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Open Access Publications from the University of California

Center for the Humanities

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Bobcat Comics

This comic series features collaborations with artists funded by the Center for the Humanities or through grants received by UC Merced faculty and graduate students.


Cover page of How to Read an Aztec "Comic": Indigenous Knowledge, Mothers' Bodies, and Tamales in the Pot 

How to Read an Aztec "Comic": Indigenous Knowledge, Mothers' Bodies, and Tamales in the Pot 

(2022)

This visual text represents some of the content from the article, Women, Childbirth, and the Sticky Tamales: Nahua Rhetoric and Worldview in the Glyphic Codex Borgia, by Felicia Lopez. Through the use of comic book conventions, readers are guided through the decipherment of logographic writing from Central Mexico and, in the process, are shown how colonization has limited our contemporary understanding of ancient Indigenous people. By offering reinterpretations of glyphs that reveal the cultural knowledge of women, this guided reading of a codex image paints a picture of Aztecs and other Indigenous people as intelligent, complex, and inventors of their own unique writing systems.

Cover page of Forging Communities in Colonial Alta California -- A Comic

Forging Communities in Colonial Alta California -- A Comic

(2021)

A comic synopsis of the book Forging Communities in Colonial Alta California, edited by Kathleen L. Hull and John G. Douglass (University of Arizona Press, 2018).

Cover page of What's soil got to do with climate change?

What's soil got to do with climate change?

(2021)

This comic is based on Prof. Asmeret Asefaw Berhe's TEDtalk "A climate change solution that's right under our feet" (https://www.ted.com/talks/asmeret_asefaw_berhe_a_climate_change_solution_that_s_right_under_our_feet?language=en) 

Abstract from TED.com: There's two times more carbon in the earth's soil than in all of its vegetation and the atmosphere -- combined. Biogeochemist Asmeret Asefaw Berhe dives into the science of soil and shares how we could use its awesome carbon-trapping power to offset climate change. "[Soil] represents the difference between life and lifelessness in the earth system, and it can also help us combat climate change -- if we can only stop treating it like dirt," she says.

Cover page of Thirsty for Change: A Visual Guide to Getting Involved in Water Politics / Sed por Cambio: Una Guía Visual para Involucrarse en la Política del Agua

Thirsty for Change: A Visual Guide to Getting Involved in Water Politics / Sed por Cambio: Una Guía Visual para Involucrarse en la Política del Agua

(2021)

Based in a fictional town in rural California, “Thirsty for Change'” explores themes in environmental justice and the right to clean water. This bilingual comic book introduces concepts in water governance and illustrates the possibility of systemic change to water management through community empowerment. Resources from the nonprofit organization, Community Water Center, are included within. This project was funded through the Henry Luce Foundation and the Center for the Humanities at the University of California, Merced.