GRAPHIC LANGUAGE - Saladin Ahmed + Panel Discussion

Join us in the Gallery for an evening celebrating community, comics, and the hope both offer in grim times as Saladin Ahmed hosts a panel discussion on graphic storytelling!
5:30pm - 6:30pm + 15min QA
MATTHEW THORNTON:

Comic book artist and illustrator

Matthew Thornton, is a Detroit based, comic book artist and Illustrator. Born in 1985, he developed an early love of comics and cartoons from weekend visits with his Aunt, who was an accomplished oil painter. She introduced him to the work of J Scott Campbell, Todd MacFarlande, and Jim Lee, who would become his earliest influences.

In 2009, he joined the U.S. Navy. It was there, he would travel and gain the life experiences that would inspire his illustrations. He left the Navy in 2013, and enrolled in the College for Creative Studies in his hometown Detroit, MI.

ANGELIQUE ROCHÉ:

Journalist, producer, and author

A. Angélique Roché, Esq. LL.M. is a journalist, producer, author, and professional host from New Orleans, LA. A multi-hyphenate storyteller, her work sits at the crossroads of history, current events, and its impact on pop culture. She has been seen/heard on various outlets and platforms, including Harper’s Bazaar, NBC News, NBCBLK, MSNBC, AMC/BBC, SyfyWire, Disney, Marvel Studios, ESPN, and Paramount+. Angelique has hosted and produced multiple non-scripted series, including Brave New Pod, Geeksplain, Roles Ranked, SyFy Wire Rewind, and New York Public Radio’s (WNYC) Very Biggest Questions. Her first graphic novel, Trinity City #1, debuted in 2023. She is the co-author of Marvel Entertainment and Simon & Schuster Gallery Books’ My Super Hero is Black (2025).

JOHN JENNINGS:

Author, graphic novelist, and curator

John Jennings is a professor, author, graphic novelist, curator, Harvard Fellow, New York Times Bestseller, 2018 Eisner Winner, and all-around champion of Black culture.

As Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside (UCR), Jennings examines the visual culture of race in various media forms including film, illustrated fiction, and comics and graphic novels. He is also the director of Abrams ComicArts imprint Megascope, which publishes graphic novels focused on the experiences of people of color. His research interests include the visual culture of Hip Hop, Afrofuturism and politics, Visual Literacy, Horror, and the EthnoGothic, and Speculative Design and its applications to visual rhetoric.

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