On Reading Comics by Jennifer Murvin and Cole Closser - Exclusive

About Jennifer Murvin

Jennifer Murvin is a writer and teacher. Her essays and stories have appeared or are forthcoming in American Short Fiction (2015 - Winner of the American Short(er) Ficton Contest, judged by Stuart Dybek), Phoebe (Honorable Mention, judged by Ramona Ausubel, 2015 Fiction Contest), Out of Sequence: The Sonnets Remixed (2014), Revolver (2014), The Sun (2014), Mid-American Review (Fall 2013), Midwestern Gothic (Fall 2013), Bellingham Review (Fall 2013), Cincinnati Review (Winter 2014), Baltimore Review (Third Place, Winter 2012 Short Fiction Contest), Huizache (Fall 2012), and other literary journals. Jen Murvin has also published several comic books for children, including the series Chickasaw Adventures, Stories of the Saints, and McGraw- Hill's World History Ink.

Jennifer is a faculty member at Missouri State University, where she teaches
Fiction Writing
(short story), the
Graphic Novel (craft and literature), and Contemporary American Fiction. She
is also a faculty
member for the
River Pretty Writers Retreat held twice annually in Tecumseh, Missouri. Jen
holds an MA in
English from
Missouri State University and an MFA in Nonfiction from Pacific University
in Forest Grove,
Oregon.

Website

About Cole Closser

Cole Closser holds an MFA in Sequential Art from the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont. His first graphic novel, Little Tommy Lost (Koyama Press), was named one of the ten best graphic novels of 2013 by A.V. Club (the Onion), and nominated for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Award in the category of Best Publication Design at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con. Cole is an Assistant Professor of Art & Design at Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri—and is a regular guest faculty member at the River Pretty Writers Retreat in Tecumseh, Missouri, where he leads a workshop in sequential art/graphic narrative.

Cole's work has been featured in such publications as Regular Show from Boom
Studios, Little
Nemo: Dream
Another Dream from Locust Moon Press, and The Dreadfuls from Rotland Press.

Cole's forthcoming graphic novel Black Rat will debut this September at the
Small Press Expo,
from Koyama
Press.

Cole is generally a nice guy, but don't jive talk him. He enjoys reading
books with funny
pictures, watching
old cartoons, and wrestling alligators. Cole likes cats.

Website | Twitter | Tumblr

About BLACK RAT

This aesthetically varied collection of nine graphic short stories is
loosely linked by the
recurring
appearance of a black rat.

"BLACK RAT is beautiful—a distinct showcase of a young master's prowess. Cole Closser's cartooning repertoire is wonderfully versatile and dense with comic book history." —Farel Dalrymple (The Wrenchies, Pop Gun War) "This is comix alchemy of the highest order: uncanny, funny, chilling, intoxicating, a resonating image/echo chamber that keeps propelling itself and the reader further into its own inky depths and stratospheres." — Stephen R. Bissette (Tyrant®, Taboo, Swamp Thing)