Comic book, exhibit, health fair aim to encourage Tucsonans to live healthier

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Comic Featured in New Exhibit
It’s Up 2 You! is just one of many facets of Arizona State Museum’s Through the Eyes of the Eagle exhibit, running October 15 through January 7. 

The nucleus is the traveling exhibit, Through the Eyes of the Eagle, curated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Global Healthy Odyssey Museum and inspired by a children’s book series of the same name. The books’ original watercolor illustrations are the focus, telling stories about growing up healthy and preventing diabetes from a Native American perspective.



(Tucson, October 12, 2011)  “Everybody knows me as the Indian comic book guy,” artist and educator Ryan Huna Smith (Chemehuevi/Navajo) said of himself in a recent issue of Pasatiempo magazine (“Drawing Conclusions” by Rob Dewalt, Aug 19-25, The New Mexican).

Some folks are surprised to learn that American Indian artists work in the comic genre. Like the mainstream comics, social commentary, current events, and cultural relevance are prevalent in Native storylines. The popular Peace Party (Blue Corn Comics), for instance, features American Indian heroes fighting against prejudice and pollution. 

With mainstream influences like Heavy Metal and X-Men, Smith entered the comic book industry in 1996 by illustrating Tribal Force (Mystic Comics). Though lasting only one year before the publisher went bankrupt, the gig solidified Smith’s interest in the genre. As he explained in the Pasatiempo article, “There were only a few Native American superheroes out there, and that’s why we decided to do Tribal Force – precisely because there were only a few.” Native characters that existed at the time were either killed off early in the story or were treated as villains. Few were superheroes. The troubled pasts of Native superheroes (superheroes traditionally have troubled pasts) that did exist at that time were based on racial stereotypes and written with anti-Indian overtones. Now, in the storylines of the superheroes created by Native artists, readers are exposed to real-world and heady issues such as fetal-alcohol syndrome and land/resource disputes. 

In 2009, Smith worked on a graphic version of The Last Thunder Song (John G. Neihardt) for the Western Classics graphic anthology (Graphic Classics, 2011). The story deals with drought, religious dogma, bigotry, and the struggle of a Native American shaman to hold on to traditional ceremonial practices while facing assimilation.

Smith’s future plans include collaborating on a graphic novel or a comic book with fellow Native writers and illustrators. “My goals for my work are to project images of my Native American heritage, to inspire cultural pride in Native youth, and to inspire future artists.”

Over the past year, Smith has collaborated with Lisa Falk, director of education at Arizona State Museum, to co-create a digital comic book discussing American Indian health issues, specifically diabetes. They consulted with Native American and Hispanic teens on the storyline and to learn what kids know about diabetes and diabetes prevention. It’s Up 2 You! is the title of the resulting comic book.

Falk explains that the story’s characters are O’odham, Hispanic, and Yaqui teenagers -- three culture groups that see high rates of type 2 diabetes. “While type 2 is commonly developed in adults, it is increasingly showing up in children as young as 9 years old. Ryan’s artwork is an exciting, graphic way to get the message across to teens that type 2 diabetes is avoidable.”

It’s Up 2 You!’s heroine, Samantha, a teenage skateboarder, challenges her peers, Brandon and Tomás, to avoid the temptations of fast food and video games and to see the benefits of physical activity and healthy eating. Later in the story, Brandon experiences a dream visit from an O’odham elder who illustrates the importance of traditional health practices and emphasizes that diabetes is preventable. “As the comic’s title indicates, it’s up to all of us, individually, to decide to prevent type 2 diabetes. The disease is not inevitable,” said Falk.

The development of It’s Up 2 You! was supported by a grant from Kresge Arts in Tucson, a program that promotes the use of art to address community issues. The digital version of the comic book was supported by a grant from the John and Sophie Ottens Foundation and made possible through I.T. development by Objective Coders.


Visitors to the exhibit will enjoy enlarged pages from both the Eagle books and the It’s Up 2 You! comic.