They have to see themselves represented, to know that their stories are valid, and worth telling.

And so that’s what we’re trying to build, and also develop more young artists of color to go into the field. There was not very much representation of people of color out there, and it’s not their fault, it just is what it is, but I think that we need a space that we can come and share our stories and be appreciated. But as I walked around it just cemented to me the reason why we need an event like this. I recently went to a con and it was a wonderful one out in Boxborough … and it was great and they were very welcoming. I think that artists of color are underrepresented in the community. Why do you think it’s important to have an event that focuses on cartoonists of color and their stories in particular? We lucked out with an incredibly nice day in April, and it was a bit windy but we had probably 300 or 400 people come out.

We ended up doing a hybrid festival, where we did two days of online panels, which was really great, and then we did an outdoor artists alley - we called it a marketplace, but it was an artists alley - at Roxbury Community College in the parking lot, and it was a lot of fun. Listen below (or here), and see highlights in the Q&A.ī: Can you tell us a little bit about Comics in Color and what last year’s event was like? Because it wasn’t 100% in person, as I recall.Ĭagen Luse: 2020 was when our first festival was supposed to be of course, that festival never happened, but we were able to put it together last year. That includes “Welcome to Pawston,” a comic panel that takes on hot-button issues in a fictionalized Boston populated by anthropomorphic animals. As this month’s guest on the Strip Search comic strip podcast, Luse talked about planning the festival, and also about his own new work from him.

This year, the event - scheduled for April 23 at the Reggie Lewis Center - will take a leap forward from last year’s hybrid event by being fully in person. But he also managed, with fellow artist Barrington Edwards, to launch the first Comics in Color fest in Roxbury, marking the debut of the only comics event in Boston focusing on stories by and about people of color. He did a lot of drawing, of course - his LunchTime Comix strip in Dig Boston, re-dubbed “The New Normal” during COVID-19, was one of the best local takes on life during the pandemic. – Courtesy Photoīoston cartoonist Cagen Luse certainly didn’t waste any time languishing during the coronavirus pandemic. Cagen Luse is a co-founder of Comics in Color.

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