Dartmouth Events

Join Pan Cooke, Robyn Smith, and Jason Lutes for an engaging panel at Dartmouth on using art and cartoons as powerful tools for change. The panel will share insights on how their work challenges societal norms, amplifies marginalized voices, and sparks meaningful conversations. Don't miss this opportunity to explore the intersection of art, activism, and social justice through the unique lens of cartooning.

Free and open to the public. Tickets required, get yours here.

The event will be livestreamed, sign up to attend online here.

A recording of the event will be posted on YouTube.

Pan Cooke is a writer and illustrator from Dublin, Ireland. He is best known for his social justice comics and illustrations, which have been widely shared across social media and focus on topics from police violence to mental health awareness. He has worked alongside Amnesty International on several campaigns and frequently collaborates with the activist group Campaign Zero. Pan combines his love of graphic storytelling with a passion for education and advocacy. His forthcoming debut graphic memoir ”Puzzled”, which illustrates his experiences growing up with OCD, is set to be published in 2023.

Robyn Smith is a Jamaican cartoonist known for her mini-comic The Saddest Angriest Black Girl in Town, illustrating Nubia: Real One (written by LL McKinney and Wash Day Diaries (written by Jamila Rowser) which won the 2022 LA times Book Prize for Best Graphic Novel. She has an MFA from the Center for Cartoon Studies and was awarded the 2024 Ignatz Award for "Outstanding Artist". She loves cake and her cat, Benson, and holds onto dreams of returning home to the ocean.

Jason Lutes, born in New Jersey in 1967, grew up on American superhero comics until a trip to France at age nine introduced him to "bandes dessinées" or comics. Influenced by Heavy Metal magazine and Dungeons & Dragons, he graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1991. At RISD, he discovered comics like RAW and Yummy Fur, inspiring him to create minicomics under "Penny Dreadful." After moving to Seattle, Lutes worked at Fantagraphics and got his big break in 1993 with the comic strip Jar of Fools for The Stranger. By 1996, he left the paper to focus on comics full-time, later creating his acclaimed series Berlin, a 22-chapter story set in the Weimar Republic.Now based in Vermont, Lutes teaches comics at the Center for Cartoon Studies and works on City of Light, the final book in the Berlin trilogy. He still finds time to play Dungeons & Dragons with friends.