Oakwood Comic Book Program - Oakwood Healthcare System

Jim Anderson (Artist)
Jim Anderson likes breakfast cereal, cartoons, Star Wars, and dinosaurs. Though perhaps
not immediately evident, all of these, as well as other pop culture icons, have found their
ways into his artwork in one form or another. He’s also a graphic designer. He has a dog.
Deena D. Baty (Writer)
Deena D. Baty is a social worker formerly employed with Oakwood Healthcare. She
graduated from EMU in 1990 with her BA in Communications and Theatre Arts, returning
for her MSW in 2007. When not working with seniors, Ms. Baty is the “ Drama Mama” for
Washtenaw Community College’s Neighborhood Community Theatre project. Ms. Baty
would like to dedicate her work to her mother in law, who currently is in a brave struggle
against Lewy Body Disease.
Suzanne Baumann (Artist)
Suzanne Baumann likes collecting old scraps of printed paper and doodling on scrap
paper of any sort. She has been writing, drawing and publishing mini comics consistently
since 1995. Her comics and illustrations have appeared in books, newspapers,
magazines, album covers, websites and more. She has also held about fifty different
graphic design and production jobs over the years. These don’t involve cartooning but
they do bring in a relatively reliable income.
Suzanne lives in Hamtramck, Michigan with two cats, countless edible plants, old pieces
of furniture in various stages of refinishing and probably too many unread used books.
Michelangelo Cicerone (Artist)
Michelangelo Cicerone knew he wanted to be a cartoonist at the age of six, when he
purchased two old comic books at a local church rummage sale (one could say it was a
religious experience). Since then, he has been inextricably bonded to comics – and to
Ozone Jones, an instructional avatar initially created for a children’s cartooning class that
has subsequently taken a life of its own. Cicerone has also storyboarded and directed
commercials, animated cartoons for corporations, created characters for consumer
products, caricatured executives and politicians by commission, and even written a few
jokes for the lamented Disney Adventures magazine (which may or may not have had
anything to do with its demise). Read his comics (for free!) at www.ozonejones.com.
John Dunivant (Artist)
Detroit illustrator John Dunivant is the artistic visionary and director of Theatre Bizarre,
a freestanding art installation that for the past nine years has spanned ten city lots in
Detroit, directly behind the Michigan State Fairgrounds, and is the site each Halloween
of an extravagant, surreal party that draws thousands of disbelieving but devoted fans
from around the world. John’s meticulous designs and set pieces for Theatre Bizarre have
been described as “a nightmarish Disneyland,” “a louder, brighter, alternate reality,” “as
if the cast of a Fellini movie took up residence on a turn-of-the-century carnival midway,”
“like Cirque du Soleil, except weirder and with everyone in the act.”
John has a day job when he has time for it. He paints, sculpts, designs and does film. His
film, The Things That Ate Detroit, won a Rob Zombie short horror movie contest. “Adults
are weird,” he says. “I think, for a child, everything is so much more alive and magical. I
don’t want to grow up. That would be horrible. I don’t plan on it.” John lives a deceptively
normal existence in Lathrup Village with his wife, Robin, and their daughter, pets and
unsuspecting neighbors.
Beverly J. Emery (Writer)
The first born of a generation, my seven decades so far have been a series of
adventures. An amateur photographer, I am family-, friend- and faith-oriented. Single and
retired from finance, aerospace and health care, I have time to make new friends at book
clubs, bible studies, scrapbooking workshops, and writing classes. I believe that in every
day of life there is a story to tell.
Joy Gaines-Friedler (Writer)
Joy Gaines-Friedler teaches reading and writing to students at Oakland Community
College and tutors in Political Science. She also runs creative writing seminars at both
OCC and Common Ground. Her poems have been featured in literary journals including
The Driftwood Review, Pebble Lake Review, Lilliput, HazMat Review, RATTLE, Margie
and others. Joy’s first book of poetry, Like Vapor, was published by Mayapple Press in
2008. To Joy, poetry is a natural extension of photography, as an art form and in its use
of images to convey language. Writing is the means by which she stays connected to
close friends she has lost to AIDS and domestic violence. She lives in Farmington Hills,
Michigan with her husband, Moti, and three cats.
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