I Was Fired for Making Fun of Trump; The New York Times, June 15, 2018

Rob Rogers, The New York Times; I Was Fired for Making Fun of Trump

"After 25 years as the editorial cartoonist for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, I was fired on Thursday.

I blame Donald Trump.

Well, sort of.

I should’ve seen it coming. When I had lunch with my new boss a few months ago, he informed me that the paper’s publisher believed that the editorial cartoonist was akin to an editorial writer, and that his views should reflect the philosophy of the newspaper.

That was a new one to me.

I was trained in a tradition in which editorial cartoonists are the live wires of a publication — as one former colleague put it, the “constant irritant.” Our job is to provoke readers in a way words alone can’t. Cartoonists are not illustrators for a publisher’s politics...

The paper may have taken an eraser to my cartoons. But I plan to be at my drawing table every day of this presidency."

Expert in Native American intellectual property joins ASU Law Indian Legal Program; Arizona State University, June 11, 2018

Arizona State University; Expert in Native American intellectual property joins ASU Law Indian Legal Program

"In 2007, [Trevor Reed] moved to New York and enrolled at Columbia, beginning a decade-plus of music-inspired study that would result in three master’s degrees, a PhD and a Juris Doctor. He initially went to Columbia hoping to break into the music industry, figuring his best shot at a career in the arts would require being in either New York or Los Angeles.

“When I got there, it opened up so many new issues for me,” Reed said. “It just so happens that Columbia owns this massive archive of Native American musical recordings that I don’t know if anybody had really ever heard about. When I learned about that, it sparked an interest in wanting to return music and other types of archival collections, artifacts and other types of intellectual property back to Native American tribes.”

That led to the Hopi Music Repatriation Project, a joint project of the Hopi Tribe and Columbia University, which Reed began leading as a master’s degree student. Think Indiana Jones, the fictitious archaeologist and university professor, but the complete opposite. Instead of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” plundering wondrous works from indigenous cultures, it was “Returners of the Lost Art.” The project focused not only on returning recordings and rights, but also working with tribal leaders, educators and activists to develop contemporary uses for the materials.

“I stayed on at Columbia well after my business degree had finished, and I joined the PhD program in ethnomusicology, which is essentially the anthropology of music,” Reed said. “And we just set to work on this project, and it carried through law school, and I was able to refine my work in copyright and cultural property. It’s been an interesting ride.”"

Artist Tom Beland’s Heartfelt BLACK PANTHER piece becomes a variant cover; The Beat: The News Blog of Comics Culture, March 15, 2018

Taimur Dar, The Beat: The News Blog of Comics Culture; Artist Tom Beland’s Heartfelt BLACK PANTHER piece becomes a variant cover

[Kip Currier: I just chanced upon and got a copy of this moving Black Panther variant comic book cover by cartoonist Tom Beland, which Marvel Comics commissioned, following his original cartoon that went viral.
It's inspiring to see the diverse leadership roles that people can take to communicate messages and ideas that move individuals and societies forward in affirming ways.]

Black Panther variant comic book cover by cartoonist Tom Beland.
James "Kip" Currier (c) 2018

"As gratifying as it is to see Black Panther obliterating the myth that films with a predominately black cast can’t find mainstream success, perhaps its greatest achievement is the strong reaction among black girls and boys. If this 7-year old kid taking up the M’Baku challenge doesn’t melt your heart, then it’s probably made out of vibranium!

To say that Black Panther is a watershed moment for superhero films and representation is an understatement. Less than a week after Black Panther smashed box office records on opening weekend in February, cartoonist Tom Beland (True Story, Swear to God) drew this poignant piece. Despite taking Beland less than 15 minutes to draw, to his amazement it was shared over 10K times on social media!"

Marvel Comics editor-in-chief on company's diversity push, using a Japanese pen name; CBS News, June 2, 2018

CBS News; Marvel Comics editor-in-chief on company's diversity push, using a Japanese pen name

""We're 100 percent committed to diversity...Marvel is the world outside your window and we want not only our characters but our creative talent to reflect that world and it hasn't been an easy road to be honest with you. Going back to the 60s when Marvel were created it was created by a number of white men here in New York City who were working in our studio… But now, we do not have any artists that work in Marvel. All our writers and artists work -- are freelancers that live around the world so our talent base has diversified almost more quickly than our character base has."

One of the people in charge of making Marvel more inclusive is vice president of content and character development Sana Amanat. She created Kamala Khan -- Marvel's first Muslim superhero -- who helped sell more than half a million Ms. Marvel books to date."

Deadpool 2’s Dennison on Bringing Diverse Body Types to Superhero Genre; Comic Book Resources, May 25, 2018

Taylor Williams, Comic Book Resources; Deadpool 2’s Dennison on Bringing Diverse Body Types to Superhero Genre

"Following his breakout role in Taika Waititi’s 2016 comedy adventure Hunt for the Wilderpeople, New Zealand-born actor Julian Dennison has leaped to international stardom as Russell, aka Firefist, in Deadpool 2. The foul-mouthed, flame-throwing mutant is unlike any superhero movie audiences have seen before, both in temperament and physique. The latter is what excited the 15-year-old for the part, as other chubby kids can now see a hero who looks like them.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Dennison noted how special it was for him to be able to portray the character. “There isn’t just one kind of person that can play a superhero,” he said. “For me, playing a chubby or fat superhero was so special because I would go and watch these movies with my friends and would never see anyone like me. I am excited to be that for other kids who look like me.”"