Contagious Imagination

Jane Tolmie is associate professor in gender studies, English, and cultural studies at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. She is a poet; feminist activist; editor of Drawing from Life: Memory and Subjectivity in Comic Art, published by University Press of Mississippi; and coeditor of Laments for the Lost in Medieval Literature. Frederick Luis Aldama, also known as Professor Latinx, is Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and affiliate faculty in radio-TV-film at the University of Texas, Austin, as well as adjunct professor and Distinguished University Professor at The Ohio State University. He is author of over forty-eight books and has received the International Latino Book Award and an Eisner Award for Latinx Superheroes in Mainstream Comics. He is editor or coeditor of nine academic press book series, including Biographix with University Press of Mississippi. He is creator of the first documentary on the history of Latinx superheroes and founder and director of UT's Latinx Pop Lab. His Spanish translation and animation film adaptation of his children's book The Adventures of Chupacabra Charlie (2020) will be released in the fall of 2021. He is also editor of Graphic Indigeneity: Comics in the Americas and Australasia and Jeff Smith: Conversations, both published by University Press of Mississippi.

This is a tightly composed but delightfully dense collection that should both reward Barry enthusiasts and recruit new ones.-- "American Literature" Contagious Imagination is as infectious as the title touts: it provides a stimulating examination of Barry's graphic storytelling, her unusual, yet efficient pedagogy, and celebrates the power of doodling, all of which contribute to the staying power of Barry's work in the canon of American comics.--Kirsten Mollegaard "Journal of American Culture" Through its earnest analysis, Contagious Imagination is contagiously liberating. The book is infused with the aliveness of its subject's guiding beliefs and teachings. . . . Readers will be inspired with a sense of bravery and confidence in their own -- possibly suppressed -- creativity.--Alexander McMillan "Broken Pencil" Tolmie's Contagious Imagination is an eye-popping revelation of the entrancing stories Barry created and the ingenious but simple ways she did them. . . . Contagious Imagination will be a very useful research tool about creativity and an excellent introduction to Barry--her thinking and her works--and a facile, fascinating primer for writers. Highly recommended.--J. A. Lent "CHOICE"