Award-winning cartoonist to speak at VCU

By Cheryle Rodriguez

James Sturm, award-winning cartoonist and creator of graphic novels such as “Market Day” and “The Golem’s Mighty Swing,” will speak next week at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The event takes place on Monday, Sept. 16, at 7 p.m. at the W.E. Singleton Center for the Performing Arts, 922 Park Ave. It is free and open to the public. A book sale and signing will follow.

Sturm is the director of The Center for Cartoon Studies, a two-year cartooning school located in White River Junction, Vt. His most recent books include "Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow;" "Adventures in Cartooning," created in collaboration with Center for Cartoon Studies alumni Andrew Arnold and Alexis Frederick-Frost; and "Market Day."

Sturm won the 2004 Eisner Award for “Best Limited Series” for “Unstable Molecules,” a four-issue series and trade paperback that featured characters based on the Fantastic Four and was published by Marvel Comics. His celebrated best-selling graphic novel “The Golem’s Mighty Swing” was named “Best Comic” for 2001 by Time magazine.  

Sturm’s writings and illustrations have appeared in several national publications, including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Onion, The New York Times and on the cover of The New Yorker.  

The VCU College of Humanities and Sciences, Communication Arts in the VCU School of the Arts and VCU Libraries are sponsors of the event.