The Pitt News
The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | april 13,2017 | Volume 107 | Issue 159
Comic culture finds home in pittsburgh When Tom Scioli visits Phantom of the Attic Comics on South Craig Street, it looks different than what he remembers 25 years ago. In the ’90s, its walls were lined with superheroes, avant-garde art and daily life comics, while now it focuses on handmade comics by local, niche artists. To some, the illustrations and stories lining Phantom’s walls in the ’90s were just pop culture and late-night casual reads. To Scioli, a Pitt student at the time, they were the inspiration for his own comics. Shops like Phantom are at the heart of Pittsburgh’s growing comic book scene, and the change to the content housed inside is a sign of how Pittsburgh’s local comic culture has expanded. The city’s combination of low-rent properties and high concentration of artists caters to the lifestyle of comic book artists and illustrators. Between the variety of storefronts as well as events and expos celebrating independent comics, artists are moving to Pittsburgh to make their comics come alive, building a tight-knit community along the
way. This year’s sixth annual Pittsburgh Indy Comix Expo, a daylong expo featuring local and independent comic artists, was held at the August Wilson Center for African-American Culture in the Cultural District April 9. In addition to showcasing the work of smaller artists, the expo — which was free to the public — held panel discussions and lectures about handmade comics and illustration techniques. Comic fans could also take guided tours of the ToonSeum across the street, one of three museums in the United States committed solely to comics, illustrations and cartoons. The Pittsburgh Zine Fair, which started in 2011 and held its winter market in December, caters to a slightly wider audience. Zines, short for magazines, are self-published works, including artistcreated comics, with limited local circulation. Black-and-white zines dominated the creator-owned comic scene in the 1980s, when Phantom of the Attic sprouted up in Oakland in ’83.
by ellen kruczek and justin voelzke
Now, Pittsburgh’s comic scene has broken into artists who specialize in specific subjects — Michael Pisano’s zine about bugs and fungus, for example. Carnegie Library’s zine section in Oakland — a corner of the library’s first floor — holds local zines and comics on a smattering of topics. Among them is Jessica Earheart’s Land|Scape, a series of landscape collages juxtaposed with haikus that explore environmental crises, and Cowboy House, a Pittsburghbased art collective that addresses themes ranging from science fiction to children’s zines. Scioli, a prominent member of the comics community, came to Pitt’s art school in 1994. He and other students made content and distributed it through zines, just as students today use the rest of their Pitt printing quota to selfpublish comics, poems or even recipe books. For example, Pitt’s student radio station, WPTS puts out a zine with opinion pieces, articles and artwork about music. See Comics on page 8
Wayne Wise has been working at Phantom of the Attic Comics since 1997. Evan Meng STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
News
Actress and CVS head to speak at commencement John Hamilton
Assistant News Editor Pitt announced two speakers Wednesday for the separate graduate and undergraduate commencement ceremonies: CEO of CVS Health Larry J. Merlo and actress S. Epatha Merkerson, respectively. Merlo, president and CEO of CVS Health, will speak at the graduate student commencement convocation April 29, at 4 p.m. in the Petersen Events Center. Merkerson — an Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning actress, best known for playing Lt. Anita Van Buren on “Law and Order” — will take the microphone the next day at the undergraduate ceremony April 30, at 1 p.m. This will be the first year Pitt holds separate commencement ceremonies for graduates and undergraduates. Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said the separation will make the ceremonies more “personal and engaging.” “Our undergraduate and graduate ceremonies, while occurring on different days, will share one unchanging goal: to celebrate the ac-
complishments of our graduating students,” he said in a press release. Merlo, a 1978 Pitt Pharmacy graduate, was elected to Pitt’s Board of Trustees in 2013 and was named the 2016 Distinguished Alumni Fellow, which recognizes alumni who have records of high professional achievement and community service. After becoming CEO of CVS in 2011, Merlo announced in 2014 the company would stop selling tobacco products in its more than 7,600 stores, making it the first national pharmacy chain to do so. Merkerson, who acted on “Law and Order” from 1993 to 2010, also performed in the 2005 film “Lackawanna Blues” and is currently starring in “Chicago Med,” a TV medical drama on NBC. For her performance as Rachel Crosby in “Lackawanna Blues” — a TV movie about boarding house tenants in a blue-collar town — she won Golden Globe, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild awards. Before her successful 40year career as an actress, she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Wayne State University in 1978.
Larry J. Merlo and S. Epatha Merkerson will speak at Pitt’s commencement ceremonies. Courtesey of PITT
Students display artwork from studio arts classes Andrew O’Brien Staff Writer
Pitt studio arts majors and nonmajors will display artwork in Frick until April 29. Paul Novelli STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
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In the Frick Fine Arts building hangs an oil painting self-portrait of an artist staring into a mirror, shock and anguish playing across her face as she holds up a single silver hair. Stephanie Taylor’s “Gray” — one of six pieces the senior studio arts and art history double major has in Pitt studio arts annual student exhibition — is based on a true story. Taylor was looking into the mirror, preparing to start sketches for a self-portrait assignment, when she noticed a few strands of gray hair. I’d been getting ready to start the sketches for a self portrait, and it was the first time I noticed a few gray hairs,” Taylor said. “We
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see things like that as so severe, but they’re really not. That’s what I wanted to put across.” Pitt’s studio arts department’s annual exhibition spreads across five rooms and features pieces from graduating studio arts majors, as well as exceptional works by other major and nonmajor students. The gallery opened on April 6, and visitors can view the student’s artwork in the Frick Fine Arts building Monday through Friday between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. until April 29. Taylor has been spending time in art studios since middle school and wants to pursue her passion after she graduates, either as an art teacher or a museum curator. “Putting things in perspective, I know my work isn’t that significant,” Taylor said. See Student Exhibit on page 5
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Pitt researchers link immune system to cancer treatment James Evan Bowen-Gaddy Assistant News Editor
Doctors already fight cancer by stimulating patients’ immune systems, but after a recent Pitt-led study, researchers may have a better idea of how to target specific immune cells to improve their treatment. According to recent findings by Pitt researcher Robert Ferris, doctors will now be able to better select patients for immunotherapy — a form of cancer treatment in which doctors use a patient’s immune system to fight cancer cells — based on a patient’s quantity of specific immune cells. By examining the number of these cells a person has, Ferris said doctors can target their treatment toward deactivating these cells, which often can suppress the immune system from preventing cancer. Ferris shared these preliminary results from a University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute study at the American Association for Cancer Research’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C., April 2.
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— which help cancer cells escape the immune system. “We found a way to reverse one suppression of the immune system to turn it back on and kill cancers,” Ferris said. The other important takeaway from this research, according to Ferris, is that doctors can now identify patients who might be better suited for other treatments like chemotherapy or radiation. Immunotherapy can often be very effective on patients with a certain level of PD-L1, but it isn’t the best treatment for all patients — particularly those without the proper levels of certain immune cells identified in the study. “[The findings] should improve our selection of patients likely to respond to this effective, but expensive immunoPitt researchers are working on ways to target specific immune cells | Flickr therapy,” Ferris said. “We don’t want to put patients onto this [treatment] who “Your immune system can react and why some people have cancer — their aren’t likely to respond.” protect you against cancer,” Ferris, a co- immune system is suppressed and fails to In a 2015 National Center for Bioleader of UPCI’s Cancer Immunology control cancer.” technology Information study, researchThis research, Ferris said, allowed Program, said. “Your immune system ers determined the cost of a patient using can be exploited and taken over, and it his team to identify a pair of malicious See Treatment on page 4 can be evaded by cancer. So that’s in part proteins — known as PD-1 and PD-L1
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Treatment, pg. 3 the immunotherapy agent nivolumab — the drug used in Ferris’ research — to be over $100,000 per patient. The preliminary results of the recent Pitt study came as part of an extension of a 2016 study by Ferris, which demonstrated that certain immunotherapies were effective in patients with head and neck cancers. Ferris said, however, that the older study raised questions about why the therapy was effective in some patients and not as effective in others. The more recent study helped the researchers determine the proteins related to weakening immune systems, but they are still at a loss as to what causes a patient to have higher or lower levels of this protein. Lisa Butterfield, a Pitt professor of medicine, surgery and immunology, said that although this is a huge breakthrough, there is still work to be done to fully identify the best patients for this treatment. It’s up to Ferris and his collaborators to narrow the treatment criteria even further.
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“Dr. Ferris’ investigation is trying to help identify the patients,” Butterfield said. “[He’s] helping to identify the best patients for the right drug.” Ferris’ work, and the rest of the work from Pitt’s CIP is part of a larger, blossoming field of immunotherapy research. According to Arvind Suresh, manager of science writing on UPMC’s media relations team, the field of research is growing because it has direct applications in the world of cancer treatment. “Some of these research advances have translated to clinic successfully and have had impacts in patients’ lives, so it’s become a big area [of research].” Butterfield — who wasn’t involved in Ferris’ particular research, but also does work in immunology — said following Ferris’ breakthrough, she was excited for the future of the field, which will hone in on the patients who respond best to this treatment. Immunotherapy, in general to her, is work worth pursuing. “It’s revolutionized cancer therapy,” Butterfield said.
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Student Exhibit, pg. 2 “But by making art, I feel like I’m contributing to our culture.” One fan of Taylor’s work is Julian Schooley, a 28-year-old tutor and Mount Washington resident who enjoys strolling around the gallery to see what students create. He came to the last three Pitt studio arts exhibits and said “Gray” is his favorite piece this year, because he can relate to the aging subject. “I’ve had moments like that before,” Schooley said, with a smile. Schooley paints as a hobby, but he was quick to qualify that he’s not as skilled as the students with art on display. “It’s fun to come through and see what ideas they put in my mind,” Schooley said. The gallery features more than paintings — sculptures and other 3-D art forms lie atop pedestals, while geometric sketches and manipulated photographs adorn the walls. The artwork ranges in tone from dark and somber to light and cheerful. Senior psychology and studio arts major Brent Yingling’s dark acrylic ink piece “Pause.
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Scream. Repeat.” depicts two screaming humanoid faces covered in a web-like liquid next to disjointed words like “ANXIOUS,” “DISSOCIATING,” and “SCREAMING.” Senior studio arts major Sam Coutch created more lighthearted digital prints of transparent women with curvy forms, bulbous lips and brightly colored hair over a celestial sky background, called “Space Babes.” Senior studio arts major Sarah Thornton’s abstract acrylic finger painting, “Your Existence Isn’t Impossible, Just Highly Improbable,” is an abstract collection of waves drawn in pointillist style that catches the
eye with its unorthodox color scheme and detailed texture. Thornton — who recently collaborated with an astrophysicist through the physics and astronomy department’s Artist in Residence program for a different piece — said science helps inspire their art. “Everything had to come together perfectly in order for us to be here,” Thornton said. “What an artist means with a painting isn’t as important as what the viewer gets out of it … It’s all about what the viewer brings to the table.” Thornton said they were always interested in art, but that a turning point in their
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life came in 2012 when they suffered a brain injury after falling off a horse. “It changed the whole way I thought,” Thornton said. “I wasn’t good at math anymore, and I read slower, but I became more sensitive to light and to color. Visual language became my default language.” Thornton said creating art allows them to both better understand their own emotions and to better relate to others. “There’s no option that is me not making art,” Thornton said. “It’s just a byproduct of my existence. It’s like oxygen from plants — it’s just what happens.”
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Opinions
column
from the editorial board
New York tuition bill lets down low-income students For college students disappointed by the Democrats’ defeat last November, a bill passed last week in New York is a refreshing — but ultimately empty — development in the discussion surrounding free tuition. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., signed a bill as a part of the state’s budget last Wednesday with a significant new budget line — the Excelsior Scholarship. The scholarship, which will be available for all residents of the state of New York making less than $100,000 per year starting in the 20172018 academic year, functions more or less as a measure to make attendance at the state’s public school systems tuition-free. By 2019, this benefit will increase to cover state residents making up to $125,000. The bill’s high-profile supporters include Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, both of whom were strong higher education reformists last year. And while the program represents a significant move in the right direction for higher education’s future — no lawmaker in Pennsylvania has proposed anything similar since 2013 — New York’s plan fails to make college truly accessible and is insufficient as a model for the country. Chief among the problems of transposing Cuomo’s bill to the rest of the country is one of its more controversial features — the Excelsior Scholarship requires recipients to work in the state for at least as many years as they attend school in the New York system. If a recipient leaves New York state after graduation, the state reverts the grant into a loan. “Why should New Yorkers pay for your college education, and then you take off and you move to California?” Cuomo said to the New York Times Tuesday, defending the measure. “The concept of investing in you and your education is that you’re going to stay here and be an asset to the state.” Critics of the bill, including Sara GoldrickRab, a professor of higher education at Temple
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University, say the requirement that graduates of four-year institutions remain in the state four years is equivalent to “extortion” and “indentured servitude.” Goldrick-Rab also pointed out on Twitter that New York, as a state with one of the highest average costs of living in the country, is an unaffordable choice for low-income students who graduate with the help of the scholarship program. Other states, including Pennsylvania, that have cost-of-living indexes higher than the national average, would face the same problem as New York. The in-state work requirement forces high school seniors to make a plan for the next eight years of their lives, assuming they go to school for four years and are then required to stay in state the next four. This is also something that would be difficult or even impossible to recreate in states with smaller job markets. Another target for critics of the bill was its requirement that recipients take at least 30 credits of classes per year to qualify for scholarship coverage. Commentators, including former SUNY Chancellor D. Bruce Johnstone, noted the requirement that students be full-time would likely limit the amount of aid given to lower-income students who work part-time and study part-time — presumably those who would need the most help. “[The bill] will help a slice of middle-class students, but it’s only a slice,” Johnstone said to the New York Times Tuesday. “I don’t see it moving the accessibility needle.” While New York’s scholarship program was likely passed with good intentions and is undoubtedly a step in the right direction, it’s questionable how much the bill actually does to improve issues surrounding inaccessibly expensive higher education. Other states considering following New York’s lead should take note of the Excelsior Scholarship program’s drawbacks and work to ensure that students of every social and economic background can attend public college.
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‘Open Casket’ Painting deserves to exist
Jordan Mondell CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Christian Snyder Columnist
The first time I saw the photograph in an anthology of the most powerful photographs in history, I noticed Emmett Till’s pristine button up and imagined his mother’s brave hands fastening his crisp white shirt over his chest before laying his body down for his final rest. Till, disfigured from the beating he received at the hands of two white men in 1955, lay open and uncovered at an open-casket funeral. He was 14 years old when he was murdered, and his funeral attracted national attention to the reality of racism in the United States. Till’s pain and his mother’s courage have inspired tributes ever since, the most recent being Dana Schutz’s 2016 painting “Open Casket,” which has been on display at the Whitney Museum’s Biennial Exhibition in New York City since the exhibition’s opening March 17. His white button up looks just like it does
in the famous photograph, but swatches of brown paint take the place of his face, his wounds abstracted in Schutz’s usual expressionist style. But if you’d been at the Whitney the day the exhibition opened last month, you wouldn’t have gotten a full view of the painting. Protesters stood in the museum blocking the view, wearing gray tshirts with the words “Black Death Spectacle” written on the back in marker, their heads solemnly bowed. At the core of the protest is the insistence that because Schutz is a white woman she has no place depicting a black death, whatever her reasoning may be. Black artist Hannah Black articulated the claim that the painting is an example of cultural appropriation and a racial micro-aggression in a letter she sent to the curators and staff of the Whitney biennial. “I am writing to ask you to remove See Snyder on page 7
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Snyder, pg. 6 Dana Schutz’s painting ‘Open Casket’ and with the urgent recommendation that the painting be destroyed,” Black said in the letter. The rest of the art community, in turn, responded to the request for censorship. “I find it alarming and entirely wrongheaded to call for the censorship and destruction of an artwork, no matter what its content is or who made it,” Coco Fusco, an internationally acclaimed Cuban-American multimedia artist, said. Censorship is contradictory to the essence of art — if we accept the destruction of art that offends us, it’s a slippery slope to total censorship. Creation of art isn’t the only aspect of being an artist — respect for others’ art is just as important. But the importance of the protest still stands. Black presents many issues with the painting, ranging from Schutz’s race to the museum’s cost of admission, but the mere fact that it’s a white artist’s depiction of black suffering does not seem sufficient to justify its destruction. I know that as a white artist my interpretation of this situation may be reflective of my race — I don’t wish to defend Schutz. I believe that the piece should never have been created in the first place — not merely because the artist is white, but because the combination of her race and her artistic technique result in a diminishing of black pain. Claiming that race alone precludes someone from creating art fails to recognize the complexities in how medium and message combine to affect the audience’s interpretation of the piece. Artists have and always will create about things that affect them — it’s hard to say that we should limit anyone’s art from a subject that speaks to them emotionally. If taken to be true, then stating that race precludes Schutz from depicting Till asserts that she cannot and should not be affected by his murder, and thus, shouldn’t express any empathy. We must recognize that if we want artists to tackle compelling and challenging subjects, there sometimes will be mistakes. In this case, a white artist misunderstood and misused an image of Black pain in her art. To reduce this simply to the artist’s race is to lose an understanding of what precisely was wrong with Schutz’s painting. Instead of calling for the destruction of the painting, artists should work together to figure out how to best convey inclusive em-
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pathy in an effective way. The problem with “Open Casket” is that, while the intention was to express how the photograph of Till affected her as an American and as a mother, her poor choice of medium and technique wildly contorted the audience’s understanding of the piece. Schutz layered paint on the canvas as a substitute for the reality of Till’s injuries. Brown paint takes the place of blood, bruised tissue and broken bones. His eyes are absent, preventing the audience from seeing how swollen they were after his attackers brutally beat him. The original photograph was impactful because Till’s mother made the grotesque nature of his wounds public, forcing the audience to accept his suffering as reality — Schutz, on the other hand, detracts from the physical injuries he suffered by simply not showing them. By choosing to depict Till in an abstract way, Schutz has essentially closed the casket, trivializing the totality of black suffering symbolized in Till’s post-mortem portrait. And it’s not just the abstraction of black pain that is problematic — the issue is that, in combination with her race, hiding the reality of Till’s wounds is akin to years of white Americans masking the racism that this country has been built upon. She can, on the individual level, sympathize with an individual death. However, she cannot empathize on the abstract level with black suffering, a type of identity empathy reserved for people of color and which will never be an interminable issue for white people. I am proud of the artists that have united to express their disgust over this image. People should continue to unite beyond racial or ethnic differences in order to educate and spark conversation. Art can be a tool for mediating these difficult conversations, but for art to continue to do so it must first exist, which is where I disagree with Black’s letter. No art should be destroyed under any circumstance. But Schutz should have taken into account the way that medium and technique are unspoken voices affecting how consumers react to art, and that abstracting very real, palpable suffering is to detract from the power of it. So instead let’s allow Till’s body to speak for himself and his legacy. As his mother realized when she saw his body, only tangible suffering — not abstract pain — can inspire action and yield positive change. Christian primarily writes on social justice and campus issues for The Pitt News. Write to him at cjs197@pitt.edu.
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Single copies of The Pitt News are free and available at newsstands around campus. Additional copies can be purchased with permission of the editor in chief for $.50 each. Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the students, faculty or University administration. Opinions expressed in columns, cartoons and letters are not necessarily those of The Pitt News. Any letter in tended for publication must be addressed to the editor, be no more than 250 words and include the writer’s name, phone number and University affiliation, if any. Letters may be sent via e-mail to letters@pittnews.com. The Pitt News reserves the right to edit any and all letters. In the event of multiple replies to an issue, The Pitt News may print one letter that represents the majority of responses. Unsigned editorials are a majority opinion of the Editorial Board, listed to the left. The Pitt News is an independent, student-written and
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Culture
Phantom of the Attic Comics carries both big-name comics and self-published work by local artists. Evan Meng STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER said. “You had to distribute it [in black and white] through these arcane channels. I would have never thought Scioli has been in the Pittsburgh to even make color comics back then.” comic scene since distribution tranEven though Scioli says color is a sitioned from small-scale DIY zines main component in his work, in the to webcomics reaching thousands of people. Scioli himself has taken advantage of the rise of webcomics with “American Barbarian,” his original sci-fi epic tracking main character Meric on his quest for revenge in a “post-post-apocalyptic world.” Scioli released the story through his website beginning in 2010, to a wider audience at a lower cost. IDW Publishing, the company that put out Scioli’s “Transformers vs G.I. Joe,” saw the success and acclaim of Scioli’s online work, and published the full “American Barbarian” collection in hardcover format in 2015. Scioli recently started the weekly past, only large comics companies web comic “Princess,” which follows could afford to use color and indean alien-fighting space princess. pendent creators were left to a limited To most older artists, web comics medium. have changed the game. Younger artists use web comics to “When I started at Pitt in ’94 the distribute independent work as comic internet was a new thing. Totally new giants like Marvel and DC become — you couldn’t work in color,” Scioli bigger than ever.
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— in January 2016. “Since there’s only one of me and a lot of different festivals and venues, online [platforms] will be necessary,” Kvitka said. Scioli said carrying an audience from project to project is one of the pitfalls of publishing online, since it’s difficult to get people to care about a creator’s next project. Scioli left webcomics to pursue more formal work with DC and Image but has returned to the internet after growing tired of close deadlines and tight page counts in the more formal comic book world. When “Princess” went online Feb. 8, people were reading it the same day— Scioli said he feels reinvigorated. “To me, that’s amazing. When I posted that, it felt like, ‘OK, I’m back in comics.’ With working with major her blog. Kvitka moved from Chicago publishers, there’s a layer between me to Pittsburgh in August 2016, but she and the audience that doesn’t exist. I began regularly making comics in kind of forgot how much fun [comics are],” Scioli said. “You can tell any sort 2012. She started posting “Urbanity of story you want with web comics.” Despite the ubiquity and unlimited Planet” — a narrative web comic following recent college graduates who potential topics of web comics, See Comics on page 9 can’t afford to live on Earth anymore Theora Kvitka, a 29-year-old comics creator and student pursuing a Master’s degree in interactive design at Carnegie Mellon University, is one of these artists, finding a moderate internet audience through Tumblr and
“in comics, if you can draw it, you can do it.”
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the new guy. Straight back from the top of the staircase is a local creators shelf. Between the manga and the independent collections, this shelf houses works like Scioli’s “Godland,” Jim Rugg’s “Street Angel,” and Ed Piskor’s “Hip Hop Family Tree.” Even with this variety of cosmic drama, urban fantasy and culture study, it doesn’t scratch the surface of what Phantom has to offer. “I think we have our identity, but
Emily Hower CONTRIBUTING EDITOR we also kind of carry a little bit of everything,” Wise said. “Everything” ranges from Marvel’s “All-New, All-Different Avengers” series to Brandon Graham’s independent and abstract “Island” anthologies. Scioli takes in a little bit of it all with every visit. Scioli started walking to Phantom during his years at Pitt and hasn’t stopped going since. “I was just a guy with an art degree
The Pitt news crossword 4/13/17
brick-and-mortar stores such as Phantom remain central to community-building in the comic scene. Phantom of the Attic Comics was originally a chain of five stores, though today only three survive — in Oakland, Greentree and Monroeville. Phantom of the Attic Comics in Oakland occupies a second-story space above Top Notch Art Supply, with no storefront on the ground level. A word balloon announces “New Comics Wednesdays at 1 p.m.!” informing passersby of new weekly shipments from the “Big Two” publishers — Marvel and DC — as well as smaller or independently published comics. Inside, Wayne Wise — the selfproclaimed “behind-the-counter-guy” — mans the wrap-around desk in the center of the store, sporting a full gray beard and glasses, always ready to chat. He’s been with Phantom since 1997, but among the full-time employees who consist of the owner and a handful of others from the mid-80s, Wise is still
that wanted to tell a story,” Scioli said. Scioli was awarded the Xeric Grant — a national grant that funds independent comic publishing — in 1999 for his sci-fi/fantasy series “The Myth of 8-Opus,” which follows the titular 8-Opus as he crash lands on a dead planet searching for his lost friend. This series attracted the industry’s attention, leading to his most recognized work with Image Comics, “Godland.” “Whenever somebody breaks into comics, nobody else can break in that same way again. It’s like they close whatever window they used to climb in. Everybody’s got a different story of how they got in,” Scioli said. “My way of getting into comics is more typical of my generation. There were more people that got in this way — circling the fringes and making that circle smaller and smaller until you’re somewhere in the middle of it.” Now creators might break into the scene through web comics with no former experience. Others might be scouted by a big company, like DC, through other online content. Babs Tarr, the creator of DC’s “Batgirl of Burnside,”
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Comics, pg. 9 was discovered through her viral fan art of comics characters and the Japanese manga series “Sailor Moon.” According to Scioli, new artists come to Pittsburgh regularly to create art and dive into the comics culture. Kvitka said many artists come to Pittsburgh as an affordable alternative to sprawling big cities. “[Creating] comics is wonderful, but it doesn’t pay the bills,” Kvitka said. “The comics scene here has been so much more accessible [than in Chicago], which has been really wonderful.” She attended both the Pittsburgh Zine Festival in December 2016 and the Pittsburgh Indy Comix Expo in April. In-person gatherings are where she connects best with her readers. Kvitka’s goals include finding a sustainable audience — both online and at comic gatherings — and getting published. “It would also be great not to selfpublish and have someone else do the heavy lifting for me,” Kvitka said, noting that she’s also responsible for marketing
herself. When Scioli first began self-publishing, he found a lifeline in small stores such as Phantom. At the time, however, Pittsburgh’s comic scene was relatively small, which allowed up-and-coming artists a certain degree of visibility in the community. “Because [Pittsburgh] was so small, you could see people a mile away. The culture is centered [on] local stores — like Phantom of the Attic,” Scioli said. “My earliest, earliest work, I would have there. Other people working on comics would sort of see it and be like, ‘Oh, he’s local.’ Then they’d get in touch with me that way.” According to Scioli, Pittsburgh has a relatively unified group of comic creators focused on these shops. It’s a melting pot of interests, but most of the artists have one thing in common: a desire for creative independence. “With comics, you have full autonomy. You have no limitations,” Scioli said. “I can’t stand limitations. In comics, if you can draw it, you can do it.”
The Pitt News SuDoku 4/13/17 courtesy of dailysudoku.com
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Sports GOLD TEAM RULES: ROSTERS SET FOR SPRING GAME Steve Rotstein Sports Editor
The Pitt football team’s players and coaching staff gathered in the team room Wednesday morning at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the South Side for some very important business: picking teams for Saturday’s BlueGold game. Linebackers coach Rob Harley will coach the Blue team, while running backs and special teams coordinator Andre Powell mans the sideline for the Gold squad. Harley and Powell split up the 14 seniors among the two teams, who were then tasked with drafting up their rosters. Here’s a position-by-position breakdown of how the two squads will match up Saturday at Heinz Field, and where things could get ugly quick for the Blue team. Avonte Maddox is feeling confident about his selections as Gold team General Manager. Matt Hawley STAFF PHOTOGBlue team quarterbacks: Max Browne, RAPHER Thomas MacVittie go-to receiver for the Blue team. Maurice Ffrench Browne started the first three games for USC for the position with immense potential. Gold team quarterbacks: Ben DiNucci, will provide blazing speed and versatility playing Advantage: Blue last season before losing his starting spot, while Kenny Pickett, Jake Zilinskas in the slot receiver role. Blue team fullback: Erik Sellers Thomas MacVittie is a redshirt freshman who Quarterback is the most important position Advantage: Gold Gold team fullback: George Aston has yet to play a snap. on the field, and the Blue team came away from Blue team offensive tackles: Jaryd JonesThe Gold team drafted George Aston with Advantage: Blue the draft with the top three quarterbacks on the Blue team inside linebackers: Quintin Wir- their second pick, and it’s no surprise as the bruis- Smith, Tony Pilato depth chart. Gold team offensive tackles: Brian O’Neill, ing fullback is adept at blocking, rushing and reginis The coaches assigned USC graduate transfer Gold team inside linebacker: Chase Pine, ceiving and coming off a 10-touchdown season. Jerry Drake Max Browne to the Blue team when dividing up Erik Sellers, meanwhile, has never played a snap Jim Medure Gold team general manager Avonte Maddox the seniors, making Browne the team’s general Quintin Wirginis is best known for coming at Pitt. made Brian O’Neill the number one overall pick manager. Ben DiNucci — Browne’s top competiAdvantage: Gold off the edge and pressuring the quarterback, but for the second year in a row, and it’s easy to see tion for the starting job — was the first quarterBlue team wide receivers: Tre Tipton, Mau- why. O’Neill was one of the top-rated tackles in he’s moving inside to take over for Matt Galamback off the board, and, to the surprise of head bos as the team’s primary Mike linebacker this rice Ffrench (CB/WR), Ruben Flowers, Rafael the country as a sophomore and also showed the coach Pat Narduzzi, it was Browne waving him year. Chase Pine redshirted last season as a highly Araujo-Lopes, Michael Vardzel speed to pull off a pair of touchdowns and bring over to the Blue squad. Gold team wide receivers: Jester Weah, Qua- home SB Nation’s coveted Piesman Trophy. touted prospect, while Jim Medure joined the But, after the draft was complete, Narduzzi team as a walk-on in 2015. Pine has potential, but dree Henderson, Aaron Mathews, Mark BernsJaryd Jones-Smith has experience as well and tweeted out an announcement of a trade: the dorff, Kellen McAlone Wirginis is the only proven player in the group. is expected to start this year, but he missed the Gold team had addressed the quarterback issue Pitt is the only team in the country with three 2015-16 season with an injury and played as a Advantage: Blue by trading away defensive tackle Keyshon Camp Blue team strong safeties: Dennis Briggs, returning players who scored at least 10 touch- reserve last year. and cornerback Phillipie Motley for DiNucci, downs last season, and the Gold team scooped Henry Miller Advantage: Gold middle linebacker Chase Pine and cornerback Gold team strong safeties: Phil Campbell, up all three with wide receivers Jester Weah and Blue team offensive guards: Justin Morgan, Rob Boatright. Quadree Henderson to go along with Aston. Aar- Bryce Hargrove, Brandon Ford Rimoni Dorsey DiNucci completed 3-of-9 passes with two Aside from quarterback and inside lineback- on Mathews is also a solid candidate to emerge Gold team offensive guards: Alex Officer, interceptions in his first game action in the 2016 er, strong safety is the only position where the as the Panthers’ starting wideout opposite Weah, Alex Bookser Pinstripe Bowl against Northwestern. He will Blue team came out on top. Dennis Briggs is the with Henderson playing in the slot. There are two starters in this group, and the likely get the start for the Gold team, with true Tre Tipton will be in competition with Gold team snagged both of them in Alex Officer only strong safety with game experience, while freshman Kenny Pickett serving as his primary cornerback-turned-safety Henry Miller is a giant Mathews for the starting spot and should be the See Spring Game on page 13 backup.
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Spring Game, pg. 12 and Alex Bookser. Last year’s starting center, Officer, is moving over to left guard this year, while Bookser will remain in his spot at right guard. Advantage: Gold Blue team defensive tackles: Mike Herndon, Shane Roy, Rashad Weaver, Keyshon Camp Gold team defensive tackles: Jeremiah Taleni, Amir Watts, Julian Desire Redshirt senior Jeremiah Taleni will be the team leader on the interior of the defensive line. Amir Watts also played well in limited snaps as a true freshman last year and has a great chance to earn a starting role alongside Taleni in 2017-18. Advantage: Gold Blue team outside linebackers: Jalen Williams, Peyton Deri, Anthony McKee Gold team outside linebackers: Oluwaseun Idowu, Saleem Brightwell, Brian Popp Again, the Gold team snatched up the only two players with legitimate game experience at the outside linebacker position. Oluwaseun Idowu has evolved from a walk-on into a firmly entrenched starter and Saleem Brightwell showed his potential on a 70-yard interception return in the fourth quarter of Pitt’s 43-42 win against eventual national champion Clemson last year. Advantage: Gold
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Blue team cornerbacks: Dane Jackson, Maurice Ffrench (CB/WR), Phillipie Motley Gold team cornerbacks: Avonte Maddox, Therran Coleman Dane Jackson and Ffrench are sophomores with legitimate game experience, and redshirt junior Motley might be the early favorite to line up opposite Maddox as the team’s No. 2 cornerback. Maddox is the only guaranteed starter at corner this year, and, by all accounts, he has enjoyed a tremendous spring of practices. Narduzzi has also spoken highly of Therran Coleman’s progression heading into his second year, and Maddox’s playmaking ability and wealth of experience — 39 games played and 32 starts — push the Gold team over the top. Advantage: Gold Blue team free safety: Jay Stocker Gold team free safeties: Jordan Whitehead, Bricen Garner Not only did the Gold team pick up two of the three free safeties, they added arguably the most dynamic and talented player on the Panthers’ defense, junior Jordan Whitehead. After breaking his arm in Pitt’s win over Clemson last year and missing the team’s final three games, the 2016 ACC Rookie of the Year is primed for a big season in 2017-18. Advantage: Gold
Blue team kicker: Ian Troost Gold team kicker: Alex Kessman After losing all-time scoring leader Chris Blewitt to graduation, the starting kicker spot is up for grabs next season. Alex Kessman appears to have the inside track to the job, but 6-foot-6 walk-on Ian Troost will have his best chance yet to make an impression on the coaches in Saturday’s spring game. Advantage: Gold Blue team punter: Kirk Christodoulou Gold team punter: Ryan Winslow Narduzzi and Powell brought in Kirk Christodoulou from the Prokick Australia program in hopes of making him their punter of the future, but Ryan Winslow is the present. A three-year starter, Winslow brings stability to the position and should have his best year yet as a senior. Advantage: Gold Too close to call That makes 10 positions where the Gold team has a distinct edge, compared to only three for the Blue team. There are also five position groups without a clear advantage on either team: the running backs, tight ends, centers, defensive ends and long snappers. Here’s how those positions stack up: Blue team running backs: Chawntez Moss, Kyle Vreen
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Gold team running backs: Qadree Ollison, Shawn Wood Blue team tight ends: Allen Edwards, Nathan Bossory Gold team tight end: Deandre Schifino Blue team center: Connor Dintino Gold team center: Jimmy Morrissey Blue team defensive ends: Allen Edwards, James Folston, Patrick Jones, Deslin Alexandre Gold team defensive ends: Rori Blair, Rashad Weaver, Kaezon Pugh, Dom Cuono Blue team long snapper: Nathan Bossory Gold team long snapper: Conrad Brake Summary: Looking over the rosters, it’s hard to believe Maddox and company didn’t rig the draft with the way they made out. After the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Brian Batko informed him that he had somehow secured all 11 of the Panthers’ returning starters, Maddox couldn’t contain his laughter. “They were playing checkers, I was playing chess. I was thinking ahead of the game while they were just planning the next move,” Maddox said about his Blue team counterparts. Now, the only thing to do is see if the Blue team has what it takes to pull off a miracle of an upset. Prediction: Gold team 27, Blue team 14
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