Two pieces discussing John's professional life and history are posted today. "Remembering comics scholar John A. Lent, 1936-2026", Bart Beaty, TCJ May 26, 2026 https://www.tcj.com/remembering-comics-scholar-john-a-lent-1936-2026/ and Dr. Amazeen's work below. Also online is another article from China sent in by his wife Xu Ying - https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/1tj4a0ybt-GpGw2kcn_y4Q - which is from earlier this year, and shows John Lent’s New Years gift painted by cartoonist Cai Weidong.
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I last saw John
on March 12, 2026 when I was in Philadelphia for a book talk. We had lunch, for
which he insisted on paying. Although he walked with a cane, his mind was as
sharp as ever. I was shocked to learn the news of his passing when I was
visiting Janet Wasko in Eugene, Oregon last week.
John was born
into a coal mining family in a small western Pennsylvania town. He worked as a
gas station attendant, bar tender, and factory guard. While working in that
factory, he won a college scholarship that paid for his tuition and provided a
consistent summer job, changing the trajectory of his life. Yet, John never
forgot where he came from. He kept a photo on his desk of the outhouse from his
childhood home to remind him of his roots.
His first book
was about the poor relations the Newhouse publishing empire had with its labor
unions. While it cost him his PhD he was pursuing at Syracuse University (he
later finished his PhD at University of Iowa), it exemplified the concern he
had with media institutions, ownership, and power imbalances; an interest that
would persist throughout his career. He was troubled by who was benefitting
from institutional structures (generally not the little guy) and dedicated his
life to critical communication scholarship: scrutinizing the prevailing
communication institutions – their operations and outputs – analyzing their
strengths and problems, with the goal of identifying practices and policies
that prioritize the public good over corporate interests.
John was a
member of my dissertation committee in 2012. We wound up collaborating on the
sequel to his 1995 book, A Different Road Taken: Profiles in CriticalCommunication. The new volume, Key Thinkers in Critical Communication
Scholarship: From the Pioneers to the Next Generation, was published in 2015.
We included a chapter profiling his life and career as a critical communication
scholar. His biographical sketch from our book is copied below. I am making
available the full chapter about John Lent here.
May he rest in
peace.
Michelle A.
Amazeen | May 26, 2026
######
John A. Lent
taught at the college/university level for 51 years, beginning in 1960,
including stints as the organizer of the first journalism courses at De La
Salle College in Manila (1964–1965); founder and coordinator of the first mass
communications program in Malaysia at Universiti Sains Malaysia (1972–1974);
Rogers Distinguished Chair at University of Western Ontario (2000); visiting
professor at Shanghai University, Communication University of China, Jilin
College of the Arts Animation School, and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. In
the United States he taught in West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, before
joining the Temple University faculty, where he was full professor from 1976 to
2011. He has lectured, often as keynote speaker, at universities, conferences,
and other meetings in 63 countries. In his adult life he has also worked as a
factory guard and printer in Pennsylvania, a gas station attendant in Wyoming,
and supervisor of an archeological excavation in Canada.
Lent received
his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from Ohio University in 1958
and 1960, respectively, and a PhD in communications from the University of Iowa
in 1972. He has also studied formally at Syracuse University, Guadalajara
Summer School in Mexico, the University of Oslo, Sophia University in Tokyo,
and India.
In his
research, Lent has endeavored to be independent, comprehensive, socially
relevant, and critical (the latter on issues such as cultural imperialism,
media ownership, press freedom, women and media, New International Information
Order, the impact of new information technology, the transnationalization of
communication, and the transfer of conventional social science theory and
methodologies to the Third World). He thinks of himself as a research “gap
filler,” studying areas that are devoid of research and stimulating others to
pursue those topics. Thus Lent has pioneered the study of mass communication
and popular culture in Asia, since 1964, and the Caribbean, since 1968, comic
art and animation, and development communication. Among the 78 books and monographs
he has authored or edited are the first books on Asian newspapers, Asian
broadcasting, Asian film, Asian popular culture, Asian animation, Asian comics,
Asian cartooning, Caribbean mass communications, Caribbean popular culture,
African cartooning, Latin American cartooning, and publisher S. I. Newhouse.
Lent also compiled the earliest bibliographies on Asian mass communications
(two volumes), comic art (ten volumes), women and mass communications (two
volumes), and Caribbean mass communications (two volumes). He has also authored
about 200 book chapters and entries, and at least 900 articles and book
reviews.
Lent’s
gap-filling is reflected in the number of associations, groups, and journals
that he has founded, and then presided over, published, and edited. Among these
are Malaysia/Singapore/Brunei Studies Group of Association for Asian Studies
(chair, 1976–1982), Berita (editor, 1975–2001), Comic Art Working Group of
IAMCR (chair, 1984– present), Witty World International Cartoon Magazine
(managing editor, 1986–2001), Asian Cinema Studies Society (chair, 1994–2012),
Asian Cinema (publisher-editor, 1994–2012), International Journal of Comic Art
(publisher-editor, 1999–present), Asian Popular Culture section of Popular
Culture Association (chair, 1995–present), Asian Research Center for Animation
and Comic Art (chair, 2006), Asian Youth Animation and Comics Competition
(co-organizer, 2007–present), and Asia-Pacific Animation and Comics Association
(2008–present).
Among his other
professional activities, Lent has been a consultant to different educational
and governmental groups, has served on international cartoon and animation
competition juries in the United States (Pulitzer Prize, two years), Korea,
Cuba, Cyprus, Slovakia, Poland, Brazil, Colombia, Canada, Ukraine, Mexico,
Serbia, Kenya, Italy, Iran, China, and elsewhere, and has been a member of many
association and editorial boards, including the Popular Culture Association,
Comics Journal, Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, Crossroads, Human
Rights Quarterly, Jurnal Komunikasi, Asian Thought and Society, FECO News,
Americana, Cartoonists Rights Network International, ImageText:
Interdisciplinary Comics Studies, Feng Zikai Research Institute, Media Asia, Asian
Mass Communication and Information Research Center, Bucheon Cartoon Information
Center Library, Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival, Mechademia,
and others.
Lent’s awards
include a Fulbright scholarship; induction into the top honorary societies in
English, journalism, and history; scholarships/awards in his name in the
Popular Culture Association, International Comic Arts Forum, and
Malaysia/Singapore/Brunei Studies Group; a festischrift; the first lifetime
achievement award of the Asian Media and Information Centre (Singapore; Premio
John Buscema Amarel Cómic Award, Spain; Popular Culture Association Presidents’
Award; Calicomix Diplome de Honor, Colombia; and others.
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