Julian Chambliss
by Rob Goldman
Dr . Julian Chambliss is a professor who is very good at what he does . And that is to profess . With little prodding he can lay a plethora of interesting , thought-provoking knowledge and opinions out for you . Dr . Chambliss serves as coordinator of the Africa and African-American Studies Program at Rollins , and Coordinator of the Media , Arts , and Culture Special Interest Section for the Florida Conference of Historians . After a short walk through the beautiful Rollins campus , our interview took place in his cozy offi ce , overfl owing with books , comics , and comic book memorabilia .
One of Chambliss ’ big claims to fame is his TED talk about how the story of superheroes in America refl ects the story and the struggles involved with urbanization and the U . S . experience . Another accomplishment of Chambliss ’ is one that might gain him fame , but in a more notorious sense . On Memorial Day 2015 , he took part in a project organized by John Sims to bury the Confederate fl ag .
My personal interest in comic culture and the growth of our great city Orlando led me to consult with my good friend and comic expert , Nick Grondin , to think of some creative comic related questions to ask Chambliss . I was , and still am , interested to hear his perspectives about the way urban space shapes our communal interactions , and how comics interplay with culture . I was so caught up with that end of his story that I overlooked asking about the fl ag ceremony in our initial interview . So , this is a two-part interview . The fi rst part is about academics , comics , and the Orlando art scene . The second part occurred after our original interview and outlines the funeral for the fl ag , the nature of the Confederate fl ag and how we deal with it as a modern society .
Rob Goldman : So , let me see , where should I start ? In the past month , what has been your focus of study ? Julian Chambliss : In the past month , I ’ ve been really concerned with a couple things . One is a book about the Marvel cinematic universe I ’ m coordinating and writing for with some colleagues . It ’ s about superheroes that are in the movies produced by Marvel Studios . So , when I think about their comics , that ’ s the
21 thing that sort of distinguished modern Silver Age comics from Golden Age comics . The idea that all these characters are sort of living in the same world was not actually introduced in the fi rst comic book age . It develops over time . With that development you get an opportunity to tell these shared universe stories , which happens in comic books but not so much in other media . Marvel ’ s doing a good job . The book is about all that .
Other things I ’ m working on , of course , are a lot to do with preparing for class and thinking about the research end for that . I ’ m doing a class on Afrofuturism , which is called Afrofantastic . That is a new class for freshmen . We ’ re also going to curate a show in the Cornell Fine Arts Museum called Afrofantastic . So , I ’ ve been working on getting the objects together that are going to be part of that show , and sort of mapping out how the class will go .
The threats were ... just that , threats . Nothing like being in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s .
You talk about organizing this show , I ’ m wondering if academic art shows , like CFAM ( Cornell Fine Arts Museum ) shows , if you think that those shows serve the Orlando art scene as a whole . That ’ s something that the Cornell really strives to do , create a space for the sort of complexity that we associate with the Orlando art scene . I think people tend to assume that the Orlando art scene isn ’ t very complicated . Aesthetically , perhaps , Orlando is closely associated with Disney , and Mickey Mouse cartoons , which , in a way , are actually quite complicated . They ’ re important , as a part of the American cultural landscape , but when people think about art , they ’ re thinking , in this context , about a particular narrow band .
Can you name any particular Orlando comic book artists ? You know , artist-wise … yeah , I don ’ t know that many artists . That ’ s one of the big gaps in terms of some of the stuff I ’ ve done . You know , I ’ m hoping actually in the next year to do more with comic artists in the community . If I have the opportunity to do a class in the spring , that ’ s going to have a big comic component . I ’ m hoping that we can fi gure out a way to create some opportunities to spotlight some comic art . We do a lot of community-based research so I ’ ll have to reach out and make some connections .
Are comics an art form ? I do think they ’ re an art form . For the Afrofantastic show we ’ re gonna have pages from Brotherman , a comic from the early ‘ 90s . Original pages by Dawud Anyabwile . I ’ ve talked to him , he ’ s going to loan us pages from the original Brotherman , which , you know , are these archival things , right ? These are original pages , but we ’ re gonna put them up in a gallery ! So , of course , his art in a gallery at this point is not an unusual thing , it ’ s perfectly reasonable . The intent around art and comics is clearer for people who know that part of the art world . So , if you are familiar with the infl uences of modern art , especially artists associated with street art , or graffi ti art , or something like that , you know they often transmit or translate these sort of pop culture iconography from comics , television , movies , things like that . So you get a lot of art that ’ s not necessarily comic art , but it ’ s inspired by comics . You see a lot of that with hip-hop artists that use phraseology and characters and concepts that they borrow from comic books . A lot of them borrow stuff from like , the X-men , or the Punisher .
Cool ! I can ask you a fun question now . In your TED talk , you mention Metropolis and Gotham , how they ’ re two sides of the same coin . Where does Orlando fit in that spectrum ? Is it one or the other ? It wouldn ’ t be either . It would be like a Central City or a Midway City . Which is to say , if it was a DC city , it would be like that . Part of the reason I hold that the Metropolis and Gotham dichotomy works is that they ’ re basically just adjectives for a city and urbanization . Metropolis is a big city , Gotham is also a big city , but darker . If you look up the defi nition in the Oxford dictionary , they do tend to lean toward these defi nitions . Gotham is a big city but there ’ s this connotation toward it being more sophisticated . I was looking this up , actually , a while back . Gotham also references a city full of fools . A community of idiots , like ,
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