Your Brain on Latino Comics Reading and Signing with Frederick Luis Aldama

Come hear Frederick Luis Aldama, professor of English and director of Latino/a Studies at Ohio State, talk about the recent flowering of Latino characters and creators in comic books and graphic novels.

Aldama's new book, Your Brain on Latino Comics, illuminates the world of superheroes Firebird, Vibe, and the new Blue Beetle while also examining their effects on readers who find such realms difficult to envision. He explores mainstream companies such as Marvel and DC, as well as rising stars from other segments of the industry, and provides new readings of race, ethnicity, and the relatively new storytelling medium of comics themselves. Overview chapters cover the evolution of Latino influences in comics, innovations, and representations of women. Also featured in the book are interviews with 21 Latino comic book and comic strip authors and artists, including Laura Molina, Frank Espinosa, and Rafael Navarro.

Aldama (née Luis Federico Aldama) was born in Mexico City in 1969 to a chilango (Mexico City native) papa and a Guatemalan-Irish American mama. He grew up in and around Sacramento, California, and London, and studied at the University of California, Berkeley (BA), and Stanford (PhD). He uses the tools of narrative theory and cognitive science in his teaching at Ohio State and scholarship on Latino and postcolonial literature, art, music, film, and comic books. The author and editor of eight books, he is also the series coeditor of "Cognitive Approaches to Literature and Culture" and a member of the editorial boards of Narrative, Journal of Narrative Theory and Narrative and Image.