ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the writing practices of adult men of color who create multimedia of comic and cartoon zines (self-publications) and supporting social media. This study focused on two diverse middle-class men (one African American and one Native American) who created multimedia. Views of writing as meaning-making, sociocultural perspectives, and cultural constructions of masculinity and gender informed the study. The men were observed and photographed discussing and distributing their zines, informal and semi-structured interviews and demographic questionnaires supplemented examination of the men’s zines and social media. These data were analyzed by thematic analysis. These men wrote to reclaim and repurpose a cultural heritage or to confront gender and racial stereotypes. They produced multimodal texts to celebrate diversity, to advance a social cause, to promote their work, and to form community. Their social and Internet media served as portfolios, audience outreach, teaching devices, and archives of new textual representations of gender and culture. This study provides insight into why adult men of color write past their schooling years, illustrates men’s literacy practices that may serve as models to inspire and guide other men’s writing, and advances a theory of zine-making as masculine pedagogy and practice.
