About CATS

The Comic Art Teaching and Study Workshop, or CATS, is a treasure trove of original comic art, comic books and books on comics housed in the Department of Art at Rice University. CATS is a site for new research on the topic of comics for both students and professionals alike. Our collection of original comic art and vintage comics is growing! Find out about the CATS Collection at the Woodson Research Center in Fondren Library here!

WALLPAPER FOR MANY

THE GROTTO OF DEATH
A recent CATS project is the documentary short film, THE GROTTO OF DEATH. This doc is about Julio Camarena Pérez, one of the most prolific comic book artists working during Mexico’s Golden Age of comic books. This film is on the film festival circuit and has won several prizes including Best Documentary Short and Best Movie Poster.

JULIO CAMARENA EXHIBITIONS
We’ve developed several exhibitions around our collection of vintage comic art from Mexico. The first was called Between Love and Madness and took place in Houston in 2018 at Lawndale Art Center. Read about it here.

RISOGRAPHY

CATS is home to WALTER the Risograph Printer. We named Walter after the anti-fascist writer Walter Benjamin. Like Benjamin, our Walter has a passion for the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction. Risograph printing has gained popularity among artists and designers because of its distinctive appearance and low cost. It makes printing more accessible to new artists. We have six Risograph drums (Black, White, Sunflower, Scarlet, Fluro Pink, and Blue), with plans to add six more this year. In addition to Risograph, we’re also doing work in Letterpress. Watch this space!

COMIC ART COLLECTION AT THE WOODSON RESEARCH CENTER
In 2023, we established the Comic Art Teaching and Study Workshop Collection at the Woodson Research Center housed at Fondren Library. You can read all about the growth of comics at Rice University here! We were lucky to receive visits from comics VIPs, including storied comics editor, Charles Kochman and the Pulitzer Prize-winning comics legend Art Spiegelman.

JAXON’S RANT and FUNDAMENTAL CAMARENA

In 2020, we were lucky enough to be an official selection of the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée Angoulême — presenting the book Fundamental Camarena and the film JAXON’S RANT. Following the screening was a discussion with filmmaker Professor Brian Huberman and artists Professor Christopher Sperandio (Founder of CATS), Augusto Mora (Mexico), and Stan Wany (Quebec). Following the Q&A was a reception and launch party for FUNDAMENTAL CAMARENA, a new bilingual monograph on 1970s Mexican comic artist Julio Camarena, a publishing project by CATS with new Canadian publisher Argle Bargle Books. Read more about FUNDAMENTAL CAMARENA here. Sponsored by the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts at Rice University.

Jaxon was a pioneer in the world of underground comix. Filmmaker Brian Huberman captured Jaxon holding forth on art and life while he worked on his last great “graphic history,” THE ALAMO: AN EPIC TOLD FROM BOTH SIDES. Jaxon died in 2006, but his legacy continues as new generations of artists have come to admire his gritty historical comics. Professor Brian Huberman directed JAXON’S RANT.

ABOUT:
CATS (Comic Art Teaching and Study Workshop) is a research space and annex classroom for the studio art area based in the Department of Art at Rice University. It’s a repository for original comic art and books that are available to students, faculty and guests of the Department of Art.

CATS has over 2,400 pieces of original comic art from Mexico dating from the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s. These works were featured in a traveling exhibition entitled Between Love and Madness: Mexican Comic Art from the 1970s which was held in Berlin, Houston and Chicago. A 32-page book was produced for this show, a copy of which is available by special request.

If you’re interested in learning more about CATS Workshop, including future programming such as seminars and lectures, please contact Associate Professor Christopher Sperandio.