Carteret, NJ – Mayor Dan Reiman has joined with the Central Jersey Arts Council (CJAC) to announce that the Thomas J. Deverin Community Center & Library will host Carteret’s first comic book workshop on October 31st. The event will feature graphic novelist and illustrator Kevin Pyle.
From 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., the free public event will include games, contests, and a movie screening. Artist Kevin Pyle will give a presentation and workshop from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. focusing on the visual story-telling tools of comics, with an emphasis on rendering facial expressions. All ages are welcome, but the workshop is limited to adults and children 12 years old and up.
Kevin C. Pyle attended the University of Kansas where he received a B.F.A. in illustration, studying under illustrator Thomas B. Allen. He moved to Brooklyn N.Y. in 1988 to pursue a career as an illustrator. He has done illustrations for The New York Times Op-Ed page, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The Village Voice, The National Law Journal, The Progressive, Adbusters and numerous other publications. From 1990-1991 he was the director of the non-profit Minor Injury Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and was involved in the nascent art scene there. He produced puppet shows, played in a band, and was a core member of Organism, a 1994 proto rave/art installation staged in an abandoned warehouse on Brooklyn’s waterfront.
In the early 90s he co-founded and edited the willfully obscure and unwieldy comic compendium “Hodags and Hodaddies.” Shortly therafter, Kevin began contributing and co-editing World War 3 illustrated, America’s longest-running radical comics anthology. Much of the work done for WW3 illustrated was collected in his 2001 docu-comic, Lab U.S.A.:illuminated documents. A non-fiction comic investigation of clandestine racist and authoritarian science, Lab U.S.A. won the Silver Medal for Sequential Art from the Society of Illustrators. He has done performance and installations based on the text that have been exhibited in the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Mass MOCA, and numerous gallery settings. His first graphic novel Blindspot, was published in 2007 by Henry Holt for Young Readers. It was included in the Best American Comics 2008, edited by Lynda Barry. Katman, also with Henry Holt, was published in 2009 and named a YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) Great Graphic Novel for 2010. His third graphic novel Take What You Can Carry will be published in March, 2012. He is currently working on, with Scott Cunningham, a non-fiction docu-comic, Bad For You, about the history of kid-centric moral panics in America.
Kevin began teaching in 2005 with a workshop for sons and daughters of incarcerated adults. He has since taught comics, illustration and the cultural history of monsters in a variety of school environments and grade levels. He currently teaches regularly at the Montclair Cooperative School and Montclair State University.
“We’re fortunate to have this accomplished artist showcased in our first exhibition of graphic story-telling,” Mayor Reiman said. “This is just one of many examples of how we’re expanding what our community center and library can offer residents and visitors, and the kind of enrichment that can be found in our local arts programming.”
The Central Jersey Arts Council (CJAC) is a nonprofit organization established to promote arts and culture throughout Central New Jersey. CJAC serves as a conduit to increase access, advance education, and contribute to the economic vitality of our area communities. CJAC pursues this mission through a combination of programs, partnerships, and services for cultural organizations, schools, communities, and artists.
The CJAC office is currently located in the Blazing Star Arts Center in Carteret, NJ. CJAC is an umbrella for everything from brick and mortar arts projects, to programming in schools, community programs, and partnerships with institutions. CJAC covers all art forms including visual, music, theatre, literary, etc..
CJAC Director Lindsay Erben said, “As a the new Director of CJAC and a new member of the Carteret community, I am amazed by the collective history, energy, and potential this this town has to offer. I am thrilled to offer my services and CJAC’s resources to help revitalize Carteret through the arts.”
