Comic book artist Box Brown,
The UWM Panels Comic Book Club invited Ignatz award-winning nonfiction comic artist and illustrator Box Brown to give a reading of his work.
The Ignatz Awards “recognizes exceptional work that challenges popular notions of what comics can achieve, both as an art form and as a means of personal expression,” according to their website.
Box was always interested in art and comics, but “associated drawing with being a child,” he said. It stopped him from seriously pursuing art until after finishing his degree in English and Communications.
After graduating, Box began working on comics in earnest. He attended several courses at the School of Visual Arts in New York before finally starting his first webcomic Bellen.
After abandoning the project Everything Dies, Box released his first nonfiction comic Andre the Giant: Life and Legend in 2014. The comic debuted to critical acclaim and quickly became a New York Times bestseller.
Two years later, Box then published Tetris: The Games People Play which was later nominated for an Eisner award.
Event organizer Rebecca Amyx said Box’s reading will be the last and only event sponsored by the Panels Comic Book Club this semester because of student organization grant cuts.
“A lot of the event grants, for all UWM organizations, got cut,” said Amyx.
Margaret Selkey, a UWM junior, said, “It’s really nice to have comic artists come by for talks, and it really sucks that there aren’t any more for the semester.”
However, despite this, the club still has a planned trip to the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo at the end of March.
Amyx said the club is looking for new members. To join or get in contact with the club, to look at their Orgsync or contact her on their Facebook group.
Box showed the audience a couple of pages of Cannabis: The Illegalization of Weed in America to end his talk. Cannabis: The Illegalization of Weed in America will be available April 2 and can be preordered now.