Justin Hall (cartoonist)

Justin Robinson Hall (born February 14, 1971) is an American cartoonist and educator. He has written and illustrated autobiographical and erotic comics, and edited No Straight Lines, a scholarly overview of LGBT comics of the previous 40 years. He is an Associate Professor of Comics and Writing-and-Literature at the California College of the Arts.[1]

Justin Hall
Born	Justin Robinson Hall (1971-02-14) February 14, 1971
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Cartoonist
Notable works	No Straight Lines
justinhallcomics.tumblr.com

Career

Cover of Hard to Swallow #2, cover by Justin Hall

Hall began creating comics in 2001.[2] His first published work was A Sacred Text, about seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls in Israel, published with funding from a Xeric Grant. He followed this with True Travel Tales, an anecdotal series about more of his international backpacking experiences.[3] Next he and Dave Davenport produced Hard to Swallow, a 4-issue series of gay erotica[4] that was later collected into a single volume by Northwest Press in 2016.[5]

He served as the talent relations chair for the LGBT advocacy organization Prism Comics.[3][4] He published Glamazonia about a campy trans superhero, in 2010;[6] it was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award.[4] His work has been published in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, The Book of Boy Trouble, The Best Erotic Comics series, and Best American Comics 2006.[4]

In 2006, he curated the art exhibition "No Straight Lines: Queer Culture in Comics" with Andrew Farago of the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco.[2][3] This led to the 2012 book No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, a hardcover overview of LGBTQ comics history published by Fantagraphics,[7] for which he won a Lambda Literary Award and an Eisner nomination.

He began teaching comics at the California College of the Arts in the early 2010s; in 2014, he added instruction for a Masters-level degree in the subject.[8] In 2016 he received a grant as a Fulbright scholar to guest lecture at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic.[9]

In February 2013, Hall co-curated with Rick Worley the San Francisco art exhibit "Batman on Robin", featuring works exploring the theme of homoeroticism between Batman and Robin.[10][11]

Beginning in 2015, he has co-organized – with Jennifer Camper – "Queers & Comics", a biennial conference of international LGBTQ cartoonists, academics, and other professionals, focusing on LGBTQ themes in comics and LGBTQ comics creators.[12][13][14]

Personal life

Hall is married.[1] He and his husband live in San Francisco.[1]

References

1. "Justin Hall | California College of the Arts". www.cca.edu. Archived from the original on 2018-06-15. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
2. Bernardo, Danny. "Justin Hall: In the past, if there was a comic with a queer character, it became a queer comic because the mainstream wouldn't necessarily touch it". ChicagoPride.com. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
3. "Rediscovering Comics' Queer History: An Interview with 'No Straight Lines' Editor Justin Hall". Comics Alliance. Archived from the original on 2013-10-16. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
4. Johnson, William (2011-08-31). "Justin Hall: Queering Comic Books". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
5. "Justin Hall & Dave Davenport's "Hard To Swallow"- Get Involved". Manhattan Digest. 2016-02-06. Retrieved 2019-06-17.
6. "Justin Hall: Comics creator of Glamazonia". SFGate. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
7. Hall, Justin, ed. (2012). No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics. Fantagraphics Books. ISBN 9781606995068.
8. Shea, Ryan (2014-06-01). "Justin Hall- The Next Big Thing In Comic Books". Manhattan Digest. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
9. Czechfulbright (2017-01-10). "Fulbright Reality Czech: Get to Know a Grantee - Professor Justin Hall". Fulbright Reality Czech. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
10. "BATMAN ON ROBIN Gallery Show Explores The Dynamic Duo's Alternate Side". Forces of Geek. 2013-02-09. Retrieved 2017-03-02.
11. "Batman on Robin, A Homoerotic Group Art Show in San Francisco". Laughing Squid. 2013-02-04. Retrieved 2017-03-02.
12. "About – Queers and Comics". Retrieved 2019-06-17.
13. "For a weekend, the art of queer comics takes center stage - SFChronicle.com". www.sfchronicle.com. 2017-04-16. Retrieved 2019-06-17.
14. "Syndicated Comics". The Beat. 2019-06-01. Retrieved 2019-06-17.