JOHN JENNINGS

Illustrator + Scholar of Black Comics

located near: Riverside, CA

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EXPERTISE

Critical race design studies
Afrofuturism and Black speculative literature
Race and politics
Hip-hop
Graphic novels
Representation and identity in popular culture
Film studies
Cultural activism and narrative

EVENT TYPES

KEYNOTES
LECTURES
FIRESIDE CHATS
PANELS
WORKSHOPS
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
BOOK TALKS & READINGS
VIRTUAL EVENTS
MODERATION
INTERNATIONAL EVENTS
FESTIVALS
INTERVIEWS

John Jenning’s Bio

John Jennings is a professor, author, graphic novelist, curator, Harvard Fellow, New York Times Bestseller, 2018 Eisner Winner, and winner of the Hugo Award for his co-adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s dystopian novel The Parable of the Sower. As Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside (UCR), Jennings examines the visual culture of race in various media forms including film, illustrated fiction, and comics and graphic novels. He is also the director of Abrams ComicArts imprint Megascope, which publishes graphic novels focused on the experiences of people of color. Jennings is co-editor of the 2016 Eisner Award-winning collection The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art (Rutgers) and co-founder/organizer of The Schomburg Center’s Black Comic Book Festival in Harlem. He is co-founder and organizer of the MLK NorCal’s Black Comix Arts Festival in San Francisco and also CAAMCon at The California African American Museum in Los Angeles. John is currently at work on My Superhero Is Black (2025) with acclaimed producer Angélique Roché. The book will illuminate some of the most important Black creators and characters through Marvel Comics history.