Events Calendar

Please join us with writer Fritz McDonald and artist Thomas C. Jackson, who will show images from and talk about their incredible new graphic novel, 2184 ½.

In 2184 ½ the Deconstructed States of America look like a cross between The Road Warrior and Catch-22. They are ruled over by The Ones, the passive-aggressive descendants of today’s one percent. Inspired by the radical nationalists of the 21st century, they have institutionalized autocracy. In a seemingly powerless country broken into Tribes fighting for scarce resources, a young female biker mechanic of mysterious origins seeks to unmask The One’s hypocrisy and start the revolution that will topple their gaudy and obscene empire.

"2184 ½ is reminiscent of the great Italian cartoonist, filmmaker and author Gipi, David Collier's autbiographical novel Chimo, Jessica Abel's Artbabe comic series, and honestly, Art Spiegelman. The richness of the tone and the darkness of the line kept me marveling at the compositions and the poser of the mark. I salute the integrity of this artist and the partnership with the writer."- Victoria Grube

Thomas C. Jackson studied art and received his M.F.A. from the University of Notre Dame. Jackson has exhibited his artwork in over 180 solo, invitational, and national and international juried exhibitions, judged by museum curators and gallery directors from California to New York, and in Israel (at Museum on the Seam in Jerusalem) and Mexico. Jackson explores the unusual side of Americana imagery in photography, painting, ink brush drawing, and his juxtaposed images reflect America’s channel-changing attention span and state of mind.

Fritz McDonald (M.F.A., The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop) taught for more than 20 years in the acclaimed Iowa Summer Writing Festival.  He has contributed essays to The Workshop: Seven Decades of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and to Now Write! Memoir, Journalism, and Creative Nonfiction Exercises from Today’s Best Writers and Teachers. His work has been published in Confrontation and The Nashville Review, and is forthcoming in Joyland. He is also the writer behind the PBS-UNC-TV documentary North Carolina.

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