SYRACUSE ART MUSEUM PRESENTATION OF COMICS, CARICATURES, AND CARTOON ART
The Syracuse Art Museum put together an online collection of their comics holdings just for the CON: click here to check it out.
The collection features selections from the Art Museum’s permanent collection exploring cartoon, caricature, and comic art. It includes original drawings for New Yorker cartoons, animation stills for popular characters, and historical caricature or satirical art.
The Syracuse University Art Museum is a teaching museum that acquires and preserves important works of art and uses its extensive collection to serve as a museum-laboratory for exploration, experimentation, and discussion. The Museum strives to foster diverse and inclusive perspectives by uniting students across campus with each other and the local and global community, engaging with artwork to bring us together and examining the forces that keep us apart. It welcomes all visitors to experience its exhibitions and public programs that promote original research, creative thinking, and increased mindfulness.
STUDENT ARTISTS
We would like to promote some of the comics work made by our Syracuse University students.
Tyler Hargrove
You can download several cartoons by Tyler Hargrove, from his series Mega the Dreamer, here. Here’s a description of the series:
“In a land safe from greed, anger, and boredom, the autistic-coded artist Mega lives to express her creativity through art that comes to life at her will. A prime example is Luna, Mega’s trusty Dream who reflects the youthful heart that has seen Mega through 21 years of life. With a small yet colorful group of friends in the mix, Mega spends her days crafting storybooks, opening herself to new experiences, and simply enjoying the life she has.”
Tyler’s work is available on Webtoon, Tapas, and Instagram, and can be found on Redbubble by searching for “Mega the Dreamer.”
Aparajita Rao
You can check out several examples of Aparajita’s digital artwork below! https://scotophase.carrd.co/
Aparajita’s images are mostly from a dark scifi/ psychological thriller webcomic work-in-progress called Midnight Zone, a patchwork of emotional anecdotes and memories from an unfortunate few who stumble into a mysterious case of catastrophic research misconduct at a cursed university.
ARTIST SPEAKERS
We are happy to feature three artist speakers, Benjamin Marra, Maya McKibbin, and Natalie Riess.
Benjamin Marra is the notorious, controversial and influential cartoonist of the comic books NIGHT BUSINESS, AMERICAN BLOOD, and TERROR ASSAULTER: O.M.W.O.T. (One Man War On Terror). His illustration for Numero Group’s Wayfaring Strangers: Acid Nightmares garnered him a Grammy Nomination. Acclaimed comic book writer Grant Morrison selected Marra as a collaborator in the first issue of Morrison’s tenure on the seminal comic book magazine, Heavy Metal.
Marra’s work has been recognized by The Society of Illustrators, The Society of Publication Designers, 3×3 and American Illustration. Some of his collaborators include Playboy, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Marvel Comics, Vice, Radar, Paper, Nylon, Widen+Kennedy, Doubleday & Cartwright, and McCann-Erickson.
Marra received a B.F.A in Illustration from Syracuse University, where he also studied at their art program in Florence, Italy. He received an M.F.A. in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts.
https://www.benjaminmarra.com/
Maya McKibbin is a multi-disciplinary artist working in Computer Graphics, Indie Game Development and Illustration. They have Art Directed and worked on multiple short animated films including Prize winning short Animals (2019) and have worked with Playdead Games, creators of BAFTA winning games Limbo and Inside.
Though they work primarily in the digital realm Maya has been producing short emotive zines and is currently scriptwriting at the stop motion studio they work at in Vancouver, Spotted Fawn Productions.
Starting on Deviant Art at 14 years old Maya is an active member of online communities. Helping to admin Discord Servers for Women and QTBIPOC folks, they hope to work towards improving fair treatment and accurate representation in the games and media industry.
Natalie Riess is an Austin-based cartoonist and illustrator. Loves cats, trees, and the color pink, and made Snarlbear, Space Battle Lunchtime and one half of Dungeon Critters.
Geek/Art CONfluence 
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