Spin Off: Graphic Texts

Thursday, November 8 | 6 -7pm

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

The adage for writing fiction goes, “Show, don’t tell,” so how does well written, visually based, narrative differ from “Graphic Texts”? Graphic novels are all the rage – but why? What makes them different from comic books? Or is it just an old art form given a facelift, thanks to Hollywood? As our technology grows ever more prevalent in our day-to-day living, where texting makes up much of our day, and the “Dark Knight” becomes the excuse for horrific crimes, what roles do “graphic texts” play in our lives? Join us in a discussion of an artistic trend that has progressively become a wider social trend, no longer just the province of nerds, but now running the gamut from the Internet to Broadway. Moderated by Noah Fleisher.

Dr. Marshall Armintor
Dr. Armintor received his PhD from Rice University in 2002, and has taught at UNT since 2003. His research interests are primarily in 20th century British literature, critical theory, new media and graphic narrative. His book on psychoanalysis and the modern novel, Lacan and the Ghosts of Modernity: Masculinity, Tradition, and the Anxiety of Influence (Peter Lang), was published in 2004. He has lectured on graphic novels and Jewish culture at a number of venues in the North Texas/Oklahoma area, and is teaching a course on the Jewish Graphic Novel at UNT this fall.

Gary Farrelly
Gary Farrelly graduated from Ireland’s National College of Art and Design in 2006. During his time at NCAD he was a founder member of the Dublin-based art movement Defastenism. Since graduation he has dedicated himself full-time to his art practice both at home and abroad. He spent 2006 through 2009 in Paris where he was ‘permanent artist in residence’ at Espace W and he was represented by Galerie W.In 2007 he was an invited artist in residence at The Pilotprojekt Gropiusstadt in Berlin. 2010 was spent in Dallas where he was a resident at Centraltrak and had a solo exhibition at Guerilla Arts. The artist is currently in residence at the Pickering Forest country estate in Ireland. Farrelly has had six solo exhibitions in Dublin, Paris and Dallas and has shown in dozens of group shows in cities including Tehran, New York, Belgrade, Istanbul and Berlin. He is in Dallas for an exhibition of his new work entitled Terminal Compositions which opens on the 9th November at RO2 Downtown and runs until December 8th.   

 Noah Fleisher
Noah Fleisher received his BFA from New York University in 1992 and brings more than a decade of newspaper, magazine, book and antiques, art and auction writing and editing experience to his position as Heritage’s  Public Relations Director. Noah is the former editor of Antique Trader, New England Antiques Journal and Northeast Antiques Journal. He is a regular contributor to Warman’s Antiques Price Guide, is the author of Warman’s Price Guide to Modern Furniture. Noah uses his experience from behind the editor’s desk in his approach to PR, targeting specific stories to specific market segments. The result has been widespread auction coverage from industry papers , and countless media outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, Reuters,UPI, Agence- France Presse, the front page of Yahoo and Google News  as well as numerous national TV and radio affiliates.

Noah counts a lifelong passion for comic books, comic book art and the mythos of comic book character among his primary professional influences. As PR Director at Heritage for the last four years he has had the opportunity to see, up close and personal, copies of the greatest comic books and comic art, across all eras of the form, as well as having the chance to work with the top experts in the comic book business. While watching the meteoric rise of prices on comics and original art, it has not been lost on him how the characters, themes and stories of the top comics and graphic novels have influenced American culture and, by association, the world.

Farid Matuk
Farid Matuk is the author of This Isa Nice Neighborhood (2010), selected by Geoffrey G. O’Brien for the New American Poets series of the Poetry Society of America. The book was awarded honorable mention in the Arab American Book Award and was a finalist for the Norma Farber First Book Award, also from the Poetry Society of America. Recent poems appear in Critical Quarterly (UK), Third Coast,Black Warrior Review, and The Iowa Review. His new chapbook, My Daughter La Chola is forthcoming in April 2013 from Ahsahta Press.

Charles Dee Mitchell
Charles Dee Mitchell is a freelance writer and curator based in Dallas. He has written criticism for The Dallas Morning News, Art in America, and Artforum as well as other publications. His essays have accompanied exhibitions at the Dallas Museum of Art, The Columbus(Ohio) Museum of Art, the Armand Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), as well as many other non-profit and commercial galleries.

About The Writer’s Garret
The Writer’s Garret is the only year-round independent literary center in North Texas whose mission is to foster the education and development of readers, writers, and audiences by putting them in touch with quality literature, each other, and the communities in which they live and write.

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC