Interview with Red Pen Media editor, Irene Velentzas

I recently had the honor and privilege of interviewing Red Pen Media’s newest editor, Irene Velentzas.

She’s currently a doctoral candidate completing her dissertation in comics theory. Her background is academic as well as creative, with a great deal of passion for editing graphic narratives at all stages from inception through to completion.

Irene has also edited a few creative texts, a few academic texts, as well as written a fair amount of criticism for The Comics Journal. She’s also worked with comics organizations such as the Toronto Comic Arts Festival as their Partnership and Programming Coordinator and the Canada Comics Open Library as their Grants and Fundraising Officer.

To find out more, or to inquire about her services, email kaseyredpen@gmail.com.

Can you reflect a bit on your past successes and what it was like to be a part of them?

I recently co-edited an experimental academic volume that featured contributions from scholars and artists around the topic of sexuality and mental illness in comics. One of the contributors, Bruce Mutard, created a 14-page full colour comic on this topic. In the initial pencils I felt that the ending of Bruce’s story was the beginning of an important realization that needed in-depth exploration, while the…