Thursday, September 17, 2015

C2E2 With Dan Parent

Dan Parent is a comic book artist and writer, most known for working on the Archie Comics.  This is one man I had to meet at C2E2 2015.
Archie brings me back to a simpler time.  Archie, Moose, Jughead, Veronica, Betty and the rest were a huge part of my generation's childhood.  Whether in comic book form on cartoons, we all followed the adventures of the gang in Riverdale.
Parent has done excellent and relevant work with Archie over the years.  Perhaps his most important contribution was introducing Kevin Keller, the first openly gay character in the Archie universe.  It wasn't just a controversial story for the sake of marketing.  It was written so well that he was awarded the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book.  It is simple, yet huge steps like this which really affect change in the world.
Of course, all of Parent's storylines aren't as serious as the Keller one.  There are still plenty of other ones featuring the normal hijinx of the Archie gang.  I shpould have asked, but I wonder if Parent knows why Jughead wears that crown?
For more info on Parent, head over to DanParent.com.  The site is loaded with cool Archie stuff, like comic book announcements, an Archie store, Parent's convention schedule and a lot more.  You can even get "Archie-fied," by having Parent draw you as an Archie-style character.  How cool would that be?!
Dan Parent and me in Chicago, IL-April 2015.

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