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Thursday, January 18, 2018
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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This week’s b-side takes a look at comics as a phenomenon both inside and outside the classrom.
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RESEARCH
th
Annual Climate Survey Initiated in 2010
Who are the participants? 2,500 students 1,000 faculty members 1,000 staff members Who will be given the results? 130 institutions worldwide
After success on Planet Blue metrics last year, experts expect to see more improvement Daily Staff Reporter
The Sustainability Cultural Indicators Program is launching its fifth annual survey this week, collecting data from University of Michigan students, staff and faculty. The
May Mobility has roots at University, will expand driverless fleet from Detroit
ALEXA DI LUCA/Daily
Annual ISR survey aims to track changes in sustainability culture KATE JENKINS
A company puts AV tech on streets in more states 2
longitudinal study is conducted by the University’s Graham Sustainability Institute and the Institute for Social Research, and focuses on awareness, attitudes and behaviors relating to sustainability in participants. The SCIP project has tracked sustainability culture at the University since 2012, though it
took a two-year break to avoid overlapping with an ongoing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion survey. John Callewaert, Integrated Assessment Center director of the Graham Institute and one of the survey’s principal investigators, explains the SCIP project is revolutionary because
it is the first longitudinal study to track sustainability culture, and its innovativeness is being replicated at other institutes. “It’s been used as a model at many other institutions,” Callewaert said. “I think we are up to over 130 different institutions around the world See SURVEY, Page 3A
MOLLY NORRIS Daily Staff Reporter
Ann Arbor startup May Mobility successfully tested their fleet of driverless cars on the streets of Detroit in October, and now plan to expand the testing to Florida and Texas. Edwin Olson, the CEO of May Mobility, started out working with Toyota’s autonomous vehicles program, and then decided he could make more of a difference by creating his own company. In January 2017, Olson created May Mobility. “I think that too much time is going by, and there are a lot
of things that we can actually do, but a lot of companies are taking paths that will take many more years to turn into real world products,” Olson said. “So part of our approach is really about having real world impact as soon as possible.” Olson discussed all of the advantages of driverless cars, from safety to the environmental benefits of switching from gas cars to a greener solution. As an example, he discussed the potential commercial benefits of being able to have autonomous vehicles transport people from hotels to restaurants. He See MOBILITY, Page 2A
Innovate competition launches with University Plume case alumni talk kickoff event featuring entrepreneur to move on
CAMPUS LIFE
ANN ARBOR
diversity in internships
Students can win $10K for project pitch on public service or entrepreneurship
Underrepresented voices headline panel on working while navigating identity
Central Student Government hosted the kickoff and information session for Innovate, a public service pitch competition, in the Michigan League Wednesday evening with approximately 100 students in attendance. Students were able to hear information on how to become involved in the program, and were addressed by several guest speakers. Innovate is a program in which students can sign up to pitch a public service or entrepreneurship project with the chance of winning $10,000 to help fund continuation of their created project. The deadline to sign up is Jan. 26, and students can either sign up with a group or as an individual to be paired with other individuals of similar interests. Each group will then receive mentors, networks, feedback and advice on public speaking and other aspects important to the field of entrepreneurship. Previous winners range from online communities of information available to teachers and students around to the world to agriculturebased programs for older adults. The first round of judging will take place on Feb. 12, and the final round of pitches will
KAELA THEUT Daily News Editor
Approximately 40 students gathered in the Alumni Center Wednesday night to listen as a diverse cast of panelists — many of them recent University of Michigan graduates — shared their personal experiences and answered questions regarding power dynamics and intersectionality of identities in the workplace. The event, titled “Navigating the Workplace: Underrepresented and Invisible Identities,” focused on helping undergraduate students navigate the oftentimes complicated process of applying for jobs and internships — yet emphasized how the process can be even more difficult for students who hold various underrepresented identities based on qualifiers such as race, gender and class. Panelists included Public Policy graduate student Ammara Ansari, who worked as a campaign field organizer for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2015; Danny Park, who works as a success coach in the University’s See ALUMNI, Page 3A
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be March 7. CSG Chief Programming Officer Isabelle Blanchard, an LSA sophomore, served as the Innovate Coordinator, and explained students do not need a pre-formulated plan or solid project in order to sign up, but simply need a passion and an interest in a public service idea. Blanchard explained she looks forward
to students working to build upon ideas they already have enthusiasm for, and hopes that Innovate will engage a broader population of the student body. “We already have twenty sign-ups and the projects are all really diverse,” Blanchard said. “I’m also excited just to get the student body really involved … We’re hoping
to follow up with teams throughout the competition and really publicize their projects to the student body, and in the end the student body will also be voting.” CSG President Anushka Sarkar, an LSA senior, was the introductory speaker at the kickoff event where she highlighted the importance See INNOVATE, Page 3A
CHUN SO/Daily
Entrepreneur Suneel Gupta presents tips and strategies regarding how to become a successful entrepreneur at the Michigan League Wednesday.
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Vol. CXXVII, No. 57 ©2018 The Michigan Daily
after state judge rules
Gelman Sciences fought decision unsuccesfully in state Supreme Court ANDREW HIYAMA Daily News Editor
The city of Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, Scio Township and the Huron River Watershed Council will be allowed to continue their caseagainst Gelman Sciences, Inc., the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in an order on Jan. 12. After Washtenaw County Circuit Court Judge Tim Connors ruled the jurisdictions and the Watershed Council could join the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality as co-plaintiffs in December, Gelman Sciences fought the decision unsuccessfully in the Michigan Court of Appeals, ultimately landing the suit in the state Supreme Court. “The application for leave to appeal the July 14, 2017 order of the Court of Appeals is considered, and it is DENIED, because we are not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this Court,” the Supreme Court order read. See COURT, Page 3A
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MOBILITY From Page 1A also discussed the longerterm benefits, such as the possibility of restructuring city development. “Huge amounts of real estate are devoted to parking, and that’s basically because nobody wants to walk anywhere, so you build a lot of parking next to every possible place people want to go,” Olson said. “The problem is that then you provision the parking next to each building in accordance with that building’s sort of peak demand, which leads to city planners or property developers creating far more parking than is really necessary. If you can efficiently get people
FLORENCE.
into a neighborhood and then transport them within that neighborhood without getting them to re-park, you can reclaim that land and turn it into more retail or more parks, and that’s really exciting to the city planners and property developers that we talk to.” Aside from being located in Ann Arbor and employing many University of Michigan alumni, May Mobility has major ties to the University. Olsen said they have licensed technology with the University that has been imperative for getting the fleet of cars to work, as well as technology that helps ensure vehicle safety. “Getting our cars on public roads within our first months of operation couldn’t have happened without this relationship with U-M,” Olson
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said in University press release. Steve Vozar, May Mobility’s chief technology officer and one of the many University alums employed by the company, received his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and Ph.D in Engineering at the University. Vozar talked about how May Mobility differed from competitors because they were done waiting for someone else to produce a functioning driverless car company. “To me it’s really exciting to be at the forefront of a transportation revolution,” Vozar said. “I’ve worked on other autonomous vehicle projects before, and the approach that we have with May Mobility is unique and very grounded in reality, and it’s an approach that will market sooner than we think other competitors will be able to do: the structure, environment, going block by block and making sure the system can handle everything we can throw at it. There’s a realism associated with that – we’re not waiting for the next breakthrough in AI, we want to generate business in the very near future, and this approach is how we’re going to do that.” Vozar also spoke about how much he valued the company’s relationship with the University, both as an employee and as an alum. “A lot of the connections that I made in grad school at U of M are now coming back to me at May,” Vozar said. “I may not have thought about this person in years, but they’ve got some company that they’re working with, or they have some candidates for me, or they have some cool new
technology that we might want to integrate. So there’s sort of a diaspora into the leadership of big and small companies from Michigan Engineering, and it’s great to be able to use that network.” Specifically, Vozar believes the benefits of having access
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to Mcity, the University’s testing facility for automated vehicles in simulated urban and suburban driving environments. “Resources like Mcity are really crucial for us to do testing in a controlled environment, and to ramp up the testing and ensure our safety systems are functioning and fully vetted,” Vozar said. Erica Forrest, an engineering sophomore who recently became involved with Mcity, stressed the importance of autonomous vehicle research, and expressed how excited she was to be a part of this ongoing research. “I think the cause is very important, just because of how frequently car accidents occur, and how dangerous driving can be,” Forrest said. “I’m a mechanical engineer, but I’m also interested in entrepreneurship. But I thought that this course was a great combination of the two. It’s so cool that we have this luxury right at our school, and I think being able to have this opportunity and work with professional companies and be a part of this exciting program is amazing.”
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Thursday, January 18, 2018 — 3A
N AV I G AT I N G I D E N T I T Y
CHUN SO/Daily Panelists discuss their experiences surrounding topics of underrepresented identities in the workplace at the Alumni Center Wednesday.
COURT From Page 1A Ann Arbor City Councilmember Zachary Ackerman (D-Ward 3) welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision. He said the community would be fighting for a full cleanup of the dioxane to prevent it from entering the Huron River. This challenges the recentlyimposed state requirement that Gelman Sciences keeps the concentration of the chemical below 7.2 parts per billion,
INNOVATE From Page 1A of the program in allowing students to take control of their own ideas and to work toward gaining productive support from those in positions of power. “Not enough of us know what it means for our public servants to fight for us. Not enough of us know what it means to feel like we have our own fate and our own wellbeing in our own hands. And few, if any of us, know what it means to see the impact of our representatives investing in our ideas. That has to change. And that’s why we built Innovate,” Sarkar said. One of the kickoff event’s speakers was Suneel Gupta, vice president of product development for Groupon and CEO of Rise, a company that works to make healthcare more affordable through the use of technology. He explained to the room his own perspectives on how to become a successful entrepreneur, specifically through his “Four Chords for Founder Mindset.” Potential Innovate participants also listened as Gupta gave specific tips and
SURVEY From Page 1A that have contacted us to see what we are doing and get copies of our questionnaires. We’ve been very open with them because we want this to be something that grows and develops. Hopefully at some point we can compare across institutions.” A report from Planet Blue, the University’s collaborative effort to further sustainability education, research and operations tracked positive progress on nearly every sustainaibility goal the University had set for itself. Greenhouse gas emissions, the findings detailed, decreased to 5 percent below the 2006 levels
which is still more than twice as high as the Environmental Protection Agency’s posted concentration for carcinogenic risk. “I think it’s expressly the goal of the community to fight for full cleanup, and I’m excited that Ann Arbor will have the opportunity to fight to protect the drinking water of the residents we’re sworn to protect,” Ackerman said. The Ann Arbor City Attorney’s Office declined to provide comment, based on the fact that the litigation between the parties was ongoing.
strategies for working through failures and fears. He spoke of his own experiences with writing ideas and anxieties down on paper, for example, and encouraged students to take similar measures to improve their own productivity. “When you pull things out, when you actually start putting it down on paper, you start to realize that the things we fear the most are often the same things that are least likely to happen,” Gupta said. University students also joined the lineup of speakers, with Engineering sophomore Keiana Cavé and LSA senior Brendan Genaw giving presentations. Cavé, who was named one of Forbes’ 30 under 30 in 2017, discussed her own research experiences, including the time she spent a month month she spent researching for the Smithsonian on an island in Panama. She encouraged student attendees to persevere throughout their journeys, and to recognize that processes are often much more important than the outcomes. “People always see the end result, and especially for all of us students, people see whatever we list on our résumé, but they don’t really
last semester Callewaert added the over the past years, positive trends have clearly emerged at the University, particular centered around meals. “There’s been real increases of awareness around sustainable food. That’s an area where there have been positive changes both in terms of awareness and behavior, and we think that a part of the reason for that is there is a lot of activity on campus related to sustainable food,” Callewaert said. “The University has put a lot of effort into it and we are seeing the results in our survey.” Still, progress has not been uniform. For example, student transport remains a major issue on campus. “The one area where we have
I’m excited that Ann Arbor will have the opportunity to fight
see how we got there, and they don’t know our stories necessarily,” Cavé said. Genaw, who currently serves as the president of optiMize, an on-campus social impact based entrepreneurship community, expressed similar sentiments as he explained the importance in remaining optimistic and willing to take risks. “A lot of the amazing entrepreneurs I’ve met are people that decide to tell themselves yes,” Genaw said. “And when you get a community… that’s always going to be telling you yes, it makes you willing to try things that you might not have been able to try.” LSA freshman Miriam Chung attended the event and said the speakers motivated her to take on a project through Innovate, to work toward her own goals and gain worthwhile experience throughout the process. “I’m definitely not the type of person to take initiative (on projects like these),” Chung said. “But they were like ‘anyone can do it, you just need to start’ and I was like okay, maybe we can actually do something, even if we don’t win, it’s just a chance to try and do something, to create a project.”
seen a decrease over the four years is in regard to sustainable travel and transportation for students,” Callewaert said. “In 2018, we are asking about Uber and Lyft use for the first time.” Robert Marans, the survey’s other principal investigator, points out that despite the steady increase in campus sustainability awareness, taking behavioral steps toward sustainability can prove more challenging. “Behavioral changes have been slow,” Marans said. “Things haven’t changed that much in some areas over the past four years as we had hoped.” Fortunately, the data collected by SCIP surveys can and are being used by organizations to address
Gelman Sciences has previously acted in attempt to negotiate solely with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, which may more likely to settle for a smaller cleanup than the local jurisdictions. Laura Rubin, the executive director of the Huron River Watershed Council, said examples like the Flint water crisis indicated the agency may not be tough enough on similar environmental issues. “I think, like many of the other partners, we were unhappy with how things were going with the cleanup –– 30
ALUMNI From Page 1A Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives; engineering graduate student Chris Boyd; public health graduate student Micalah Webster; and Public Policy graduate student Angelica De Jesus. Business sophomore Shartia Ducksworth said she enjoyed the event, and listening to the panelists made her realize she should have started applying for internships earlier. She also noted the diversity of the attendees, especially in regard to the usual makeup of such events. “I wish that applying to internships was something I started as a freshman,” she said. “I definitely liked how diverse it was. That’s not always the case when you come to events like these.” Public Policy senior Gloriela Iguina-Colón, undergraduate co-chair of Students of Color in Public Policy and one of the event’s organizers, said she believes students of color on campus need a better support network in terms of applying for jobs and internships. “We saw a really big need for a support system and network for students of color in a professional development school,” she said. “I had several experiences with
sustainability issues on campus. “There’s been a major overhaul of the recycling and waste containers across campus. It’s very clear about which items can be recycled,” Callewaert said. “The team that worked on that was looking at SCIP data and results to inform their decision making.” Planet Blue aims to change the University’s culture by promoting sustainability. “Few universities are making efforts to change the culture, which is really what the Planet Blue effort is about,” Marans said. “Even fewer are trying to track the change in culture over time, and that’s where the SCIP surveys come in.” Erin Barton, an Environment and Sustainability graduate student who works at the
years later and we still have this plume,” Rubin said. “And I think also, there’s no question that Flint and the Toledo water crises have opened everybody’s eyes to sort of reanalyzing whether the DEQ and regulatory authorities are really doing enough on these kinds of issues, and so that sparked us to start asking harder questions.” Rubin said it was unusual an environmental nonprofit like the Watershed Council got a standing in such a case, and it faced challenges such as Attorney General Bill Schuette
explicitly arguing against its intervention. She believes Supreme Court’s decision set an encouraging precedent. “I think it does open up more cases like this, for environmental groups to come in, and I see that as a huge victory because in this political climate, environmental regulations and policies are being de-emphasized,” Rubin said. “And I think that going forward, the role of environmental groups, citizens, scientists and local governments is one that is going to have to step up and be more of a watchdog and invest more in monitoring.”
different events that are really engaging, but didn’t make the connections with people and couldn’t help me professionally. So I reached out to Ayana, who has been a mentor to me, so Dana and I have been collaborating in planning this panel.” After securing an internship with The Hill, Iguina-Colón explained how she personally struggled with creating connections because her identity was different from that of anyone else in the office. However, this experience inspired her to return to Ann Arbor and work to create a network for others going through the same experience. “No one looked like me in the office so creating those bonds was difficult,” she said. “I felt like that wasn’t supported in any way and I felt like it was the first time I was supposed to have to search for a professional network and support system. When I came back I felt like it was super important that people know we will help them get to The Hill, but they have to put in work when they get the internship. It’s not just about what you can add to the internship though –– it’s about what you can add to yourself and your experiences. I feel really happy, and Dana has been amazing through this whole process.” Rackham student Dayna Asante-Appiah, an intern at the
Alumni Scholars program and another event organizers, said her personal experiences navigating the workplace have heavily influenced her in choosing to work in the field of career counseling. “As a woman of color myself, and as a grad student who desires to work with students in the future, I think it’s important to be able to help students communicate and navigate through these spaces, even though it’s been their experience their whole life. Sometimes coming to college and being one of the only persons of color is a new experience, so I have a real passion for career counseling and have an internship at the career center too,” she said. Asante-Appiah also emphasized the importance of helping students realize the intrinsic value of their identities, while simultaneously understanding the unfair, but realistic, barriers existing in the workplace due to said identities. “I think being able to have these conversations with students is important so we don’t ignore different aspects of our identity –– visible or otherwise – and feel confident about what they bring to the table professional,” she said. “But also I want them to know the reality that not everyone is going to understand or look like you and see the value of what you bring.”
Graham Institute, describes the importance of the SCIP survey in an email interview with The Daily. “In general, social science is important for creating a more sustainable society because human behavior is a major barrier, often more so than science and technology,” Barton wrote. “We need to understand what people do and why they do it if we want to facilitate positive behavior change.” The SCIP project is aiming for 2,500 students, 1,000 faculty, and 1,000 staff to fill out the survey this semester. All survey responses are completely anonymous and allow the University to better obtain its goal of creating a sustainable culture.
The one area where we have seen a decrease ...is in regard to sustainable travel and transportation
Opinion
4A — Thursday, January 18, 2018
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HANNAH HARSHE | COLUMN
E
H&M needs diversity
arlier this month, H&M sparked outrage when an image appeared on its online store featuring a Black child modeling a sweatshirt that read “coolest monkey in the jungle.” Two white child models were featured on the site also wearing jungle-themed sweatshirts, but their sweatshirts did not reference monkeys. The retailer quickly removed the image, said it would pull the sweatshirt from its stores and posted an online apology stating, “Our product and promotion were not intended to cause offence but, as a global brand, we have a responsibility to be aware of and attuned to all racial and cultural sensitivities — and we have not lived up to this responsibility this time.” However, it was too late. The damage had been done. Musical artist The Weeknd and rapper G-Eazy announced they would no longer be working with H&M. LeBron James posted an Instagram photo expressing his disdain for the ad. Shortly thereafter, members of the South African political party Economic Freedom Fighters protested at several H&M stores, marching through stores, breaking mirrors, knocking over mannequins and racks and throwing clothes around. When H&M subsequently closed several locations for safety reasons, Floyd Shivambu, the deputy president of the EFF, tweeted, “All the stores of that racist retailer @hmsouthafrica are CLOSED. Racism must fall and we will never tip toe around racists.” When friends and I discussed the protests, our unanimous response was they were ridiculous. We agreed we loved that overt racism is no longer profitable, that it’s unacceptable to use racial slurs and that if you do, whether or not it was intentional, people respond negatively. But we said that if people think for a second that H&M created that sweatshirt to promote racism, they don’t understand a thing about how business works. H&M exists solely to make money, not to promote any political agenda. Even if every single executive at H&M was racist, they still wouldn’t intentionally put a racist slogan on a sweatshirt because they know they wouldn’t
make money off of it. H&M just wants to make money. The slogan was clearly an oversight. However, what we neglected to acknowledge was how absurd it is that H&M is in a position that allows such an oversight to be possible. Yes, the EFF protests were extreme and arguably counterintuitive. But today I would tell business executives the same thing I tell my 12-yearold campers: “You can’t control how people treat you, but you can control how you respond to it.” Maybe knocking down racks of clothing was an unduly destructive response to a slogan on a sweatshirt, but you can’t control if people protest your mistake. What you can control, however, is how much effort you
“Racism, whether unintentional or intentional, violent or seemingly harmless, is no longer profitable.” put toward ensuring you never again make a mistake people deem worthy of protesting. I assume the people involved with the photo did not consider its racial implications when making their decisions — if they did, then we’re facing a different problem because the people at H&M aren’t just racist, they are ignorant. More than likely, though, this photo passed through a whole team of professionals who didn’t have the life experiences to lead them to think twice about the way it may be perceived. So many people have been the victim of racial slurs; if just one of them had been on the team that created this photo, and had been in a position where they felt that their perspective was valued, the photo would have been reconsidered and H&M wouldn’t be facing the biggest marketing disaster of its existence. In case you were wondering, H&M’s board of directors is all white. Its CEO and CFO are both white. Its auditing committee is
all white. I don’t know exactly who was on the team that created this photo, but H&M is a global brand with locations in Africa, the Middle East, Oceania, Europe, Asia and the Americas. And yet you would be hard-pressed to find a high-level employee of any race besides white. McKinsey’s 2015 report titled “Why diversity matters” explains, “Companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians.” “Companies in the bottom quartile both for gender and for ethnicity and race are statistically less likely to achieve aboveaverage financial returns than the average companies in the data set (that is, bottom-quartile companies are lagging rather than merely not leading),” it states. This is why diversity matters. It is the same reason we need a more diverse student body at the University of Michigan, the same reason we need to ensure America’s youth are presented with equal opportunities. We will likely never reach a point in our nation where all citizens champion diversity simply because it’s the right thing to do. When our institutions and businesses are diverse, they are better equipped to meet the needs of a wide variety of cultures and individuals. But regardless of whether people recognize the innate value of diversity, nobody can deny the free market is a microcosm of the culture, and the culture right now is a culture of social justice. Racism, whether unintentional or intentional, violent or seemingly harmless, is no longer profitable. If you do appear racist, then the markets are going to respond negatively. If you want to succeed as a business, then you can either hope and pray your homogenous staff doesn’t make some critical oversight like H&M did, or you can create a diverse workplace environment that reflects the company’s consumer base.
HANNAH MYERS | CONTACT HANNAH AT HSMYERS@UMICH.EDU
Hannah Harshe can be reached at hharshe@umich.edu.
A
Pavlovian progressives
s my roommates the Tramp” to the Merchant in finally began to “Aladdin.” What concerned me, settle on something though, was that the origin of to watch, I smiled. They had their complaint was discomfort chosen one of my with Blackness. Without favorite movies of interrogating it or all time, Disney’s articulating their point “Hercules”, and I further, they heard a would be able to stereotypically Black hear it all in the voice and jumped to the background as I assumption that it was made dinner — not okay. or so I thought. It is easy enough, Just as the title though, in the sequence began, sociopolitical world of BRETT one of them made a campus liberal, to err GRAHAM an off handed on the side of caution remark about the Muses, and adopt these responses. That saying something along is, as a student on campus who is the lines of “Wow, I never not a person of color or part of the realized when I was younger LGBTQ community or belonging how offensive the portrayal to a religious minority group, of the Muses is!” The heated when one sees a questionable discussion that followed representation in the media, the drowned out the vast majority primary goal is to find out what, of the movie after that. if anything, is wrong with it. In For those of you with the rare most cases, the most “woke,” misfortune of never having seen most culturally sensitive thing “Hercules”, the Muses are the to do is identify it, immediately five women who narrate the determine the degree of offense story. Throughout the movie, such a representation may have they add comedy and Motown- caused (on a sliding scale, usually, inspired musical numbers. The from “potentially problematic” central thesis of my roommates’ to “downright racist”) and then complaint was that the voices and share your judgement with those songs they were hearing from around you. these characters “sounded Black” This cannot be a healthy and I was deeply confused by mechanism. In fact, it is a this. The problematic concept of Pavlovian shortcut that too many “sounding Black” aside, why was use as an excuse to not tackle that necessarily a bad thing, or more complex, serious questions offensive in any way? The voice about cultural appropriation and actresses who played the Muses how underrepresented groups are were Black, singing in a genre portrayed in the media. that belonged, for the most part, Watching “Hercules” with to African Americans. They are my roommates was far from my not being portrayed in any kind of first experience like this. Several negative light; they are talented, times I have been in a room of intelligent, confident and playful. well-meaning, relatively “woke” So what exactly was the matter? liberal people where questions My roommates were right like that will come up and, more to be skeptical, given Disney’s often than not, a room full of white track record of questionable people will end up walking away representations of minority groups, taking umbrage with a character, from the crows in “Dumbo” to accent or representation that the the Siamese Cats in “Lady and affected group might not find
offensive at all. In a certain sense, this is progress and perhaps even something to be celebrated. This socioeconomic and demographic group is paying great attention, maybe for the first time ever, to these issues and thinking about whether or not they contribute to an inclusive, respectful society. But isn’t this, on some level, the easy way out? Assuming that something is racist may be objectively a good bet and it may help someone feel more confident in their political leanings, but at the end of the day, it is far from the hard work of empathy and research that should be taking place. Doesn’t this sort of automatically generated response miss the point? Existing in 2018 as an empathetic, progressive, “woke” person is, and should be, hard work. You should be able to look at your own responses and interrogate them. “Why did I notice this representation of Blackness? Is it because it made me slightly uncomfortable and I did not know how to react?” Or, “Does this character’s recognizably gay voice demean them in any way, does it reflect an unfair stereotype?” These are much more suitable, nuanced questions than the bottom-line “Is it offensive? If yes, how offensive?” If you think you may be guilty of this Pavlovian progressive behavior, take a breath. You have the best of intentions, and that is a great place to begin. Next time you have one of these discussions, rather than passing judgement without a second thought and moving on, interrogate that instinct. See if you can complete the sentence “This is offensive because ______.” If you struggle to articulate the second part of that, chances are you are not as woke as you may have thought you were. Brett Graham can be reached at btgraham@umich.edu.
JOEL DANILEWITZ | COLUMN
The justification of the right to exist
I
n the wake of President Donald Trump calling Haiti, El Salvador and nations in Africa “shithole countries” when discussing immigration policy, people from these countries have been extolled by figures in the media as having an unparalleled resiliency, especially compared to a president who has never had to make a serious effort at achieving anything. These comments are warranted considering how the Haitian people have not only faced endless tribulations, but have been held as poverty porn and perpetuated as an immutably destitute nation by all sides of the media. Anderson Cooper became visibly emotional when describing the island nation on CNN, exalting their vibrant culture and incontrovertible sense of strength and pride. Members of several of these nations, including Haiti, responded by denouncing Trump’s comments as “abhorrent and obnoxious remarks.” The Senegalese president tweeted “Africa and the black race deserve the respect and consideration of all,” an innocuous request yet likely impossible for the repugnantly disrespectful Trump. However, the disheartening aspect of this (aside from the reaffirmation that a blatantly racist man holds our highest office) is that we have come to a moment where we must exalt the values of citizens of different countries in response to racism within our nation’s highest office. This is something that Americans of all stripes have had to confront daily, whether it be the xenophobic comments from our commander-in-chief or the Justice Department’s intent to deport hundreds of thousands of children who’ve lived in the United States under DACA. It would be comforting to imagine that on campus, we don’t have to
support someone’s right to live, and to breathe and exist peacefully without someone threatening this ostensibly inalienable right. This also has impacted campus as the University of Michigan indicates a willingness to provide a platform for white supremacist Richard Spencer to speak, suggesting that our supposedly safe campus is instead becoming a symposium for this same kind of existential deliberation. The University’s decision to offer dates for Spencer to visit campus undermines their once prostudent stance that serves minorities and marginalized groups. To avoid the risk of a lawsuit, they instead have chosen to let students ruminate over whether or not the larger Michigan community respects their rights with a haphazardly contrite message from University President Mark Schlissel. This seems discordant with a University that has disputed the policies of the Trump administration by promoting the safety of undocumented students. Why would Schlissel seem invested in the protection of marginalized students on one issue, yet apparently unconcerned by another? Classrooms have swelled up with questions of safety. Last semester, in several of my discussions, Jewish students and students of color collectively discussed not just whether or not Spencer should march onto campus but also how they don’t deserve the emotional and likely physical stress that will accompany an appearance by the bigoted nationalist. Questions of whether Spencer’s appearance would turn into another Charlottesville became central to the discussion. This conjured harrowing images of tiki torches and anti-Semitic or racial slurs polluting the air of Ann Arbor; in this dystopian scene, the Diag suddenly
morphs into a platform for Nazis and white supremacists to intimidate and aggress students of color and the Jewish community. The most prominent aspect of the argument became less of a point of debate and more of a plea: to recognize the fear these groups shared if swaths of racist, torch-holding white supremacists arose when Spencer visits campus. Why are students having to justif y their existence to the University? This is the point we’ve reached on this campus, with students postulating the damage and violence they may face should Spencer arrive. Furthermore, racist demonstrations and acts have shown to have increasingly negative effects on mental health, with communities of color reporting higher rates of depression and suicide because of these aggressions. Must we even bring these statistics into the conversation to justif y why students are concerned? This unsettling argument feels akin to people defending the lives of Haitians when Trump conf lates the identity of their country with a latrine. These watershed moments feel indicative of the values we will continue to hold, like a fork in the road. Racism so apparent confronts us, and to fight back we must rationalize why people aren’t “shitholes” and why all humans, whether on our campus or having emigrated to our country, deserve equal chances. Individuals of all races should not be forced to justify their right to live by defending their character. Yet in this country, much like at this University, we have been forced to wrestle with our officials and administration just to justify a right of existence. And that is a depressing sign of where we have gone and are continuing to go. Joel Danilewitz can be reached at joeldan@umich.edu.
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Thursday, January 18, 2018 — 5A
Freshmen key in Michigan’s win over Ohio State
MEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVE
Seniors show out in loss TIEN LE
Daily Sports Writer
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Freshman Syd Townsend — a former Canadian national team member — was a key contributor to Michigan’s final score of 197.55, currently the nation’s best.
ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Writer
All athletes dream of rivalry wins and upsets. The freshmen on the Michigan women’s gymnastics team have had one of each — in just two meets. Better yet, two freshmen — Lauren Farley and Syd Townsend — played integral roles in both those wins. And they still have potential for improvement. Though both suffered falls last week against then-No. 4 Alabama, their performances in Saturday’s meet against Ohio State showed no hints of their first-meet struggles. And both were major contributors to the Wolverines’ final score of 197.55 — the highest in the nation so far. Both Townsend and Farley earned spots in the starting lineups on two different events against the Buckeyes. Townsend competed on vault and bars while Farley performed on bars and beam.
And Sam Javanbakht — a freshman who has yet to make her collegiate debut — contributed in a different way, making sure the team kept up its energy and focus. “Everyone’s stepping up, all the freshmen,” said junior Emma McLean. “Even if people aren’t competing, they’re stepping up and they’re cheering and they’re contributing … it’s gonna take us far.” For Townsend, a former Canadian national team member, the team-focused environment of the NCAA is a stark contrast to her previous experiences. “In Canada, we were part of a team, but everyone kinda individually wanted what was best for themselves,” Townsend said. “Here, everyone genuinely wants you to do well and wants you to succeed because it would benefit the team.” Michigan’s camaraderie helped Townsend bounce back from a fall on vault last week. This week, she earned a 9.925, the second-highest vault score of the meet.
WRESTLING
‘M’ a piece away from top JACOB KOPNICK Daily Sports Writer
Friday’s wrestling meet was about as close as you’d ever see, but you would never know by looking at the final score. The score also couldn’t show you how thunderous the cheers were throughout Crisler Center, the close matches against defending national champions or the boisterous disapproval of controversial calls. No. 1 Penn State (2-0 Big Ten, 6-0 overall) was, in the end, more aggressive and technically sound than the eighth-ranked Michigan wrestling team (2-1, 5-2), eventually topping them, 25-12. The Wolverines’ three wins of the meet came from freshman Drew Mattin at 125 pounds, redshirt sophomore Stevan Micic at 133 pounds and fifth-year senior Adam Coon at heavyweight. Michigan took the first two matches of the night with relative ease as Mattin and Micic each earned major decisions to put the Wolverines up 8-0. However, this was the calm before the storm, as Michigan went on to drop the next seven matchups — five of them to defending national champions. The Wolverines did not have momentum on their side, as it eluded the team all night despite the largest home crowd they have ever seen. The Nittany Lions consistently began each match aggressively, as nearly every Penn State wrestler was able to secure a takedown early on. “In every match the guy who scored the first takedown won the match,” said Michigan coach Joe McFarland. “That shows you how important getting that first takedown is and getting that momentum on your side.” In what may have been the quintessential match of the night, redshirt junior Alec Pantaleo fell, 6-4, to Jason Nolf, the defending national champion and topranked wrestler at 157 pounds. The match began like any other that night as Nolf scored
a quick takedown at the start of the first period. After Nolf’s escape to start the second period, Pantaleo started a difficult uphill climb with a takedown of his own. Down only a point heading into the third, Pantaleo elected to start in the down position, a decision he would later regret as Nolf held onto him for the remainder of the match for a 6-4 win. “You can say it was a bad decision all you want,” Pantaleo said. “But from last year I’ve made big strides, and I was really confident when I chose bottom.” Ultimately, this sentiment may have been indicative of the match as a whole: Michigan was on the cusp but could not match up to the Nittany Lions’ near-technical perfection. Now that the Wolverines have faced the top team in the nation and know what it takes both mentally and physically to wrestle with the best, they are optimistic about their chances the next time they see Penn State on the mat. “I’m looking forward to seeing the video review to see what I did wrong so I can fix it,” Pantaleo said. “There’s so much that we can watch on video to see how they’re doing it and not let it happen again.” All in all, this match was a gargantuan battle that justified the switch from the quaint Cliff Keen Arena to Crisler Center on Friday. Additionally, while it may seem fruitless now, the energy in Crisler undoubtedly galvanized Michigan and instilled a previously unknown energy. “Finally getting in here it was really exciting,” Coon said. “We were all just really amped up, ready to go for a big dual against the returning national champs, but there were nerves and excitement as well — we were just amped up.” Added McFarland: “It’s a great atmosphere in here, you can feel it — our fans showed up and it was a great atmosphere. I wish we could’ve win a few more of those close ones, but it just wasn’t in the cards I guess.”
“Knowing that they actually do have my back and they can pull out the score if I mess up … was awesome,” Townsend said. Despite leading off on the uneven bars — a position in the lineup that often garners lower scores — Townsend received the highest score on the event with a 9.90. Farley’s score wasn’t far behind with a steady set. But where she really had the chance to shine was on beam. She showcased a unique beam routine featuring a backhandspring-layout-stepoutlayout-stepout flight series and a Gainer pike dismount. “That beam routine was great,” said Michigan coach Bev Plocki. “This is her first time in the bar lineup, she rocked it, and she’s right there in the mix on floor as well, so really proud.” And though floor was the only rotation that didn’t feature any freshmen Saturday night, that could change soon. After scoring had concluded, Townsend performed an exhibition routine on the floor exercise. It was a test run of
sorts, a chance to practice in front of the crowd and see how she would be scored by real judges, but without the pressure of having her score count. Townsend’s score of 9.80 showed an ability to hang with the team’s veterans — no easy task on the Wolverines’ historically-strongest event. “We were contemplating putting her in the lineup,” Plocki said. “(But) in order to earn your way, you have to exhibition first.” Last season, Michigan lost two of its strongest floor workers in Talia Chiarelli and Nicole Artz, leaving big shoes to fill. So while Townsend’s floor is currently a depth option, it has the potential to become much more than that. “She’s one that still has a lot left in the tank,” Plocki said. “We have a lot I think we can still improve upon with her.” In a sport like gymnastics, it’s often hard to know how much the freshmen will contribute. But as their two big wins demonstrated, the Wolverines don’t have much to worry about.
In a head-to-head dual for first place, Evan White pushed forward to close the gap of centimeters between him and the frontrunner, Indiana’s Vini Lanza. With the crowd rallying behind White, the senior gave a last hurrah in the final lap. He came up short. Just as White had, the No. 8 Michigan men’s swimming team fell to the fourth-ranked Hoosiers in a close dual meet despite giving its best efforts. Though the seniors put the team in a contending position, the Wolverines couldn’t come out on top. Despite the loss, Michigan rose to the occasion. Coach Mike Bottom claimed that the team had “one of their fastest dual meets by far on the men’s side and women’s side.” However, rising even higher was Indiana, who also had one of its fastest dual meets on both sides. Other silver linings of the day for Michigan were key performances from two of its seniors captains — PJ Ransford and White. Putting on a show for the 200and 100-yard Butterfly, White came out on top for one of two close contests and placed second on the other. Despite the result of the 200-yard, he had the claim to a first-place finish throughout, falling just short in final moments of the last lap. He finished with a 1:44.30, just .45 seconds from the winning time. However, rather than feeling down about his flawed finish in the 200-yard Butterfly, he entered his next event, the 100-yard Butterfly with a clear mind and intense focus. Determined to bounce back, he came from behind to overtake Lanza in the final lap, finishing with a 46.47, a tenth of a second faster than the second-place finish. Instead of taking in the cheers or getting distracted by results and emotions from the first race, White admitted that only one thought ran through his mind as he swam:
“Just try hard and score points for Michigan.” Likewise, Ransford had a similar approach to the meet. A slow starter — Bottom noted that Ransford “normally kinda sits back and builds into it” — Ransford chose to go head first into action in both his races, claiming the lead early into the laps. Knowing that he had to score points on the distance races, Ransford took it upon himself to try and give the Wolverines the advantage. Keeping scoring on his mind, he came out fast while controlling the pace to dominate the competition. “What a great swim he had, both the 500-yard and the mile,” Bottom said. “Both of those were great swims. He went out for it, he didn’t mess around, did he? He went out for it. This time I think he wanted it. He wanted it bad.” His desire to win showed, as he finished the 1,000-yard freestyle a near half-lap ahead of any Indiana swimmer — coming in at 9:01.88. “First half of the season, it’s tough because you’re working really hard,” Ransford said. “The second half, you start to do a bit more speedwork. And I was hitting my stroke count really well. But it is nice in a race to jump on it and be able to tell halfway that we’re going to get first, second for sure.” Being able to see the surefire victory provided relief to Ransford as he witnessed a sweep in the 500-yard freestyle, with Michigan claiming the top three times. With a time of 4:23.03, Ransford paved the way for the underclassmen to follow. Despite their individual achievements, the Wolverines were neither pleased nor disappointed with their performance. “It’s always tough to take a loss at home, but Indiana is a great team,” White said. “I think all our guys showed strong mentalities and no one was down after. It was in season. It was just good racing and practice for the end of the season.”
With road wins, ‘M’ all but seals tournament berth
AARON BAKER/Daily
Freshman guard Deja Church was clutch for Michigan in its win over Nebraska last week, sinking three free throws to send the game to overtime.
W
hatever validation the Michigan women’s basketball team
needed, it got — and then some. The Wolverines went on the road this week with March ETHAN hanging SEARS in the balance. No. 19 Michigan (5-2 Big Ten, 16-4 overall) had no need to worry about the NCAA Tournament until recently. The Wolverines waltzed through their nonconference slate, the only slipups coming against Louisville and Notre Dame, two of the top five teams in the country. Big Ten play started well enough — two easy wins with a loss at then-No. 23 Iowa sandwiched between them. But after dropping a close one to then-No. 10 Ohio State in Ann Arbor and narrowly escaping against unranked Indiana, a
two-game road trip was the opposite of what Michigan needed. Adding to the loss column against a formidable Nebraska team and the eighth-ranked Buckeyes would have put the Wolverines below .500 in the Big Ten. The margin for error would have been all but gone with just nine games left in the regular season. And, for a team that lost out on the Tournament last season after dropping three of their last four and exiting in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, familiar alarm bells would have rang through Crisler Center. When Michigan boarded the plane to Lincoln last Friday, it was staring down the possibility of moving to the tournament bubble and going through the whole ordeal again. Down three with eight seconds to go against the Cornhuskers, that possibility was inches away from becoming reality. After a timeout, Michigan ran a pick-and-pop with senior guard Katelynn Flaherty and
freshman forward Hailey Brown. Nebraska’s Jasmine Cincore got over the screen and nothing opened up. The ball found freshman guard Deja Church, who had no choice but to attempt a desperation 3-pointer as the clock reached its final second. She was fouled — a lifeline — and sunk all three free throws to tie it. “I was almost in disbelief,” coach Kim Barnes Arico told WTKA. “I wasn’t sure that she would be able to do it. But you know what’s funny about her is that she made every big play — like she seems to have a knack.” For the rest of the trip, the Wolverines never looked back. Michigan ran away with the game in overtime, then went to Columbus and came back from a 10-point first-half deficit to beat Ohio State on its own court. It was only the fifth time the Wolverines have beaten a top-10 team in program history. “We went right to a pickand-roll option where we had a high blast to try to get Hallie
(Thome) the ball inside, and we were able to do it the first couple possessions (of the second half ),” Barnes Arico said. “Then they tried to pack it in the paint and once they did that, we were able to kick and find Katelynn.” Thome and Flaherty finished as Michigan’s leading scorers, putting up 27 and 21 points, respectively, with 18 of Flaherty’s total coming in the second half as the Wolverines mounted their comeback and pulled away en route to an 84-75 win. Instead of the bubble, Michigan returned to Ann Arbor with a tournament bid all but official. Instead of a collapse, the Wolverines rose to the occasion. With a signature win under their belt and the season’s toughest road trip out of the way, the rest is simple: Hold the line and Michigan is in. Ethan Sears can be reached at searseth@umich.edu or at @ethan_sears on Twitter.
Sports
6A — Thursday, January 18, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
After attrition-filled offseason, Miles rights Nebraska’s ship The Nebraska coach spoke at Big Ten Media Day this summer about what went wrong last year for the Cornhuskers MAX MARCOVITCH Daily Sports Editor
It’s 9 a.m. at Big Ten Media Day. The coffee is flowing, the breakfast line is starting to die down, electrical outlets are reaching a dangerous premium. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney is finishing up his opening remarks filled with details on the new 20-game schedule, the new location for the Big Ten Tournament and the state of the conference; details are fresh but are simultaneously hollow in intrigue for the drearyeyed media members. Nebraska basketball coach Tim Miles walks on stage and ears perk up. “They always have me early. I feel like I’m the ‘Good Morning Vietnam’ guy,” Miles says. “But I love following the commissioner. You know a guy is highly intelligent when he can say that much and say that little.” He goes on. “We’re picked 13th by most of you in this room and some others, and that’s fine. I think we’re going to outperform that.” And we’re off. That’s Tim Miles: Brash, candid, unfazed. His personality attracts him to media and fans, even if it alone does little to help Nebraska win basketball games. As he fields and answers questions from the hundreds of media members in attendance, Miles knows he’s on the hot seat. The Cornhuskers are coming off a season in which they lost twice as many conference games as they won. Nebraska lost its final five games of the season, including a first round Big Ten Tournament loss to Penn
FILE PHOTO
Nebraska coach Tim Miles has his team sitting in sixth place in the Big Ten with a 4-3 conference record., only one season removed from finishing next-to-last.
State. Only Rutgers finished worse. From there, things only deteriorated. During the offseason, Miles lost seven players from his roster — two graduated, three transferred and two walk-ons chose to walk off. The player attrition offered the most damning account of the Tim Miles era to date; his program appeared to be a sinking ship devoid of life rafts. In a conference with two legitimate Final Four contenders and plenty of blossoming storylines, Miles’ Nebraska team falls mighty low on the list of priorities for the day.
That’s Tim Miles: Brash, candid, unfazed.
But in a day flooded with coachspeak, you can’t help but find yourself seeking out the loudest coach at the table in the furthest corner either doesn’t have a filter or doesn’t care enough to abide by it. Miles vacillates between lawyer jokes and roster breakdowns. One moment he’s playfully bantering with reporters, the next he’s detailing the gut-wrenching feeling of learning he was losing yet another of his players. “And you really feel like you see one of those movies with ‘Too Big to Fail’ or whatever it might be,” Miles says. “You feel you’re in the room with the Wall Street bankers saying this can’t be happening.” It can be easy to forget the momentum Miles had early in
his tenure in Lincoln. He led the Cornhuskers to a 19-13 record — and a fourth place finish in the Big Ten — in 2013-14, his second season with the program. That offseason, he signed three four-star recruits and registered the 27th best recruiting class in the country, according to 247Sports. Perhaps that’s easy to forget because in the three seasons since, Nebraska has won just 17 Big Ten games and finished no better than 11th in the conference. Not only had the momentum disappeared, it took a serious downward spiral. Miles had to grapple with the
reality that the program he had so carefully crafted — a program that had reached the NCAA Tournament just two years prior — was ripping at the seams. Instead of dwelling on it, he used the mass exodus as a rallying cry. “More than anything I think that galvanized us, going through those moments together, figuring out, alright, ‘who is really in here and why are you in?’ … What’s interesting about it is this team is probably more cohesive than any team I’ve had now in about three or four years, what’s left.”
“We’re going to show him his faith in us is justified.”
“Cohesion” is one of those buzz words that coaches love to use. Most teams are cohesive in October, and it’s an easy trait to praise when all else fails. But amidst roster turnover and job uncertainty, Miles meant it. “I’m going to come through for (former Nebraska athletic director Shawn Eichorst),” Miles told media shortly after Eichorst announced the 51-year-old coach would return for another season. “We’re going to show him his faith in us is justified.” Eichorst has since been fired as athletic director, only ratcheting up the pressure for Miles to prove his capabilities to his new boss, Bill Moos. The decision was less a vote of confidence from the former athletic director than a shot across the bow. Win now, or don’t return to Media Day next year. Against the odds, Miles and his team are doing just that. With a win over Illinois on Monday, Nebraska earned its 13th win, already one more than it did all of last season. Heading into the matchup with Michigan on Thursday, the Cornhuskers sit above .500 in Big Ten play, comfortably slated for their best season since the 201314 season that offered the promise of a Miles-led “Nebrasketball” rennaisance. Nebraska is winning close games — by one against Illinois, by four against Wisconsin, by four at Mississippi State, by 10 against Minnesota. It has lost only once at home in a nail-biting, one-point loss to No. 10 Kansas. And a win over Michigan Thursday would do far more than notch a fifth conference win. It would signal intent. It would change the present complexion of Cornhuskers basketball. It might just secure Miles’ job. If that happens, Tim Miles might have a little more than a good lawyer joke to tell at Media Day next year.
‘M’ ready for Nebraska Warren’s breakout weekend the link to sweep MEN’S BASKETBALL
MIKE PERSAK
Managing Sports Editor
The Michigan men’s basketball team dodged a bullet Tuesday. The Wolverines took Maryland’s best shot, stumbled to the brink of taking a heartbreaking loss but clumsily rebounded for an ugly win. It was Michigan’s first game as a ranked team in the 2017-18 season, and the results weren’t all that convincing. It struggled to contain Terrapins guard Anthony Cowan Jr., struggled to make layups at times and struggled to put its foot on the opponent’s throat when the occasion called for it. Still, the bullet was dodged. Thursday, as is the nature of the Big Ten schedule, the Wolverines will face another potential bullet — this time in the form of Nebraska. The Cornhuskers are a confusing team. Though they’ve lost to Central Florida and have been blown out by St. John’s, they also barely lost to then-No. 13 Kansas and beat then-No. 14 Minnesota on the road. Not to mention, coach Tim Miles’ squad has won six of its last eight games. It’s a bit surprising that Nebraska has found any success at all this season. After four players transferred from the program last season, Miles had to pick up the pieces this offseason and try to fit the team back together. He got that in the form of some incoming transfers. James Palmer Jr., transferred from Miami after the 2015-16 season, while Isaac Copeland came from Georgetown. All they’ve done so far is become the Cornhuskers’ two leading scorers, averaging 15.7 and 12.3 points per game, respectively. Michigan coach John Beilein sees versatility in the Cornhuskers, and he compared the impact of Palmer to that of redshirt sophomore guard Charles Matthews. “All their guys, I mean, Copeland’s been coming off the bench, he’s shooting, and Palmer, coming from Miami, he’s Charles Matthews, is who he is.” Beilein said. “He can pass the ball, he shoots the ball, he’s long, he’s
athletic. He’s Charles Matthews.” Even beyond Palmer’s abilities, Nebraska plays a similar style to the Wolverines. There are times when the Cornhuskers won’t have a traditional center on the floor — like Michigan when junior forward Moritz Wagner plays. Of course, Nebraska does not have Wagner. Its starting center, Jordy Tshimanga, averages just 3.5 points per game and plays just over 15 minutes per game. After him, the next tallest player is 6-foot-9. It’s a rarity that the Wolverines have a size advantage of any kind, but Thursday that may be the case. “The way they play, with essentially five guards at some times, is a challenge,” said fifthyear senior Duncan Robinson. “But hopefully we’ll be ready for the challenge.” Against Maryland, Michigan showed some versatility of its own. At one point late in the game, Beilein took out sophomore point guard Zavier Simpson in favor of freshman guard Jordan Poole. The Wolverines didn’t have a traditional point guard on the floor, but Beilein emphasized that he wants to get Poole — a dynamic scorer — on the court as often as possible. “We’re going to try to do everything we can to get Jordan more minutes,” Beilein said. “Especially if (Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman) is clicking and not in foul trouble, defensively he’s very good. Charles gives us a great slasher, a shooter, a playmaker. We don’t want him just sharing times at one position, so we’ve been trying to do that.” No matter who the Wolveirnes throw out on the floor, they’ll have to contend with the atmosphere in Lincoln. Of course, Michigan has played in tough environments already this season, winning in East Lansing less than a week ago, but Nebraska’s home court is enough of a test for Beilein to call it one of the best environments in the Big Ten. “Unbelievable place to play, I mean they pack it,” Robinson said. “We’ve had some success down there recently, but obviously, we’re gonna have to bring it tomorrow.”
BENJAMIN KATZ Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan hockey team has found its own version of Miami’s infamous “Turnover Chain.” The Wolverines carry a chain around for weekend series, symbolizing that they are only as strong as their weakest link. And in Michigan’s conquest at Minnesota last weekend, junior forward Brendan Warren was the link holding the chain together. The junior’s three-goal outburst helped the now-20th-ranked Wolverines complete a sweep of the Golden Gophers at Mariucci Arena for the first time in 41 years. Warren notched Michigan’s fourth and fifth goals Friday night, including the eventual game-winner, to bury then-No. 9 Minnesota, 5-3. Twenty-four hours later, just 1:13 into Saturday’s contest, he scored again to catalyze the Wolverines’ 3-1 victory. Warren has already eclipsed his career high with six goals this season. His .158 shot percentage is more than double his sophomore campaign’s clip and three times his freshman output. Against the Golden Gophers, Warren took just three shots all weekend, but each one found the back of the net. Even with his recent uptick in offensive involvement, Warren credits his teammates for feeding him in prime shooting areas — and a little bit of “puck luck.” “Team success usually leads to individual success, so that was something that helped me out,” Warren said after Tuesday’s practice. “My linemates also helped, playing hard and playing with speed, getting the pucks to me and putting the pressure on Minnesota so that I could get more opportunities myself.” Michigan coach Mel Pearson often talks about players who are “natural goal-scorers” and can create these opportunities for themselves. Warren, however, isn’t typically on that list. Instead, the Carleton, Mich. native is a skater who flies under the radar, his contributions minimally reflected on the scoreboard. “He’s hitting guys, he’s moving his feet, he’s blocking shots, he’s
ZOEY HOLMSTROM/Daily
Brendan Warren (back center) scored three goals in two games as Michigan swept No. 9 Minnesota on the road.
on the penalty kill,” said senior forward Tony Calderone. “He does everything that doesn’t show up, but is a huge part of our team. It’ll be good to see how he progresses.” Warren’s speed is evident during games. He wins battles on both sides of the ice, scrums in the corner and in front of his own net. He leads all Michigan forwards with 22 blocked shots and has a textbook shot with a quick and smooth release. Until last weekend, Warren didn’t have many chances to put that shot to use. But following a shoulder injury to sophomore forward Will Lockwood during last month’s World Junior Championships, that all changed. With Lockwood’s season most likely finished, Warren replaced the left winger on the second line. And just three games into his new role alongside linemates junior Jake Slaker and freshman Josh Norris, Warren has already displayed the stroke coaches and players regularly praise. Pearson has stressed hitting the net and not forcing badangle shots to help reverse the Wolverines’ recent goal-scoring slumps. Warren has caught on to that message and it has shown. “Too many times, you miss the net when you’re trying to pick the perfect spot,” Pearson said. “Just
make sure you get it away quick, under-handle the puck and get it on the net. And I think that was really the key for Brendan.” Success breeds even higher expectations, and Pearson has openly challenged the new-look trio to continue its offensive surge. “They look good and they’ve got all the ingredients you look for in a line,” Pearson said. “They’ve got defensive responsibility, speed, scoring, playmaking, so it’s nice to see them have some results. Get some results and then that encourages them and gives them more confidence. “We haven’t had that line together other than the three games, but they’ve gotten the opportunity in the three games and they’ve scored. That’s a real positive. They have a chance to be our best line.” Despite never playing on a top line on a roster full of branded superstars, Warren’s solid allaround game has already been noticed. He was selected by the Arizona Coyotes in the third round of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft and prior to the 2017 draft, his rights were traded to the Philadelphia Flyers. For his dominant weekend in Minneapolis, Warren was named the Big Ten First Star of the Week. According to his teammates, the
recent accolades are long-awaited and well-deserved for the player who does it all on the ice, but is frequently overlooked. “He’s a guy who works hard every night,” Calderone said. “He might not be rewarded on the scoresheet, but he does all the little things, so it’s nice to see him actually get rewarded. I think with a little bit of confidence now, that could leap him into a good second half here.” Added junior forward Cooper Marody, also a Flyer prospect: “Brendan is playing awesome, just working his butt off. He’s a guy who doesn’t get a lot of recognition that he deserves.” Pearson called for secondary contributors to be factors heading into the Minnesota series. Warren answered. Now, he must ride the current momentum entering a gauntlet of showdowns with top-ranked conference foes in upcoming weeks. “We have big dreams of making a run here and continuing to jump the standings in the Big Ten,” Marody said. “We need those guys to continue to step up like that.” The link of Brendan Warren kept the Wolverines’ chain together in a hostile Mariucci Arena. And with his elevated confidence, Warren is determined that link doesn’t break anytime soon.
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The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | Thursday, January 18, 2018
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2B —Thursday, January 18, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
B-SIDE LEAD Courtesy of Shapiro
Thinking outside the panel: A look at comics in the classroom & beyond ERIKA SHEVCHEK Daily Arts Writer
When I was younger, my dad gave me the graphic novel “Welcome to the Jungle,” the prequel to Jim Butcher’s novel series “The Dresden Files.” “It’s about a detective who’s also a wizard,” my dad told me. “I think you’ll like it.” Sure, I liked science fiction and mystery, I read the work of authors like Kurt Vonnegut, Alice Sebold and Stephen King. But those books consisted of thousands of words and dragged along for hundreds of pages. No images or drawings or graphics. “Welcome to the Jungle” would be my first graphic novel, so I wasn’t quite sure what to think. Flash forward to this past Friday when Dave Carter — video games archivist, comics librarian and reference services coordinator at the University of Michigan’s Duderstadt Center on North Campus — asked me: “So are you much of a comics person?” I was nervous to say no. I enjoyed the idea of comics as an artistic platform and as a method of storytelling, but I never read any except for the one my dad gave me. But there I was, interviewing a comics aficionado and the man who runs the comics collection, and I was giving him a blank stare. “My dad’s really into them,” I told him. “What’s the one about the detective but he’s a wizard?” He politely told me he hasn’t heard of it, so I was back to square one: naïveté about comics and little to no connection with them. I soon realized those notions would quickly change. About 13 years ago, the University opened a collection devoted to comics and graphic novels, mainly for Art & Design students and anyone else who was interested. Now with around 10,000 graphic
novels and 700 to 800 mini-comics (self-published, “grassroots”-type comics), the collection has made a hefty dent in the University’s libraries and provides a service for a variety of students. Carter is responsible for selecting the comics that go into the collection, mainly ordering from Vault of Midnight, a comic shop right here in Ann Arbor. Regardless of the new comics Carter orders, he’s also in charge of selecting comics from donations. I walked into Carter’s office when suddenly, I was hit with piles – loaded piles – of donated comics and graphic novels. But it’s not that people get sick of them or that they’re outdated – like any good story, you pass it on, and that’s what the donations do for the future students who will access the collection. “I’m building a collection for the person who’s going to be researching comics 20, 50, 100 years from now,” Carter said. “Today’s trash culture is tomorrow’s high culture.” Gathering comics in today’s age, even the less popular ones, will be relevant for someone in the near future. Comics are on the rise, and therefore the next generation of comic book readers need a collection worthy of their time. Carter went on to explain his process in choosing which comics go into the collection. His goal is to “identify key comics from around the world,” where he finds a wide variety in the world of comics. He tackles projects where he chooses to focus on comics and comic series from certain regions of the world, ranging from Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa and soon South Asia. And before Friday, I only knew of “Superman,” “Peanuts” and anime, let alone comics originating from all around the world. In the mindset of diversifying the collection, Carter also looks at
marginalized authors and stories. Instead of solely stories about white, male superheroes, comics about magical realism or realistic fiction are chosen. He will choose comics that reach out to different audiences, like children, college students and adults. Additionally, female authors, authors of color and queer-identifying authors are factors in the collection selection. Another essential part of Carter’s
While we can read comics as a form of entertainment or solely as fictional stories, they exist to serve a greater purpose
job is going around to different classes and telling students and professors about the comics section. Communication Studies and English are two courses Carter speaks to because they discuss how comics are both a form of storytelling and entertainment. But the classes finding it most useful are foreign language courses like German, French and Italian. Instead of reading novels with texts, students are reading graphic novels in these classes. Carter described how graphic novels give the reader “visual clues” that allow one to better understand phrases or
words because of their coinciding images. These graphic novels have a “big use of colloquial language,” he added, which helps students further their comprehension of the language. During the interview, Carter showed me pieces that were not displayed in the public collection but instead were stored privately due to older, more fragile binding or ones that are oversized. He pulled out a book that had to be 3x3 feet, opening it gently to show me the fluorescent drawings of the famous comic “Little Nemo” by Winsor McCay. Dating all the way back as early as 1905, the story of Little Nemo dreams these extraordinary dreams, only to awaken by the end of the strip. Carter explained to me how comics used to be full-page spreads in these old-fashioned newspapers, not the tiny, two to three block comics we get in print now. There was something about it: its vibrancy, its imagery, its eye-catching size, its age. I was absorbed into the strokes of “Little Nemo.” Though anyone could pick up a paper and be entertained by McCay’s character, it hit me how much comics have evolved from newspapers to web-forms and now to full-length pieces of literature. Comics have made and continue to make a distinct impact on society, both educationally and socially. Carter’s phone sat on the table during the interview. His phone case has the image of the Superman “S,” big and bold in red and blue. In that moment, the connection occurred to me: His email is superman@umich.edu. “I chose that (username) back in 1989 when I was a freshman in Engineering,” he said. They told him to “pick something you’ll remember.” “So I picked ‘Superman’ as my ID,” Carter said. Not knowing he
Haley McLaughlin/DAILY
would be the librarian for comics here at the University, Carter’s username suits him quite nicely — little did he know he would be saving the world of comics for students. As comics make an appearance in the library and foreign language courses, they’re also beginning to make their way into teaching styles and other areas of academia. Gina Brandolino, lecturer in the Sweetland Center for Writing and the Department of English, and Ali Shapiro, lecturer in Sweetland, the School of Art & Design and the English Department Writing Program, are setting the stage for the future of comics in academia. To truly understand their love and admiration for comics, Shapiro sent me a self-designed graphic, which resembles both her and Brandolino at their individual desks, reading comics and continuously passing on information and commentary about them. While both are avid comic book readers, the two have the opportunity to discuss and teach comics (yes, just comics) in a classroom setting this summer. “When we learned about the opportunity to teach a class together, it seemed obvious that would be a great class and, for me, a good opportunity to think more about pedagogy and comics with somebody really useful to do that with,” Brandolino wrote in an email interview with The Daily. In the past, Brandolino has taught all-comic courses through the English Department, with themes relating to fame and infamy, and topics revolving around place. “Teaching comics is pretty far outside my wheelhouse. I was trained as a medievalist, so I relied on the help of a good number of people to make the class work,” Brandolino said. Luckily, alongside Brandolino is Shapiro, someone who draws her own comics and teaches in LSA and the School of Art & Design. “I started drawing comic strips for my high school paper and eventually became the comics editor. My college application essay was a three-page comic essay,” Shapiro wrote. Between them and their dabbles in comics, the two are sure to bring an array of knowledge and enthusiasm to the course. Comics can be action-packed, entertaining and effulgent — adjectives that a comics neophyte like myself would relate to something along the lines of superheroes — but
Though we see how comics are breaking boundaries and are now being considered pieces of literature, we can’t forget how comics can benefit us as readers, students and educators Brandolino and Shapiro brought my attention to comics that were down-to-earth and realistic. Many of these pieces, though in the genres of magical realism, mystery, fiction, fantasy and even horror, allude to everyday challenges that people face in reality. Brandolino’s favorite comic, “My Favorite Thing Is Monsters” by Emil Ferris, tells the story of Karen, a little girl growing up in 1960s Chicago. “She has a hard time fitting in at school and, as a way to cope with that and some other hard things going on in her life, pretends she is a werewolf,” she wrote. Shapiro added that she has “also really been enjoying Michael DeForge, particularly his book ‘Big Kids,’ which is just so weird and imaginative (spoiler alert: people turn into trees).” Despite the imaginary and fantastical elements in the stories, they propose real characters who encounter situations with coming-of-age, murder, Holocaust survivors and complex relationships. We’re not just talking about cute Snoopy comics anymore. With this in mind, Brandolino and Shapiro described their intentions for their summer comic
course and their hopes for students to read comics in a new light. A portion of their class description proposes the analysis of reading comics through a social justice lens: “Comics also raise great questions about justice, pushing us to redefine ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys,’ explore marginalized perspectives and interrogate our expectations of what people, places and things ‘should’ look like. Indeed, comics are just as worthy of careful attention and analysis as are the literary ‘classics’ we typically think of as appropriate reading for school.” While we can read comics as a form of entertainment or solely as fictional stories, they exist to serve a greater purpose. As Dave Carter mentioned to me, Joe Sacco’s “Palestine” and John Lewis’s “March: Book 1,” are both nonfiction accounts of activism and calls to social justice. And yes, they’re graphic novels. We have comics that are fun, we have comics that are serious; we have comics that are magical and comics that are realistic. We have comics about kids getting bit by radioactive spiders (“The Amazing Spider-Man”) and comics reflecting on coming-of-age and sexuality (“Fun Home”). My only question is: Where does it all, this art form and this educational platform, go from here? “For sure, comics are starting to assert themselves as a serious art form in general, and that, I suspect, will continue to happen. I see comics playing an increasingly greater role in college classrooms in the future,” Brandolino wrote. “Comics are for me, in most senses, just like any other kind of text — they tell stories that demand close and careful attention, that you get more out of the more time you spend looking deeply into them. I don’t treat a comic less seriously than a short story, for instance. I think it deserves the same level of serious consideration as any story.” Though we see how comics are breaking boundaries and are now being considered pieces of literature, we can’t forget how comics can benefit us as readers, students and educators. Carter, Brandolino and Shapiro all touched on the idea that reading a comic or a graphic novel is still different than reading most texts. They’re not all necessarily linear, where we can read line by line and left to right like we would with any typical piece of English literature. You’re hit all at once with scenes, images, descriptions and dialogue — details that need to be noticed in order to comprehend and appreciate that of a comic or graphic novel. In some way, graphic novels put us all on a similar scale of reading pace, where we take our time, live in the present of each panel and use our brains to read literature in a way with which we aren’t familiar. “They’ve (comics) still got a rich history of telling stories that might otherwise be marginalized, or telling stories in weird ways,” Shapiro explained. “I think it matters now, more than ever, that those stories are heard, read, seen, drawn.” I think about my bookshelf at home, where “Welcome to the Jungle” is probably sitting among the dust of all my other pre-college texts. It sits between famous works like “Slaughterhouse-Five” and “The Shining.” I only ever thought of Harry Dresden, the fantastic wizard detective character, as another figure that young, comicreading boys would aspire to be. Man, was I wrong. Nonetheless, I realize now that stories like “Welcome to the Jungle” are no different than if my dad gave me a book from the “Harry Potter” or the “Percy Jackson” series. Their characters, their downfalls and their lessons all derive from a similar place: They all know how to tell a good story. I never thought that something like Butcher’s graphic novel could actually help me learn more about literature, colloquial language, design and formatting, storytelling and so much more. As the future of art in academia evolves, similar to how we are now analyzing rap songs and children’s television shows, I see the place that comics and graphic novels have in educational settings. I can only hope that my kids grow up reading graphic novels in school and learn to value their importance, which is something I unfortunately missed out on growing up. To fill my regret and to pursue my new interest in graphic novels, I went to the University’s library search engine, Mirlyn, and typed in “Welcome to the Jungle.” I think it’s time to give it another read.
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ARTIST
IN
PROFILE
Courtesy of the Artist
Phoebe Gloeckner talks the language of cartoons Stamps professor writes comics for a more diverse audience EMILY BICE
Daily Arts Writer
“Cartooning for me is a language that is not solely visual — the words and the images don’t stand alone … they come together to form something else.” It is early evening as I sit in the studio of artist Phoebe Gloeckner, an associate professor in the Stamps School of Art & Design. Though best known for her semiautobiographical graphic novel “Diary of a Teenage Girl,” Gloeckner has worked as a medical illustrator, published two full-length
graphic novels and seen countless comics printed in journals and magazines. She is fascinating and passionate, and The Michigan Daily had the pleasure to chat with Gloeckner and gain insight into the world of comics and cartooning. Gloeckner’s attic studio is large and eclectic; the ceilings are high and something is occupying every nook and cranny of the space. In the center of the room the f loor is made up of a sandy-dirt mixture. Each wall is uniquely decorated — no section is left bare. One wall is hidden by books while another boasts
shelves lined with cloth dolls. There’s a storage room containing every art supply imaginable, and a tall ladder in the sandy center leads to a loft occupied by what appears to be miniature film sets. I sit on a low chair, facing Phoebe’s desk and the stool on which she is perched. We’re discussing whether or not autobiography works better as a graphic novel than a traditional novel. It’s a contested subject. On one hand, Phoebe argues that stories involving heavier, real topics work well as graphic novels because “the more specific something is,
Courtesy of the Artist
the more relatable it becomes. I think in a sense it’s easier to do that with comics because instead of describing the wallpaper, you’re drawing the wallpaper, it’s there.” The concept that graphic novels allow readers to visualize their characters exactly the way the author sees them, however, is a double-edged sword. When asked if presenting readers with one specific image made them focus more on the content and less on the imagination, Phoebe responded with questions of her own. “When you read ‘Maus,’ do you just accept the person looks like a mouse? Or someone is cartoony with simplified features? This too gives you room to interpret what they look like in real life.” Ultimately, the conclusion was that there is no conclusion. After all, cartooning isn’t always black and white. As Gloeckner pointed out later in the evening, when showing the comics in consideration for the 2018 edition of “Best American Comics,” an anthology for which she is the year’s guest editor, the style of a comic is specific to each cartoonist. Some are vibrantly colored and look hand-painted; others are grey-scale and closely resemble doodles. The variety of both subject and style in the comics was astonishing. This variety is perhaps why she is so drawn to the form. Gloeckner’s fascination with comics was born when she was living in San Francisco and sneak-reading the “head comics” her hippie mother and stepfather had (unsuccessfully) hidden from the impressionable eyes of 12-year old Phoebe. And impressionable these comics were. The nature of underground “head comics” — wild and inappropriate — taught Gloeckner that comics “don’t have to be limited to superheroes or cute dogs.” It was this early education which taught Gloeckner she could “do comics and they can be about
Thursday, January 18, 2018 — 3B
anything (she) wants.” The notion that comics can be about more than just “superheroes and dogs” is not a new concept. Gloeckner cited several contemporaries who used this form to tell heavy, often autobiographical stories — Art Spieglman’s “Maus,” Justin Green’s “Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary” and Robert Crumb’s stories with his wife, Aline KominskyCrumb. The category of comics which reveal universal truths about humans through personal histories is a heavily
Ultimately, the conclusion was that there is no conclusion. After all, cartooning isn’t always black and white
(and artfully) decorated one. Ref lecting on her own semi-autobiographical works, Gloeckner recalls why she was inspired to write “Diary of a Teenage Girl” in the first place: “I didn’t see that voice ref lected in other books or other films and that voice wasn’t just mine. It could be any girl, or any person, perhaps.” It could be any person, and it was; Marielle Heller saw herself in Gloeckner’s work and adapted the piece first into a play and later a film. Though Heller’s motivation to make the film differed from Gloeckner’s inspiration to write the book, the sentiment was the same for both. Nowadays, Gloeckner is working on another unique form of storytelling — one which may not be qualified as a comic at all. Her current
project uses cloth dolls and elaborate, miniature film sets to represent the violent scenes of Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. Initally sent to Juarez to write stories for Amnesty International, Gloeckner found herself drawn back time and time again. It was on one of those trips she read a police blotter about the brutal rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in Juarez. At the same time, Gloeckner was supporting herself by working as a medical illustrator on a project titled “The Joys of Sex Toys.” Both the murder and her work as a medical illustrator involved, coincidentally, butt plugs. “It got all my wires crossed and I had difficulty drawing either thing,” recalls Gloeckner. Compelled to further explore the violent story but unsure how, Gloeckner came up with a unique alternative to cartooning. “I’ll use dolls. I’ll kill them and then the next day I’ll wipe the blood off, and they’ll be alive again,” she said. New challenges accompanied this undertaking. “I had to learn to use power tools and make things, and I didn’t know how to do any of those things before.” She experimented with stop-motion and learned to understand and speak Spanish. Though still in the process of finishing the story, her piece has already affected change. When it is done, a valuable, necessary story will get the attention it deserves. Regardless of the project — illustrating sex toys, teaching digital painting, creating a graphic novel, researching a foreign community — a genuine passion is ever-present in Gloeckner’s work. It’s clear that she is still fascinated by what hooked her in the first place: That there are stories to be told and pictures to be created, and they can be whatever. It doesn’t have to be superheroes and dogs — but it could be. With Phoebe Gloeckner, art can be anything.
Courtesy of the Artist
LOCAL Ann Arbor comic artist Bruce Worden SPOTLIGHT:
BECKY PORTMAN Senior Arts Editor
Local Ann Arbor cartoonist Bruce Worden describes his comics as “a blend of humor and music.” In his series “Woodstalk,” Worden tells the tale of the long forgotten zombie apocalypse that plagues the similarly named popular music festival in the 1960s. Rock Society Magazine said of Worden’s comic: “Good musicbased comics are something of a rarity, but Woodstalk is one of those which is just surreal and irreverent enough to break that mold.” In an email interview with The Daily, Worden explains how music plays a role in his work, his love of a certain lasagna-loving, Mondayhating feline and what our grocery lists say about us. The Michigan Daily: How did you get into making comics? Who made you want to be a cartoonist? Bruce Worden: I fell in love with “Garfield” in elementary school and “Far Side” in middle
school. I’m not a graphic novelist by nature, I’m much more of a comic strip kid. But I like to think that helps keep my writing tight and punchy if I’m doing a longer story. TMD: How does music play a role in your work? BW: Musicians are like real-life superheroes to me, so they’re often the first spark of my stories. Music is also where my geekiness resides. It’s a well I’m comfortable drawing from, and hopefully, I can make cartoons interesting enough for others if I make them interesting enough for me. TMD: What are you into right now? What is going on in the comics scene right now that is really cool? BW: I mostly like coming-of-age stories, things like “Scott Pilgrim” (O’Malley) or “This One Summer” (Tamaki/Tamaki). So along those lines, I feel like young women cartoonists are creating the best stuff out there right now, beautiful and full of feeling. All of Jess Fink’s work, Taneka Stotts, Kate Leth, Benji Nate. Kate Beaton can do no wrong in my mind. That said,
I’ve been devouring John Allison’s “Bad Machinery” books lately. I didn’t think anything could make me wish I was in middle school again, but there you go! TMD: I stumbled across this awesome project you are working on called Shoppers Unknown. Can you tell me a little more about that? What was your inspiration? BW: I’ve been collecting other people’s lost/dropped shopping lists for years, never quite knowing what I was going to do with them. The more I looked through them, though, the more I realized I was mostly interested in what they hinted about the people who wrote them. I started imagining who they were, and eventually decided it would be fun to draw my ideas of them. Like, if the list implies a person, then the drawing of the person implies a whole backstory. I love it. I took the end of 2017 off from Shoppers Unknown to focus on my book “Woodstalk” (Kickstarter starting Feb. 5) but I’m about to start back in on it! I’ve got SO many shopping lists yet to do!
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B-SIDE SECONDARY
Paramount Pictures
Marvel movies subvert the superhero narrative SYDNEY COHEN Daily Arts Writer
The Marvel movie franchise has a bad reputation for being associated with movies that are essentially overpriced, overdone blockbuster fodder. It’s imagined to be loved exclusively by stringy comic book nerds and those of “low-brow culture.” With the tedium of each new Marvel movie hitting the big screen like clockwork, it’s easy for people to disregard the franchise with a cavalier “Eh, those movies don’t really appeal to me.” But what most people fail to realize is that the Marvel movie franchise, dubbed the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is a highly complex, endlessly fascinating, extremely impressive and revolutionary feat of moviemaking that defies cinematic structure and explores deeply resonant societal themes. While superhero films, or adaptations of comic book characters, have been around since the 1930s, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU, is radically different than anything that has come before in film. Structurally, the MCU is designed as a web with an intricate interweaving of origin stories, sequels and ensemble films that introduce and feature different players throughout the expansive network of films. This unorthodox structure gives the franchise a puzzle-finding feel that challenges viewers to search for and spot different heroes in different movies. Like pieces on a larger gameboard, the MCU works as a massive universe in which the characters exist, with each movie exploring a different part of that universe. While all this seems chaotic and slippery, the franchise is actually meticulously planned. The MCU timeline is easily accessible online, where the details for a four-phase cinematic opera are laid out. The sheer breadth of planning — starting with “Iron Man” in 2008 and continuing with untitled films set to release as late as 2028 — demonstrates franchise construction on a completely new scale. And while characters and emotional nuance can easily get lost in the haze of an entity that large, the MCU stays grounded with clear development and emotional arcs. What makes Marvel so brilliant is that in the midst of juggling a massive ensemble of different characters, backstories and motivations, the franchise is able to craft distinct personalities for each character and weave them all together. Instead of being onedimensional, each hero is shaded with nuance. Iron Man isn’t just cocky and impulsive but is rather a detail-obsessed genius with a confused moral compass whose narcissism is bred from daddy issues. In its ensemble films, sharply written dialogue works to seamlessly blend each character’s personality so that they both stand out and blend in. The MCU is an unprecedented beast of a movie franchise, with structural and story elements that keep viewers locked in, waiting for the next piece of the puzzle. While the MCU is a revolutionary media entity among franchises in general, it’s also remarkable within the genre of superhero narratives.
The MCU is not merely a large collection of traditional hero vs. villain, good vs. evil storylines. Marvel examines and challenges heroism, morality and fantasy in ways that are unparalleled in texts of the superhero genre. Superhero narratives, rooted in comic books, are defined by a few classic tropes. Of course, there is the hero, a morally righteous protagonist committed to the fight against an equally insidious villain. There is a clear binary between good and evil, and these moralities are uncontested. Superhero movies are heavily laden with action, dynamic fight scenes, big explosions and chaos in the name of justice. They exist clearly in the realm of fantasy: The hero possesses a heightened ability that sets him or her apart from the masses and can wield this power freely. These tropes are integral to the superhero narrative, and they serve to create distance from reality. Superhero films generally reflect the thematic tradition of comic books, mirroring the moral binaries of comic book heroes. Destruction plays an interesting and integral role in superhero films. While it may seem obvious to think about, every hero fight inevitably involves destruction. Superhero films in the mid-2000s used relatively old-school effects
The MCU is an unprecedented beast of a movie franchise, with structural and story elements that keep viewers locked in
to blow up a building or a city block, adding visually compelling elements to a climactic fight scene. In “Batman Begins” (2005), Batman destroys a monorail line while the train drives into a parking structure and explodes. In “The Dark Knight” (2008), the Joker detonates a string of bombs that blow up an entire hospital. Destruction is understood as a natural and entertaining part of the genre that heightens the actions and suspense of the scene. Advancements in CGI special effects allowed for more complex and dynamic fight scenes moving into the 2010s. Bigger explosions and more precise detail meant new possibilities for mass destruction on a completely different scale. Magneto in “X-Men: Days of Future Past” (2014) lifts an entire baseball stadium and floats it around before sending it crashing into the cityscape below. In “X-Men Apocalypse” (2016), the X-Men raze the entire city of Cairo to the ground, leaving it completely decimated. What’s interesting is that in every superhero film there are no discussions about the loss of
life, infrastructural consequences or acknowledgment of any kind of damage and chaos following the battle. And with contemporary superhero movies playing out on an international or intergalactic scale, the lack of acknowledgment of destruction becomes more apparent and more fantastical. Here is where the Avengers franchise completely revolutionizes the superhero genre. With its meticulous buildup of films and phases, Marvel initially reflects the tropes of its genre, only to then deliver a climactic movie that challenges thematic taboos routinely left out of the narrative. There are three pivotal battles in the franchise that all involve massive amounts of destruction: in “The Avengers” (2012), the team fights Loki and his alien-insect army, destroying large chunks of Manhattan in the process; In “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” (2014), Captain America and Falcon send government airships crashing into Washington D.C.; and in “The Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015), the Avengers fight Ultron while he lifts the entire city of Sokovia off the ground. These three films in the Avengers narrative arc involve crucial moments of character development, shifting team dynamics, introduction of new characters and the evolution of villains. But in “Captain America: Civil War” (2016), these moments become the fulcrum upon which the progression of the narrative balances. “Captain America: Civil War” is responsible for bursting the bubble of fantasy in the superhero narrative. At the start of the movie, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr., “The Judge”) is confronted by a grieving mother whose son died in the battle at Sokovia. In this moment, for the first time, a hero is faced with the real and detrimental consequences of his actions and the unintended but severe consequences on human lives from unrestrained destruction. The tension between heroic action and unheroic consequence becomes the focus of the movie, and Stark’s enormous guilt drives his motivations for the rest of the film. Soon after Stark’s crushing epiphany, the Avengers meet with Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt, “Goliath”). Ross projects a video summary of the Avengers’ major battles but without the polished and selfindulgent perspective of their original play. Imagery of buildings exploding, cars crashing, people screaming and errant gunfire turn previously exciting action scenes into terrifying and traumatic warzones. Watching the clips, the Avengers all wear faces of realization and shame. This scene is crucial for so many reasons; It shows a direct interaction between heroes and government agencies and introduces a new perspective on the Avengers, what it means to be a hero and the consequences of unrestrained power. Ross makes clear that up until now, the Avengers have “operated with unlimited power and no supervision.” He exchanges the word hero with the word vigilante, asking “what would you call a group of U.S.-based, enhanced individuals who routinely ignore sovereign borders and inflict their
will wherever they choose, and who frankly seem unconcerned about what they leave behind?” In an effort to curb the power of the Avengers, Ross introduces the Sokovia Accords, a contract that if signed would place the Avengers under United Nations jurisdiction. In order to impose a system of accountability and place limits on previously unrestricted power, a U.N. panel would have control over the team, deploying them when the panel deems it necessary. The document essentially strips the Avengers of their agency, but also curbs potential unforeseen consequences. The significance of this moment, why it’s brilliant and unparalleled, cannot be understated. Here we see the first major integration of world powers in a fantasy realm, where the government has actual, sizable influence. For the first time in the superhero genre, we see an effort to impose accountability on superheroes who previously wielded power without restraint, or even the concept of restraint. This move has only ever been seen once before, in “The Incredibles” (2004), when injured civilians took superheroes to court, and a national law forced them into hiding. This is really the first instance of the powers of ordinary society curbing the powers of the extraordinary. But “The Incredibles” fails to take the tension between fantasy and reality further and ends up mostly concerned with the selfactualization of heroes. The question of whether or not to sign the Sokovia Accords launches the Avengers into the main conflict of “Civil War” — a debate of accountability vs. free will.
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Tony Stark urges the team to sign because he sees unaccountability as the most dangerous threat to the Avengers and the world, and argues they can’t be allowed to continue without restrains or limits. Captain America, on the other hand, rejects the Accords, arguing that the contract places a limit on free will, and emphasizes his belief in everyone’s right to act as a free agent. With this debate, the MCU tackles the morality of heroism
The MCU is an elegantly intricate and completely fascinating piece of moviemaking
and explores the philosophies of its heroes. Marvel demonstrates that it is extremely self-aware of the tropes of its genre, effectively subverting them by questioning and challenging what it means to be a superhero. Marvel complicates the binary between good and evil by spotlighting death and destruction at the hands of those who are considered heroes. Marvel also introduces the influence of real-world consequences on the actions and motivations of its heroes. Because these elements have never been approached in this way or to this magnitude in any superhero film before, Marvel
is essentially constructing a new subgenre of superhero films: one that is preoccupied with the convergence of the real and the fantastical. The universal model of the franchise allows much more room for characters to interact and develop, creating a deeper level of familiarity between the characters and their world that makes the philosophical questions of “Civil War” possible, meaningful and believable. There is also room for a deeper analytical interpretation of “Civil War” and the themes of the MCU. Subverting notions of heroism and moral absolutism is fascinating in the context of the long tradition of comic book heroes. But the debate between accountability and free will extends to more prevalent ideas in society today. The plot of “Civil War” can be read as an allegory for the debate between government surveillance and privacy and the question of surveillance as a necessary protection against terrorism or an infringement on civil rights. While it is common practice for films to reflect the societal themes of their time, Marvel is noteworthy for its simultaneous subversion of its genre. The MCU is an elegantly intricate and completely fascinating piece of moviemaking that proves that complex narratives can exist in a blockbuster franchise. Marvel’s deconstruction and subversion of the superhero narrative are wholly unprecedented in the genre of comic book films and make watching these movies thrilling and deeply thought-provoking for both casual viewers, cinephiles and anyone in between.
20th Century Fox
COMIC BOOK REVIEW
‘Your Black Friend’ takes on millenial woke racism Ben Passmore’s comic explores Black alienation in America and much-needed conversation about race in today’s America. Senior Arts Editor The comic involves the reader in an unconventional You could easily mistake way, pointing to them as it Ben Passmore’s “Your Black begs and pleads that you, Friend” for a light read; after and only you, recognize the all, it is only 11 pages long. pervasiveness of racism in our However, through skilled culture. Passmore’s narrator artistry and strong language, grapples between two poles the mini-comic is as poignant of racialization, one being not and relevant as it is visually Black enough for his Black pleasing. Its cover draws you in, friends and the other being too Black for his boasting playful “Your Black white friends. pastels and bouncy bubble He lives in racial Friend” letters, looking limbo, where his Published by the more like a own existence is measured and middle schooler’s Artist metered by his doodle than 2016 an open letter peers rather than about racism and himself. Passmore uses a distinct color Black alienation in America. Its characters are spot-on palette of soothing pastels of caricatures of people you have blue, purple and pink. Even the known or seen or been, depicted most troubling and gruesome with a balance of humor and of scenes is inked with bright and whimsical hues, washing criticism. “Your Black Friend” is a over the darkness and dread brief yet intensely powerful of the comic’s content with a testament to what racism paintbrush soaked in millennial looks like among “woke” pink. Just as the comic washes millennials. In word and image, over the serious with a façade of Passmore creates a work that brightness, the façade of wokeis simultaneously personal ness masks the sometimes and collective, encompassing unintentional but inherent his own experiences while racism that lies beneath. “Your Black Friend” attacks capturing the experiences of others. Written entirely in the millennial post-racial myth the second person, Passmore head-on with tact and humor. actively engages in a critical Like Jordan Peele’s (“Key and BECKY PORTMAN
Peele”) terrifyingly relevant and award-winning social thriller “Get Out,” Passmore’s comic confronts the selfserving nature of white guilt, turning alliance into a selfish and preoccupied excuse for sympathy. Passmore addresses the performance of linguistic “blackface” among his white friends. He explores the desire to try on “Blackness” like a costume, a hipster in full minstrel guise in a desperate attempt to reconcile white privilege in a country built on racism. Passmore manages to capture a similar feeling of alienation and fear without directly evoking the horror tone of Peele’s masterpiece. Passmore effectively uses the comics medium to communicate his message and personal experiences. He fills the small comic to the brim with jarring colors, expertly formatting the pages with text and images that inform and complement one another. Passmore’s use of arrows and comments throughout make the comic feel more organic, as if the author is allowing a snapshot into his own diary. From run-ins with the cops to eating a po-boy at a coffee shop, Passmore walks the reader through the 21st-century Black experience in a 21st-century white world.
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TV NOTEBOOK
Thursday, January 18, 2017 — 5B
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
Warner Bros.
CW
TV is a better medium for Singing in speech bubbles: comic book adaptations Gorillaz’s 2-D revolution Despite a boom in comic book movies, the small screen is a better platform for the episodic nature of comic books IAN HARRIS
Managing Video Editor
We live in what some might call “the golden age of comic book movies.” That is, we live in an age with a seemingly endless cycle of comic book films. Capes and cowls fill the big screen all months of the year. Next year alone will see the release of three “X-Men” movies, three Marvel Studios movies, a DC film, a Sony Pictures SpiderMan spin-off about Venom and others as well. But while comic book movies have only recently begun to dominate movie theaters, TV shows based on comic books have been popular since the early ’90s. It is television after all, not movies, that is designed to be literally episodic in nature, watched week to week, episode to episode, for as long as possible. While it is comic book movies that currently take up most of the airtime surrounding comic adaptations, I believe that TV is actually the medium most suited to adapting comics. Unlike movies, TV shows don’t have to wrap up their storyline at the end of an episode. TV shows are built off the idea of a cliffhanger, of keeping the audience coming back week after week. TV shows may have given birth to the phrase “monster of the week,” but they really got that idea from comic books. Shows like “Smallville” or “Batman: The Animated Series,” based on comic book stories about Superman and Batman
respectively, feature an ongoing storyline while also allowing their heroes to fight different villains and foes each episode. Cartoons in general are a natural home for superheroes, with colorful animation fitting in perfectly with the artwork that children are familiar with from reading comics. Shows like “Teen Titans,” “Batman: The Brave and the Bold” or “Riverdale” make great use of their admittedly silly source material by playing everything completely straight, and letting the drama play out as it would in a comic book, with twists taking weeks to play out and ending episodes in ways that always leave the audience wanting more. Another way in which TV shows based on comics have succeeded where films have failed is the idea of the “Cinematic Universe.” This term first came into use around the time of the original “Avengers” movie. Pioneered by Marvel Studios, a “Cinematic Universe” is a series of interconnected films that all take place in the same “canon,” allowing them to build off of or out of each other. While this idea seemed novel at the time, TV beat them to the punch by almost two decades. The DC Animation Universe began in the early ’90s with “Batman: The Animated Series” and “Superman: The Animated Series.” These two series featured regular crossovers and eventually expanded their universe to include “Justice League,” “Justice League:
Unlimited,” “Batman Beyond,” “Teen Titans,” “Static Shock” and many others. While DC fans continue to ring their hands over the fate of the DC Universe on the big screen, DC has twice over had the best interconnected television universe on the market. First with the DC Animated Universe of the ’90s and 2000s and now with the so-called CW Arrowverse, which includes the shows “Arrow,” “The Flash,” “Supergirl” and “Legends of Tomorrow.” Indeed, TV is more suited to the connectivity that is featured so prominently in comics. In TV, it’s easier to contract actors through the network to appear on a multitude of shows, or to animate a bunch of background characters from another TV show without having to pay anyone a cent. In TV, long storylines that play out over a half-decade or longer are the norm, not the exception. It’s hard to really imagine a “Riverdale” movie, but the series works great on TV, where it is just schlocky enough to have some kind of bonkers appeal. TV shows also don’t have to reach nearly as large an audience in modern times as movies do, and in that way they can be more selective and considerate of the kinds of stories they want to tell. While movies appear to be the dominant form of comic book adaptations, TV shows remain strong, and it seems likely that they will once again become the prevailing method of comic book adaptation in the future.
How the animated band harnessed the untapped potential of virtual music-making and changed the music industry ROBERT MANSUETTI Daily Arts Writer
For a whole month during the summer of 1969, the hottest song in the United States belonged to a comic book character. The chart-topper “Sugar Sugar” was recorded by none other than the Archies; that’s right, the cartoon band made up of “Archie Comics” characters like Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper and the eponymous Archie Andrews himself. “Sugar Sugar” ruled the airwaves, spending 22 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and selling over a million copies. While not the most groundbreaking group at the time, both conceptually and sonically, the Archies’ animated bubblegum fare indirectly paved the way for one of the most imaginative and experimental musical acts of the 21st century: Gorillaz. To the unfortunately uninformed, Gorillaz is a
The fact that Gorillaz even evolved beyond a mere idea was as unlikely as an animated band earning nine Grammy nominations
MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW “Duck, Duck, Goose” cupcakKe CupcakKe — Chicago-born rapper, singer, activist and certified deepthroat professional — just changed the game for duck onesies everywhere with the release of her “Duck Duck Goose” music video. It’s filthy. It’s fun. It features multiple close ups of a seemingly never-ending stream of frighteningly realistic dildos. The shots are simple, alternating between cupcakKe fully clothed in a pool or cupcakKe, not clothed at all, lounging in a bedroom. She stares us straight in the eye as she raps, aggressive and unwavering. Her rhymes are perfect. This is cupcakKe in her prime: fur heels and rubber duck nipple pasties, smiling wide as she delivers, “Tap
cupcakKe
the head of the dick, duck, duck duck goose.” There’s power in this unabashed ownership of gratuitous raunch. When cupcakKe emerges during the first few seconds of “Duck Duck Goose,” she doesn’t just walk in wearing a mesh bodysuit, she struts. When she taps the dildo she’s holding against a miniature Statue of Liberty, she’s not questioning whether or not she can
make your dick stand up, she knows she can. And who are we to argue with that kind of confidence? “Duck Duck Goose” is sex positive and body positive, but it’s also cupcakKe just having the time of her life. She manhandles multicolored sex toys with bright orange nails; she has no time for your opinion. -Shima Sadaghiyani, Daily Music Editor
virtual band — meaning their lineup consists of animated characters rather than human musicians. 2-D provides the lead vocals, Noodle and Murdoc play the guitar and bass guitar (respectively) and Russell anchors the band on drums. However, hidden behind these four memorable personalities lies the twofold heart of the operation: former Blur frontman Damon Albarn, who spearheads the musical side of things, and comic book artist Jamie Hewlett, the man behind the now-iconic artwork and design of the band. The question is, how did Gorillaz cement itself as a legitimate and legendary band and avoid being reduced to nothing more than a fad like their animated ancestors Alvin and the Chipmunks and the California Raisins? The answer lies in Gorillaz’s understanding of the creative potential found in the fusion of comics and popular music and their unwavering dedication to create visuals as lasting as the sounds they accompany. The fact that Gorillaz even
evolved beyond a mere idea was as unlikely as an animated band earning nine Grammy nominations and achieving double-platinum status. In 1990, Hewlett was tasked by Deadline Magazine, home of his comic strip “Tank Girl,” to interview Albarn. By all accounts, their first meeting did not go well. Hewlett initially thought of Albarn as “arsey, a wanker.” Despite becoming mild acquaintances with Albarn and the other members of Blur, including guitarist Graham Coxon, their friendship stagnated (especially after Hewlett began seeing Coxon’s ex-girlfriend). Despite all of this, however, Hewlett and Albarn ended up sharing a flat in 1997. And on one fateful day, the pair happened to mindlessly watch MTV long enough for them to realize something. Frustrated by the oversaturation of nothing of substance in popular music at the time, they decided to take action. If what people were hearing was manufactured, then they might as well do it properly. Their band was going to be fake, but the music sure as hell would be real. Gorillaz deserve all the praise they get musically for their attempts to deconstruct and synthesize different genres into a wholly unique and unheard blend of sound, but the true star of the show is the captivating visual universe Hewlett has designed. Behind their five studio albums lies a trove of music videos, documentaries, radio interviews, social media posts, magazines, animated shorts and one illustrated autobiography that all constitute a storyline more expansive and detailed than those of many comic book heroes. The skeleton of the Gorillaz-verse comes in the form of four distinct “phases,” each correlating with the rollout and promotion of their mainline albums (excluding 2010’s The Fall, which was recorded by Albarn on tour on an iPad and released as a free download). The four phases function as separate lenses, showing new angles to the same story and charting the band’s evolution over its near two decades of existence. Phase One, aptly titled Celebrity Take Down, was a direct response to the mind-numbing dominance of MTV Albarn and Hewlett originally felt compelled to rebel against. The videos for singles like “19-2000” and “Rock the House” seem tailor-made to be broadcasted on the channel. Watching them now, they both capture perfectly the nostalgia for that hazy 2000s aesthetic. The videos for their self-titled debut were visually engaging enough to subtly slide lyrics parodying the shallowness of the music industry into the mind of viewer without them realizing. Ironically, these music videos were lapped up by MTV, tricking it into following exactly what 2-D croons on “19-2000”: “Please repeat the message / It’s
the music that we choose.” Phase Two and beyond were able to reap the benefits of Gorillaz receiving international attention both for their music and novelty of concept. The music videos became more involved, cinematic productions: “Feel Good Inc” and “El Mañana” both seem like Hewlett’s take on a Studio Ghibli film (with some scenes being directly inspired by “Castle in the Sky”) and “Stylo” is a foray into 3D CGI animation featuring the band members caught up in a Mad Max-esque car chase with Bruce Willis in an El Camino. The more attention Gorillaz got, the more effort was expended towards refining their art style and cultivating their expansive backstory. With the release of 2017’s Humanz, however, it seemed like the band became less concerned with telling a story through music videos like they did with Demon Days and Plastic Beach, and instead focused on showing vignettes of the four characters’ current lives using a new multimedia approach (the first official glimpse of Phase Four came from Hewlett’s
They’re a largerthan-life band that wasn’t even alive to begin with
instagram). Although Gorillaz has changed much throughout the years, their commitment to creating compelling art has not ceased. While the story of Gorillaz could be easily told as a graphic novel or a comic book, the fact that it is a band and has that extra layer of musical storytelling makes it all the more noteworthy. Albarn and Hewlett are able to disappear completely behind the animated facade they have constructed, leaving fans fascinated by the mystery behind Gorillaz and its lore rather than fawning over the fake, produced image which shroud most pop acts. When Liam Gallagher (the lead singer of Oasis and rival to Albarn during the height of Britpop) once derided Gorillaz as a “fucking kids band,” Hewlett thought it was the coolest thing ever said about them: “I want it to be for kids. They’re the ones who don’t care who’s behind it. They think it’s Gorillaz, they buy into it the way they should.” The fact that when you hear Albarn’s vocals you immediately picture 2-D singing speaks volumes to everything Gorillaz is about. They’re a larger-than-life band that wasn’t even alive to begin with.
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Illustration by Bruce Worden
Illustrations by Bruce Worden Courtesy of Kids Read Comics
An inside look at AA comic culture Jerzy Drozd, organizer of Kids Read Comics, talks teaching & making comics NITYA GUPTA Daily Arts Writer
ARTIST PROFILE Courtesy of Kids Read Comics
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“I have one of those classic stories in that I was interested in making comics at a young age. I knew I wanted to make comics at 11-years-old.” The fascination started early for Jerzy Drozd, now a cartoonist, teacher and co-organizer at Kids Read Comics and its Ann Arbor event, the Ann Arbor Comic Arts Festival. Having grown up in a small town with no comic store, Drozd became hooked on sharing his knowledge of creating comics once he started teaching over 10 years ago. “Opening up the process of comics and inviting cartoonists to come out of their studios reveals to the public the narrative and writing skills needed for comic writing,” Drozd said. “Making comics accessible to people has been very beneficial to inviting more people into the medium.” Over the years that Drozd has been teaching, he has seen an increase in Ann Arbor’s engagement with comics. “When I started teaching classes at the Ann Arbor Art Center about eight years ago, it was difficult to get the critical signup numbers for a class to run and it would be very hit or miss,” Drozd said. “Now, I have a waiting list for every class I teach there and I’m teaching more classes than ever before.” Not only have more people been interested in comics, but the culture of comics itself is shifting in Ann Arbor, becoming more friendly and accessible. Drozd has noticed the downfall of the stereotype that comic stores and the comic community are unwelcoming to newcomers, finding that stores like Vault of Midnight in Ann Arbor are encouraging and capable of finding comics for everyone.
“They don’t give you a ‘nerd test’ which the comic culture is guilty of in the past,” Drozd said. Another huge factor in the openness of the culture has been the surge of comic-related community events, as they offer the chance to dispel people’s misconceptions about comics. “I think events held by places like the Ann Arbor District Library, the University of Michigan, the Ann Arbor Art Center and 826 Michigan reveal to the public that you don’t have to draw to make comics,” Drozd said. “That’s another misconception the general public has. But if you look at comics like “Sarah’s Scribbles,” “xkcd” or “The Amazing Cynicalman,” you see that they aren’t necessarily immaculate pieces of illustration that are beautiful, but they’re narratively beautiful, and that’s something everyone benefits from when we invite people to interact with the medium.” Drozd can also see how the resurgence of superhero movies has impacted the comic culture in Ann Arbor. “The movies have created a sense that these characters are culturally significant,” Drozd said. “Even if they haven’t improved comic sales, they have improved comic reputations.” Though Ann Arbor’s comic culture has made great strides, Drozd feels there is still more space for not just inclusivity, but explicit inclusivity, as well as the celebration of authors of color or authors from marginalized communities. Drozd also finds it difficult to get cartoonists out of their studios to interact with one another and the public, making it problematic to organize conventions or community outreach events. Drozd made the move to step out of his studio a long time ago, and he hasn’t looked back since.
Though Ann Arbor’s comic culture has made great strides, Drozd feels there is still more space for not just inclusivity, but explicit inclusivity