Submissions to 2025 Jurgen Comics Contest explore censorship through comic book cover art
Throughout April, VCU Libraries will exhibit artwork from this year’s Jurgen Comics Contest on the Cabell Screen.
Students from across VCU were challenged to choose a specific historical incident of art suppression or censorship and create the cover for a comic book telling the story of the event. The winners’ full pieces are displayed on the first floor of James Branch Cabell Library. Current and previous contest artwork on Scholar’s Compass.
Ingo Taylor – “The Red Scare” – Grand Prize winner
The Masked Moth, scourge of supervillains and protector of artists from censorship, battles his greatest foe yet—The Red Scare, who emits a scream so terrifying it sends people into a paranoid, anti-Communist frenzy.
Ingo Taylor is a communication arts major. “I have an interest in comic books, character design, creative writing, and storytelling in general. I’m often doodling character designs, thinking about plot ideas, or world-building in my spare time- hobbies which I’ve hopefully put to good use while designing this cover.
For this cover, I initially had a lot of different thoughts about what form of censorship I wanted to shed light on and also what kind of story I wanted to tell. I wanted to both portray the seriousness of the subject but also to make something fun and creative; like something you would pick off the shelf and have a blast reading. I mainly drew inspiration from classic comic book covers, such as golden age Amazing Spider-Man and Silver Surfer but drawn in my own style.”
Naomy Cardoso Perez – “To and From Guantanamo Bay” – Research Award
A man’s art becomes his only tether to the real world during his unlawful detention at Guantanamo Bay. When he is offered the opportunity to exhibit his work for a small nonprofit gallery, the Department of Defense forbids the artwork from leaving the compound.
Naomy Cardoso Perez is a painting and printmaking major. “My work highlights the impact of the human figure in imagery and my artistic goals revolve around creating works that consider the narrative of the real through a science fiction lens.”
My comic book was completely inspired by author Mansur al-Dayfi’s 2021 memoir “Lost and Found at Guantanamo Bay: Don’t Forget Us Here.” [He] spent decades within the Guantanamo Bay detention camp as an innocent man. Since his release, he has dedicated himself to journalism and activism related to Guantanamo Bay detainees and has continued to protest against recent political movements relating to said base.”
Ana Gonzalez – “Blacklisted. Hollywood 1950” – Storytelling Award
A successful screenwriter is falsely accused of being a Communist sympathizer and must endure suffocating censorship, surveillance and the struggle to preserve both his creativity and his freedom.
Ana Gonzalez is majoring in mass communications with a concentration in strategic/creative advertisement. “I believe that life is so beautiful and that everything has meaning … I didn’t have the software to digitally draw my comic cover, therefore I utilized my paper drawing abilities. I had to transfer my hand-drawn artwork to the computer in order to create my cover. One problem was that I had never drawn comics before, I had to practice quite a bit before I was comfortable.“
Alyssa Hwee – “Of Kings and Queens” – Artistry Award
Set against the backdrop of the Stonewall riots, this comic book cover highlights the role of drag kings and queens at the forefront of political activism and community organizing.
Alyssa Hwee is a graduate student at the VCU Brandcenter studying experience design. “The mixture of more modern imagery with old-styled, gilded book covers pays homage to the fact that queer people have always existed and will always find a way forward in the face of opposition and censorship. I enjoyed being able to represent drag and highlight how drag queens and kings of color have always been at the forefront of political activism and community organizing.”
Winston Broiles– “The Boondocks” – Honorable Mention
A controversial and over-the-top parody of the racist character trope, “The Story of Jimmy Rebel” became the only episode of the television show “The Boondocks” excluded in a 2020 streaming run.
Winston Broiles is a communication arts major with a primary focus on comics and digital illustration. “Being limited to designing just a cover (which is typically a single illustration) proved to be quite challenging. Figuring out how to fit all of my research and commentary relating to my chosen subject, “The Boondocks” season 3, episode 4, felt a bit like solving a puzzle.”
Heciel – “Carpetas. | 1. Vuelo Blanco” – Honorable Mention
Set in a time when Puerto Rican nationalist sentiments were strongly suppressed and an FBI surveillance program known locally as “Carpetas” was carried out on the island, the children of censored and imprisoned artists, musicians, and poets navigate their restricted personal and communal identity.
Heciel is a third-year political science major, formerly a kinetic imaging major. “I’m now pursuing an interpreter certificate. I am a longtime Virginian and a lifetime Puerto Rican from the inland mountain towns.
I realized I was referencing a situation many folks don’t know about, and I enjoy sparking curiosity, so I wanted to make the cover as factual and plausible as possible while still portraying the discomfort of surveillance and suppression. My favorite part was definitely developing the environment and lighting.”
Nathan Persson – “The War on Degenerate Art” – Honorable Mention
A dark historical tale about the modernist and avant-garde painters and sculptors whose art was attacked and derided in the Nazi Party’s 1937 Degenerate Art Exhibition.
Nathan Persson is a graphic design student with an interest in illustration and storytelling. “In my piece, the depictions of each artist are directly inspired by their own self-portraits.”
Naomi D. Amazigo – “Tagger. The Paint Wars”
Naomi Amazigo is an art foundation student. “I plan on being a storyboard artist or concept artist in the industry … storyboarding always captivated me because you get to choose the little details in framing to best deliver an impactful moment.
[C]hoosing a specific area of oppression was incredibly difficult. When art is being censored it is the final straw in a culture being censored in some capacity. Unfortunately, there is an endless supply of instances throughout history. In the end, I made a dozen designs of various points in history but when I sketched The Tagger something about it kept drawing me back to it, and I knew it was the right choice.”
Athene Davis – “BunnyMoon”
Athene Davis is a graphic design major. “The idea of a wholesome love story being intersected with themes of racism and segregation came to me rather quickly after reading “The Rabbits’ Wedding” [by Garth Williams] and researching its controversy. The most interesting and most difficult part of the process was trying to imitate the style of 1950s romance comics, which were a major inspiration.”
Audrey Morgan – “King Lear”
Audrey Morgan is a communication arts major. “I hope to work in illustration and in the publishing industry doing editorial work. My inspiration for choosing the historical topic I did was both the fact I love Shakespeare and how topical both King Lear and the censorship around it is. The idea of a mad king making his subjects unhappy under his rule because of his eccentric behavior and those in charge censoring what can be seen for the sake of a king’s mentality are both present in our country right now. As a response to this behavior, we have to just continue making art and speaking out.”
Zahraa Hadi – “Say Farewell to Equality”
Zahraa Hadi is a graphic design major. “As a graphic design student and not a communication arts major, I knew that I didn’t have nearly as much practice with drawing as my peers. I had to refresh myself with the pencil again which included a lot of warm-ups and exercises, and I even went to figure drawing nights in preparation. Inking in the final strokes was so enjoyable and I can’t wait for next year’s contest!”
Rowan – “Desolate Flame”
Rowan is an art foundation student planning to major in communication arts. “I’m a queer artist and every piece of my art is tied into that in some way or another, dealing with themes of isolation and body horror. As a queer artist, I’ve also always found myself emotionally involved in politics, realizing at a young age that I would never be able to disappear into “blissful ignorance”.
The idea I approached this with was largely inspired by Malice and Bone, and their themes of a world damaged by capitalism and corruption. That, as well as the increasing hostility towards people like Greta Thunberg, somebody who used to be held in high regard for her activism, made me want to lean into a theme of climate change. I wanted to send a message with just visuals, and inspire thought about the dangers of climate change and falling into a defeatist mentality thinking that it’s too late to make things better.”
Beverly Horvath – “The Lavender Scare”
Beverly Horvath is studying mechanical engineering. “I love art, comics and history. I was extremely inspired by queer documentaries and being frustrated by the erasure and reputation of censorship in certain communities.”
Jim Nghieu – “Persepolis.The Graphic Memoirs from Marjane Satrapi”
Jim Nghieu is majoring in kinetic imaging. “I enjoyed reading the two Persepolis books and watching the Persepolis movie as it was heart-wrenching to read and watch. In addition, it was perplexing to see both Persepolis books facing censorship after a decade of being published as I feel like the censorship of books harms the content being expressed in the works especially when Persepolis was about the author’s personal story of her life in Iran and how the west viewed the conflicts occurring in Iran. I enjoyed the novel for its minimalistic yet expressive art style and the movie for its usage of only monochromatic black and white colors and sticking with most of the source material in the novels.”
Categories Comic Arts, Student Work