the 14th annual Short Run Comix Festival, taking place on Saturday, November 7th from 11 am to 6 pm at Seattle Design Center in Georgetown.

About the panelists:

Meredith Li-Vollmer works in communications for Public Health – Seattle & King County where she has developed comics about public health since 2008. Her comics projects have been published in the New York Times, The Stranger, Illustrated PEN America and The American Journal of Public Health. She is author of "Graphic Public Health: A Comics Anthology and Roadmap" which was recognized as Best of Graphic Medicine in 2022 by JAMA. Meredith is a board member of Short Run Seattle and the public health liaison for Graphic Medicine International.

James Sturm is a cartoonist, educator, and co-founder of The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS), a school in Vermont for people who want to learn how to make comics. His graphic novels include "The Golem’s Mighty Swing", "Market Day", and "Off Season", and his most recent book is an adaptation of Richard Adams’s "Watership Down", created with Joe Sutphin. Sturm directs CCS's Applied Cartooning Lab where he works with educators, state organizations, and local community groups to explore how comics can be used to inform, engage, and bring people together. He also helped start The Stranger, and is always happy to return to Seattle.

Whit Taylor is an Ignatz-Award winning cartoonist, editor, and public health educator from New Jersey. She holds a BA in cultural anthropology from Brown University and an MPH from the Boston University School of Public Health. Her comics have been published by The Nib, The New Yorker, Radiator Comics and others. Her public health history graphic novel with artist Joyce Rice, "The Greater Good", published by 23rd Street Books, is out this fall.

Kelly Froh is a comic artist and Executive Director of Short Run Comix Festival, which she co-founded in 2011. Her comics and stories have appeared in The Seattle Weekly, The Seattle Review of Books, The Women’s Review of Books, and Treasury of Mini-Comix Vol. 1. She’s been a story collector for the annual Seattle/King County free clinic, telling patient stories through comics. Her newest comic, "Everybody Dies!" tells stories about aging, health and dying, “TMI told with humor.”

Thanks to our partner Short Run Comix Festival.

Thanks to our sponsor  The Seattle Public Library Foundation.