Featured Contributor: Artist and Educator Jamar Nicholas

By Purnell T. Cropper

Jamar Nicholas in the Art Office, Spruance Fine Arts Center.

Jamar Nicholas is a mild-mannered guy, fond of button-down shirts and light lunches at Elcy’s Café. On campus he’s known mostly as the dude who holds things together at Spruance Fine Arts Center, managing the office and assisting at the Art Gallery. But like many of the comic book characters he was drawn to as a kid, Nicholas has a second identity: award-winning graphic novelist.

While Nicholas’ achievements as an artist and educator aren’t a complete secret—his critically acclaimed adaptation of Geoffrey Canada’s memoir Fist Stick Knife Gun has been used in a course at Arcadia—much about his craft is. Until now.

As Featured Contributor for Online Media, Nicholas has worked with University Relations to

• publish a short personal essay about comic books that have influenced him,
• reveal parts of his creative process
• and share what he finds most vital.

Photo by Pedro Leal ’13