Cartoonist and Author Stephen Bissette Comes to Appalachian for Visiting Writers Series on Sept. 26-27

By Rebecca Mullins

Sept. 17, 2013. The well-known horror cartoonist and author, Stephen Bissette, will be coming to Boone Sept. 26-27 as the second visiting author in the Hughlene Bostian Visiting Writer Series.

He will be doing three events on Appalachian’s campus.

  • Sept. 26, 2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. Bissette will give a talk on “How to Make a Monster: Image-Making and Horror Comics,” in the Table Rock Room of Plemons Student Union (PSU).
  • Sept. 26, at 7:30 p.m. he will be giving another talk on monster making and the comic industry, in the same room.
  • Sept. 27, at 7:00 p.m. he will be running a double feature of “Night of the Living Dead” and Amiri Baraka’s play “Dutchman,” followed by a discussion about the role of race in American horror films in the Greenbrier Theater in the PSU.

Saga-of-the-Swamp-Thing-Book-ThreeStephen Bissette is best known for his collaboration work on Saga of the Swamp Thing with Allen Moore and John Totleben. This trio saved Saga of the Swamp Thing, which was on the verge of cancelation, and made it an award winning comic series. 

Saga of the Swamp Thing was one of the first of many mature horror stories that began the side-genre Vertigo in the comic industry. These comics tend to be horror or fantasy related, do not center around superheroes, have mature content and cover more controversial subjects.

Bissette has worked on both the writing and the drawing side of comics. He has years of experience working in the industry and has been teaching at the Center for Cartoon Studies since 2005. 

Dr. Craig Fischer, Professor of English at ASU, had the chance in 2011 to hear Bissette speak. When he was given a chance to bring a comic author to the school as a visiting writer, he knew he wanted Bissette.

“He’s like a fire and brimstone creature. He’s a hell of a speaker,” said Fischer. “He’s going bring the house down.”

Bissette will be speaking primarily on the horror genre and the comics industry. For any aspiring artists or writers for the comics industry, this is the man to see. He knows what it means to be a comic artist.