Daily Archives: September 21, 2020

Penn State University Press announces Graphic Mundi imprint

By: Cate Fricke

Graphic Mundi, a new trade imprint of comics for adults and young adults, will launch in Spring 2021. With the mission of “drawing our worlds together,” the imprint will feature both fiction and nonfiction narratives on subjects such as health and human rights, politics, the environment, science, and technology. Kendra Boileau, Assistant Director and Editor-in-Chief of Penn State University Press, is the publisher.

About her vision for the imprint, Boileau says, “Graphic Mundi will represent a broad range of voices and experiences, including those of marginalized individuals and groups, or those whose
works have not been previously accessible to anglophone readers. These graphic novels will address serious topics, but they’ll do so in engaging, provocative, and sometimes humorous ways. They’ll have the potential to transform how we see ourselves, others, and the world. The imprint is thus an excellent fit for our mission as a university press.”

Graphic Mundi expands on the current list of critically acclaimed graphic novels published by Penn State University Press, in particular its Graphic Medicine series, which launched in 2015
with the Eisner Award–nominated Graphic Medicine Manifesto. The Graphic Medicine series currently includes twenty-two active and forthcoming titles that speak to the power of visual narrative to tell complex stories about personal and public health.

The Spring 2021 titles for Graphic Mundi are: COVID Chronicles: A Comics Anthology, a collection edited by Boileau and Rich Johnson of more than forty short works about the
pandemic from mainstream and indie creators, including Ignatz Award and Eisner Award winners. Three graphic narratives of personal trauma: a sudden diagnosis of quadriplegia in Twister, by Roland Burkart; an overwhelming eating disorder in Fat, by Regina Hofer; and a child’s account of living with a mother with bipolar disorder in The Parakeet, by Espé.
Crude: A Memoir, by Pablo Fajardo, Sophie Tardy-Joubert, and Damian Roudeau, recounts the fight for social and environmental justice in the Amazonian oil fields. Dirty Biology: The X-Rated Story of the Science of Sex, by Léo and Colas Grasset, and The Body Factory: From the First Prosthetics to the Augmented Human, by Héloïse Chochois, humorously explore the biology of sex and the history of human amputation and augmentation.

Award-winning cartoonist and graphic novelist Ted Rall notes that “the graphic novel revolution has brought comics out of the humor ghetto to the front of the store. The greatest potential
for the format is in serious, intelligent takes on nonfiction, fiction, politics, and memoir that treat comics as literature,which is why I believe in the mission of Graphic Mundi. Not only
will these books be an excellent addition to readers’ bookshelves; they’ll also make our world a better place, one book at a time.”

Graphic Mundi is an imprint of Penn State University Press. Founded in 1956, Penn State University Press publishes high-quality books, journals, and graphic novels of interest to
scholars and general readers, with a focus on the humanities and social sciences. Learn more at psupress.org.

Graphic Mundi can be found on Twitter (@GraphicMundi) and Instagram (@graphicmundi) and on the web at https://graphicmundi.org/.

Tech Tip: Designate an alternative host in Zoom

By: Ryan Johnson

When scheduling a meeting, the host can designate another Licensed user on the same account to be the alternative host. The alternative host can start the meeting on the host’s behalf. When you designate an alternative host, that user or departmental account will receive an email notifying them that they’ve been added as an alternative host, with a link to start the meeting or webinar.

 Alternative host vs. Co-host

Alternative host is a more powerful role than cohost.

Alternative hosts can be designated in advance, whereas cohosts must be assigned during the meeting.

Alternative hosts have full host privileges until the host account joins the meeting and automatically becomes the host.

Co-hosts have some additional privileges in a meeting beyond a participant, but they don’t have full host powers. A co-host cannot start breakout rooms or end the meeting, for example.

How to Designate an Alternative Host

Zoom screen shot for tech tip

Customer Service Tip: Be a professional

By: Shep Hyken (submitted by Carmen Gass)

What is a professional? Is it the opposite of an amateur? In the sports world, professional athletes are paid, while amateurs are not. In my business, the title “professional keynote speaker” implies that I’m paid to speak in front of audiences. So, does being a professional simply mean you’re paid to do whatever it is you are doing? Read more here.