James Spooner is an award-winning graphic novelist, filmmaker, and tattoo artist.  His debut graphic novel, The High Desert was named “Best of 2022” by Publishers Weekly, The Washington Post and The New York Public Library. The High Desert is the 2023 recipient of the American Library Association's Alex Award and the Cartoonist Studio Prize. Spooner co-edited an anthology of Black punk writers and comic creators entitled, Black Punk Now, published by Soft Skull Press. Pantheon has recently acquired his forthcoming second memoir, set for publication in 2025. He is also a regular contributor to RazorCake Magazine.  

Spooner directed the seminal documentary Afro-Punk which premiered at national and international film festivals, including Toronto International and The American Black Film Festival. James also co-founded the AfroPunk Festival, which currently boasts audiences in the hundreds of thousands around the world.

​Spooner’s work has been recounted in various publications, including NPR, The Los Angeles Times, Vice, The Village Voice, The New Yorker, MTV, NBC News and Variety. He was a recipient of the ReNew Media Rockefeller Grant. He is an ongoing guest curator for the Broad Museum in Los Angeles, and previously programmed for the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Spooner will read from his new book Black Punk Now, followed by a conversation with CCA Comics faculty Fred Noland. Spooner will sell and sign books after the event.

Fred Noland is visual storyteller. His comics have appeared in The New Yorker. He created “San Francisco Black History”, a public art series, for the San Francisco Arts Commission. A collection of his memoir comics, Steady Rollin’, was released in 2023. He is currently working on Major Taylor, a biographical comic about the first Black World Champion in road cycling, who became one of the first international sports stars. Noland resides in Oakland, California and is an avid but unremarkable cyclist.