AU professor explores other side of literature

Media Credit: Courtesy of ISAAC CATES COMIC RELIEF - In his free time, literature professor Mike Wenthe draws comics with his collaborator, Isaac Cates, who he met in Yale graduate school. Distance made collaboration for the comics difficult, but the two adapted their style and creative process to facilitate a cohesive, finished product. "We do it for the love, not the money," Wenthe said.

Mike Wenthe may be a mild-mannered AU literature professor by day, but by night, he works with collaborator Isaac Cates to create funny and interesting comics.

Wenthe and Cates, also a literature professor, have been friends since Yale graduate school, where they met at a contemporary poetry reading group.

"Comics came later," Wenthe said.

"I haven't done any solo comics that weren't otherwise part of another project [for a long time]," Wenthe said. "In the past seven years, everything I've done has been in concert with Isaac."

The two have worked together on many projects, notably two current series, "Satisfactory Comics" and "Elm City Jams."

"Satisfactory Comics" is a series of one- to two-page stories written and drawn by Wenthe and Cates based on story lines submitted by friends and readers. "Elm City Jams" is a series of collaborative comics done by Wenthe and Cates and other artists in a "jam" style.

Wenthe described a comics jam as a musical jam session: "joint improvised artwork produced by several hands and, hopefully, several minds. Some are more rule-bound and directed than others."

The two explain the jam in detail in their mini-comic, "A Treatise on the Jam."

The most recent issue of "Satisfactory Comics" was created in a more jam-like way than previous installments. The issue was created during a 30-hour time period this past May.

"'Satisfactory Comics' is usually a more considered collaborative affair. It's more deliberate," Wenthe said.

But since Wenthe moved from New Haven, Conn., where he and Cates lived, the more jam-like method was adopted to cope with the distance.

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