Villains Beastro had a Graphic Encounter

By Chris Mailloux

Windsorites gathered at Villains Beastro to learn about comics and literacy from a local author.

The event was for Graphic Encounters: Comics and the Sponsorship of Multimodal Literacy and featured the author Dale Jacobs talking to the audience about his book.

“It’s a great location, I’m really happy we were able to have it here,” said Jacobs. “The theme fits it well and it’s a nice space.”

Jacobs is a composition and rhetoric professor at the University of Windsor. Growing up he read comic books until he entered university and became interested in them again after some students gave him some to read 10 years ago. The book came out in August on Amazon and in select locations, but the event itself was the official book release.

The book was published by Bloomsbury Publishing and is about how comic books have taught children literacy in a non-traditional way. Jacobs talked about how he learned literacy through not just the text in the books but the facial expressions and art.

One of the chapters Jacobs discussed was about the relationship of Marvel Comics and The Electric Company. Jacobs also discussed this chapter a couple weeks ago at the Harvesting the FAM Festival’s Incredible Comic Show.

“I don’t know if it’s any more important than the other chapters, I just knew tonight I should do an overview of the book,” said Jacobs.

Martin Deck volunteered to run the merchandise table, selling copies of the books.

“I think it’s a good event, you never know what to expect with a book launch,” said Deck. “I’ve been to ones where there was standing room only and ones with one or two people. So this is mid-way in between and I count it as a success.”

Deck said he volunteered for the event both for his love of comics and to further his education.

“I look forward to finishing the book, I just wish there were more pictures,” said Deck jokingly.

Villains owner Geoff Zanetti said he was pleased with the event.

“I thought it was pretty good, it was a good turn-out,” said Zanetti. “It had a good display of pictures in the background, they had it all laid out and nicely and had a good speaker.”

Zanetti also said he’s happy to host events that are different. The bar often hosts events like karaoke, trivia games and recently hosted a comic book auction and zombie convention. The bar has also served as a background for music videos and movies shot there as a background.

“If anybody wants to do something that’s a little bit odd or different that’s downtown I encourage them to do it here,” said Zanetti.

Overall the event had roughly 30 people in attendance and featured a Q&A afterwards by Jacobs.