Life on the Frontera has never been easy. It's getting harder. How can you make the "right" decision when that's not an option? We all have knuckleheads in our families andthis makes life that much more complicated. Cruz has two days to ship out and possibly less to save her brother. The question is where does her allegiance lie. It's easy to think of life as black and white, good and bad, justice and criminal. But what about family versus country? Cruz has a hard choice to make with little time to do it.A.W.O.L. is an over 100 page, full color, action/ adventure.
About the Author: Elvira Carrizal-Dukes is an Assistant Professor in the Mass Communication discipline with a specialization in cinematic production at El Paso Community College in El Paso, Texas. Her research interests include visual rhetorics, alt-rhetcomp, and border rhetorics. In an effort to raise community consciousness, her work empowers perspectives not normally seen or heard in mainstream mass media and critically examines the systems and social practices that serve to oppress others. Elvira earned her B.A. degree in Journalism and Chicano Studies with a minor in Theatre Arts from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and her M.F.A. degree in Film from Columbia University in New York City. She is a student in the Ph.D. Rhetoric and Composition program at The University of Texas at El Paso. Elvira studies new media that mixes social justice with multimodal design and multimedia production to communicate messages. She explores the intersection with visual rhetorics, such as video, audio, acting, written text, and art, and social justice through her production of films, theatre, and comic book projects. Elvira's work investigates border rhetorics through different mediums. Her accomplishments as a rhetorician and scholar will be imaginative, fierce, and visual social-issue based projects. Elvira's work is meant to raise the volume on voices being quelled in our modern society. Ronnie Dukes was born on a Friday the 13th on the south side of Chicago and is a comic book creator. Raised in South Shore, Ronnie Dukes had his first professional artist position with Gallery 37. He went on to earn his degree in computer animation in Minneapolis before relocating to Harlem, Manhattan where he began to paint and exhibit work throughout the city including multiple solo exhibitions at Columbia University as well as group shows including the Manhattan Borough President's Office. Ronnie's past work includes a coloring book on diversity for the city of Minneapolis and multiple children's books. Ronnie created his publishing company DUKEScomics with his wife, partner and creative inspiration, Elvira Carrizal-Dukes, featuring their first major print project A.W.O.L. followed by Student Xers(Crossers) as well as A.W.O.L. 2.