When I tell someone outside of academia that I am a African American literature professor, I am never quite sure what kind of response I will get. Some people respond by telling me how much they love [fill in the name of the last–or only–African American novel they read] . Others ask about my favorite novels, writers, or historical periods. I really enjoy answering questions like this. The man in this drawing fell into this latter category. When I told him about my research in the area 19th-century Black literary history, he told me about his own African American history research, as an amateur genealogist. He chatted with me for a good 15 minutes before I told him I had to get to my office to prepare for my first day of classes. He was waiting for his daughter, who is a new student at my institution, and he seemed quite pleased to be able to connect with a Black faculty member. I was equally happy to connect with a fellow Black history buff.

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8-Rock.com comes back to Oakland for this one. Today’s drawing depicts a man I saw waiting for the 57 bus at AC Transit’s Mills College stop on MacArthur Blvd.

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I do believe that this is the last drawing I’ll be posting from my Comic-Con 2011 sketchbook. I spotted this fan standing at the top of the giant escalator in the San Diego Convention Center. His retro-cool jacket caught my attention more than anything else about him, though the fact that he managed to stand at the top of the escalator without any of the staff people telling him to move it along was also quite impressive. For the backdrop to this drawing, I replaced the inside of the convention center with the San Diego trolley, which stops conveniently at a station right across the street from the place where the Con was being held. Look for my logo between the wires above the train.

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Here’s another drawing in keeping with yesterday’s  back-to-school theme. I don’t know if Oakland students are in summer school these days, or if certain programs have a summer school component, but I saw this young man standing in front of Oakland Tech High School yesterday with a backpack over one shoulder, a basketball under his arm and a very serious expression on his face. The symbols on the right side of this drawing are all related to the theme of education and learning, including nea onnim no suaa, ohu, the Adinkra symbol associated with “life-long education and the quest for knowledge” (Source: West African Wisdom: Adinkra Symbols and Meanings).

Today is another short break from the Comic-Con sketchbook. These kids were standing on a corner somewhere along Broadway, either waiting to cross or waiting for a bus. I liked that they were all wearing the same uniform and all around the same age, but so many different shapes and sizes and  haircuts. It seemed like a drawing waiting to happen.

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The Comic-Con sketchbook continues. Everyone needs a little downtime, especially when you’re surrounded by a 120,000 of your fellow comicbook/sci-fi/fantasy fans. This guy was stealing a moment of repose on a bench at the bottom of one of the stairways. The bench was actually wide enough to accomodate three or four people, but I feel like the one-seater I’ve drawn in the picture better captures the idea of a solitary moment.

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Here’s another selection from my Comic-Con sketchbook. I had a great time doing this drawing. I did the base sketch during the annual production designers’ panel. This drawing depicts three men I saw sitting together on one of the few benches in the halls at the San Diego Convention Center. Although I’ve taken a little artistic license when it comes to the color palette, the hairstyles are pretty much true to life, and one guy really was wearing a mask…which is really pretty tame by Comic-Con standards.

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