Remembering John Lent, part 9: Michelle A. Amazeen and his academic biography

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

 

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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.

Pioneering comics scholar John Lent RIP (corrected and updated)

Dr. John A. Lent passed away today (May 16th) at about 2:45 pm from injuries he suffered from a fall at home several days ago. John regained consciousness after the fall, and his family was with him at the hospital. Xu Ying, his wife, says, "I  heard from his children and grandchildren later. They visited him on Saturday (May 2), he talked with them and joked with them. He even remembered all four great grandchildren's names."  Unfortunately, while in rehabilitation, he suffered strokes and a lung infection and was not able to recover from those additional injuries.

His living will expressed his desire not to have extraordinary measures taken to keep him alive, so he was removed from life support on Thursday. 

John was a few months shy of his 90th birthday, and remained productive up until his accident. He had two more books essentially finished and the upcoming issue of IJOCA largely completed.

I believe he requested cremation rather than burial, but I will provide more details as they become available.  IJOCA's blog will have a formal obituary and memorials from his friends and colleagues at some point in the near future.

5/18: Time of death, and hospital information corrected.

In Memoriam: Frank H. Stack (1937-2026)

Frank Stack displaying caricature

 he drew of Xu Ying. Gijón, Spain. 

October 2006

 by John A. Lent

In a news world where we incessantly hear of the bad guys--mass murderers, crooked, two-faced politicians, warmongers, greedy, self-serving corporations, and the lot, the good among us do not get their due attention.

Being affiliated with the comics art community for a considerable time, I have been fortunate to have known many individuals who have been a credit to humanity. On that list was Frank Huntington Stack (1937-2026), who died April 12.

Frank was part of the University of Texas triumvirate credited with ushering in underground comics while with the university’s humor magazine, The Texas Ranger. Frank was the magazine’s editor in his sophomore year, 1958-1959, followed by Gilbert Shelton (1940- ) in 1962. Jack Edward Jackson (Jaxon, 1941-2006) was a staff member a few years later before being fired over a censorship violation.

Left to right:  John A. Lent, 

Frank Stack, and Gilbert Shelton, 

with their awards. 

Gijón, Spain. October 2006.

The threesome was variously and integrally intermingled:  Stack published Shelton’s early work in The Texas Ranger during his editorship; Shelton returned the favor in 1962, bringing out Stack’s comic strip, “The Adventures of Jesus,” first in the Ranger, and in 1964, collecting about a dozen of the strips in a 14-page, Xerox zine of 40 copies that he handed out around campus. Shelton and others consider Stack’s strip to be the first underground comic, although in contention among some is Jackson’s 42-page, satirical comic book, God Nose, one thousand copies of which were printed surreptitiously at the Texas State Capital print shop in 1964. Other connections were that Jackson and Shelton were two of the four co-founders of Rip Off Press in 1969, and Jackson and Stack used pseudonyms to protect their jobs, Jaxon and Foolbert Sturgeon, respectively.

Stack taught art and printmaking at the University of Missouri, from 1962 to 2001, retiring as professor emeritus, was an accomplished watercolor painter, and a regular contributor to Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor.

I spent time with Frank and Gilbert from Oct. 11 through 14, 2006, in Gijón, Spain. We were among about 20 individuals being honored at the XXX Salón Internacional del Cómic del Principado de Asturias.

 Both were casual, engaging, and unpretentious, down-to-earth types of guys that it is a pleasure to fraternize with. However, after Gijón, Frank and I did not keep contact, but I admirably followed his endeavors over the years.

Left to right:  John A. Lent, Gilbert Shelton, and Xu Ying, Gijón, Spain. October 2006.

Caricature of Xu Ying by Frank Stack. 

Gijón, Spain. October 2006.

Gilbert and I crossed paths a few times since 2006. While attending a conference in Paris in 2008, he arranged for me to meet him in his studio, where he introduced me to his studio partner and showed me around. We adjourned to a nearby restaurant where my wife, Xu Ying, and I dined with Shelton and his spouse, Lora Fountain (1944- ), an important literary agent. Over the course of the next couple decades, Gilbert agreed to be on the advisory board of the International Journal of Comic Art, and, in 2019, sent me at unsolicited (but welcomed) manuscript he wrote in his whimsical style about a Soviet Union underground cartoonist’s exhibit of which he was a part in 1990, for publication in IJOCA.

We, the staff of the International Journal of Comic Art, express our deepest condolences to the family of Frank Stack, and to his many fans and students. We are proud to have known him.

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John A. Lent is the founder, publisher, and editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Comic Art and professor emeritus of communications, having taught in universities in Canada, China, Malaysia, Philippines, and the U.S., from 1960-2011.

One of a Kind, Trina Robbins, 1938-2024

 

One of a Kind, Trina Robbins, 1938-2024

 John A. Lent

  

The first time I met Trina was in the 1990s, at a comics event of some sort, if I recall. It was then that I first experienced her feisty nature. She had just lambasted male cartoonists who portray women violently in their drawings; she, no doubt, blasted R. Crumb as one of the worst offenders. No argument from me so far; I agreed with what she said. But, when she excluded women cartoonists from mistreating men in their works, I countered that the castration of men seemed just a bit cruel, and I had seen a few such depictions by at least one woman artist. I don’t believe that rejoinder stopped her tirade, but I certainly admired her combativeness.

Trina and I became friends not too long after that and worked together on a few projects. When I started the International Journal of Comic Art, she readily accepted my invitation to join the advisory board. And, she contributed her “herstorian” writings to the journal on five occasions (mainly in the 2000s), always meeting deadlines with well-researched and interestingly-written articles. Trina congratulated IJOCA as it progressed over the years, once saying facetiously, “it’s never heavy enough!” She was happy to be published in IJOCA, and said so occasionally, even asking if it was all right for her to write up certain events she attended.

In a 2007 email, she wrote, “I am thrilled to write something for IJOCA…. The May 2008 deadline, like the baby bear’s porridge, is ju-u-u-ust right! Thank you for inviting me.” Ten years later, Trina wrote, “John, as the one contributor to IJOCA who is a college dropout, I love being part of the journal,” and I replied that I wished many of my university, senior-level, communications majors could write as well.

 

Fig. 1. John A. Lent introducing Trina Robbins.

Asian Popular Culture section, Popular Culture Association.

San Francisco, CA. 2008. Photo by Xu Ying.

 

Trina was eager to be in touch with academia. When she found out that the Popular Culture Association was holding its 2007 annual conference in San Francisco, she joined the association to be able to present a paper on a Chinese-American dance troupe with which she was in contact. After checking the PCA website, and finding that I headed the Asian Popular Culture section, Trina wrote, “and to my surprise, you are the person to whom I wish to submit a proposal.”

 

Fig. 2. Trina Robbins presenting her paper.

Asian Popular Culture section, Popular Culture Association.

San Francisco, CA. 2008. Photo by Xu Ying.

Out of that exchange, grew a few other projects. Together, we were able to secure a special space on the PCA schedule, featuring Trina’s presentation, followed by several dances by the Grant Avenue Follies. These dancers performed in Chinese nightclubs in the late 1950s and 1960s, and in their later years, danced free of charge in hospitals, senior centers, and veteran groups. Trina described them, “they have talent, style, and great legs, and they are proof that you’re never too old to rock them in the aisles.” Trina’s PowerPoint talk and the dances went over well and were somewhat precedent-setting in PCA’s long history.

 

Fig. 3. Trina Robbins and some Grant Avenue Follies’ dancers with manager.

Asian Popular Culture section, Popular Culture Association.

San Francisco, CA. 2008. Photo by Xu Ying.

 

Knowing Trina was writing a book on the Grant Avenue Follies, I invited her to submit a proposal to have it published in a book series I edited for Hampton Press, which she did. The proposal was accepted, sparking Trina to write, “I’m thrilled to be working with you…. Happy and excited, Trina,” and “Thank you so much for believing in this book…. Happy as a clam. Trina.” She threw in a bit of humor when she related that the guys at the copy center read the proposal and “were entranced, and told me they’d buy the book if it came out. (That’s 5 sales!)” Trina was satisfied with the illustration-filled, nicely-designed Forbidden City. The Golden Age of Chinese Nightclubs when it appeared in 2010, and was eager to have the book promoted and sold. I had warned her earlier that Hampton usually needed a shove to get it moving, which she discovered on her own, saying, at one point, that it seemed that the press had no interest in selling its books, and, later, that she did not want to deal with Hampton ever again.

 

Fig. 4. Trina Robbins and Steve Leialoha.

Jilin Animation Festival. Changchun, China. 2011.

Photo by John A. Lent.

 

I met Trina a few times during the following decade, twice in Changchun, China, where we both were invited to speak at the International Animation, Comics and Games Forum Jilin, China 2009. Trina said she loved China and always wanted to return; however, I believe she enjoyed more the experiences of different cultures, accepting invitations when they were received‒to Brazil, Russia, Japan, etc. Her eagerness to travel was borne out when I saw her in China in 2011; it was obvious she was recovering from cancer, which she acknowledged in an e-mail:  “Since I was almost bald as a cueball in China, it was pretty obvious that I was getting over something! (I wasn’t gonna turn down an invitation to China because of a little thing like having no hair.”) Trina was very curious, at the same time, a bit suspicious, while abroad. During one of our meetings in China, she complained that the student translator/guide assigned to her never left her side and she was not free to do what she wanted to do. I asked her what she wanted to do. “Go to Walmart,” Trina replied. Not one excited about anything to do with Walmart, I shot back, “Why in the hell would you come all the way to China to go to Walmart?” I told her to ask the guide to take her, which she did, and Trina was satisfied. However, she later asked if I was angry with her for making that request; I wasn’t; I just thought it was strange. I was also humbled that she cared about what I thought.

To call Trina “a character” is a major understatement. Who else do you know who crammed into 85 years a few lifetimes of precedent-setting achievements in underground comix, women’s comic books, and what she termed comics “herstory”? Who shut herself in a room with a sewing machine, learned how to make clothes, and decked out the likes of popular musicians Mama Cass, David Crosby, and Donovan? Who partied (heartily) with Jim Morrison, the rest of The Doors, and The Byrds? Who was the first woman to produce a “Wonder Woman” mini-series? The variety of Trina’s activities was wide, from supporting Pro Choice and Strip AIDS USA through her drawings to producing a woman’s erotic comics anthology for Denis Kitchen. She was known and admired worldwide; in life, being the subject of popular singer Joni Mitchell’s song, “Ladies of the Canyon,” and, after her death, on April 17, the subject of many reminiscing and laudatory articles, websites, blogs, and even a cartoon on the Daily Kos news and opinion site.

Fig. 5. Daily Kos cartoon posted by Keith Knight recalling

Trina’s insistence that work cannot be wordy.

There were many characteristics about Trina Robbins that I find extremely admirable. She was frank and honest, attested to in her memoirs, Last Girl Standing, where she did not shy from revealing her sexual activities, her getting a sexually-transmitted disease from a husband, or other experiences that a large part of society would consider repugnant. Trina did not beat around the bush; if something or someone offended her, she vociferously said so.

Trina recognized her shortcomings; one that she mentioned was her lack of a thorough knowledge of the use of a computer, once writing me that she was “so embarrassed to be so technologically inept”; a woman of my own heart since I have been labeled “technologically challenged.” She was adept at researching, evidenced by her “herstories,” and had the makings of an excellent journalist, with her investigative skills, concise writing, ability to meet deadlines, and keen editing.

Her cheerful disposition, reflected in her personality and creative work, was infectious; she accepted compliments gracefully and gave them freely. I always enjoyed her e-mail signoffs:  “Tired by happy,” “Happy and excited,” “Sigh!,” “Whew!,” “Recovering from Turkey” (after Thanksgiving), and “Thanks so much, you too are a trooper, Trina.”

The fields of comics creativity, fandom, and scholarship have lost one of a kind in Trina Robbins. I will miss her!

A version of this post will appear in IJOCA 26:1.

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John A. Lent is the founder, publisher, and editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Comic Art and professor emeritus of communications, having taught in universities in Canada, China, Malaysia, Philippines, and the U.S., from 1960-2011.