WASHINGTON, DC ALERT: ¡MR. MENDOZA MEETS THE TRICKSTER!

GRAPHIC NOVEL AND COMICS ILLUSTRATORS AND FANS

Come meet Christopher Cardinale, Matt Dembicki, Michael Auger and members of the DC Conspiracy
Tuesday evening, 6:30pm @ Busboys and Poets, 14th & V (2021 14th St).

Teaching for Change is hosting Christopher Cardinale (graphic artist: Mr. Mendoza’s Paintbrush and the forthcoming Which Side are You On?) and Matt Dembicki, editor of, and Michael Auger, contributor to, Trickster: Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection. Auger is also a member of DC Conspiracy, an artist activist collective. Meet the artists, talk comic and graphic novels, eat some food, have a beer.

The cherry blossoms must be blooming.

Besides, Teaching for Change (“Teaching for Change provides teachers and parents with the tools to transform schools into centers of justice where students learn to read, write and change the world”) and Busboys and Poets (“a restaurant, bookstore, fair trade market and gathering place where people can discuss issues of social justice and peace) are both great organizations, a true collaboration between a very hip and fun for-profit restaurant and a non-profit bookstore.

Mr. Mendoza’s Paintbrush graphically depicts the small town of Rosario, where dead corpses rise up out of the cathedral when it floods; where vast silver mines beneath the town occasionally collapse, causing a whole section of the village to drop out of sight; and where the town’s walls are decorated with cryptic messages painted by Mr. Mendoza, self-proclaimed graffiti king of all Mexico. He paints the town's ugly truths…and there's nothing his paintbrush hasn't touched, from a dead monk to a peeping Tom! According to Publisher’s Weekly, Mr. Mendoza’s Paintbrush, written by acclaimed Latino writer Luis Alberto Urrea and illustrated by Christopher Cardinale, is “the ideal way to present magical realism graphically,” while The Bloomsbury Review says “Mr. Mendoza’s Paintbrush is a rich gift…Urrea and Cardinale are a match made in heaven.”

Trickster: Native American Tales, A Graphic Collection is the first graphic anthology of Native American trickster tales. Over twenty Native storytellers and carefully selected illustrators cleverly tell the tales of the trickster—a crafty creature who uses cunning to get food, steals precious possessions, or simply causes mischief—in the hijinks of “How Wildcat Caught a Turkey,” an ego-driven social misstep in “Coyote and the Pebbles,” the hilarity of “Rabbit’s Choctaw Tail Tale,” and many more. Each tale has a unique and powerful voice and look, from serious and dramatic to funny and sometimes downright fiendish and is wonderfully entertaining for readers of all ages and backgrounds. Library Journal said, “[Trickster is] done in such a way that kids will find themselves enthralled. When was the last time a book of folktales enthralled one of your kids anyway? It’s remarkable.” Editor Matt Dembicki is the founder of DC Conspiracy, a comic creators’ collaborative in DC, and Mr. Big fame, his nature graphic novel. Visit his author blog at http://matt-dembicki.blogspot.com.