Comics activism with Maureen Burdock
Use your sketchbook to become more alive and more ready to tell your story. Maureen Burdock gives you a bouquet of techniques to explode your visual vocabulary!
Visual journals have played a vital role in many successful artists’ practices.
They’re a form of autographics (autobiographical graphic narratives)!
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Activating Comix: Course Description
The world is in crisis. How do graphic novelists respond? How can you directly engage your work to meet the strain of political chaos, environmental crisis, social inequities, and maintain your own health and sanity in the face of it all? In this course we will start by considering graphic novels that do this particularly well and then jump in with prompts that inspire you as you work on your own mini-comic (or longer ongoing project).
Topics we will explore:
Human rights, war, and displacement
Race, civil rights, and resistance
Environmental justice
Feminist and LGBTQ+ activism
Labor and economic justice
Intersectional and contemporary activism
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![Maureen Burdock]()
Maureen Burdock
Maureen Burdock was born in the Black Forest, Germany, and grew up on a steady diet of fairy tales and classic children's literature. She moved to the Chicago area with her mother after first grade.
Burdock won her first prize for an illustrated short story about two hot dogs who bravely escape from a frying pan…only to be carried off by a stray dog! The award included a personal meeting with a published children’s book author. Burdock knew then that her destiny was to become a writer and illustrator.
Her work has been exhibited and published widely, and she has taught writing, comics, and humanities courses in academic settings and beyond. Graphic Mundi Press published her graphic memoir, Queen of Snails, in November of 2022.
Her third graphic novel, Sleepless Planet: A Graphic Guide to Healing from Insomnia, is available for pre-order and will be released in November 2025.
Burdock lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with her wife and boxer dog.