A look at one of Centre’s outstanding seniors

RELEASED: March 20, 2003

Name: Brendan Adkins

Hometown: Richmond, Ky.

Major: double major in dramatic arts and computer science

Study Abroad/Internships: "I studied in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the summer before I came to Centre. This past CentreTerm, I completed an internship with Dixon Design in Danville."

Extracurricular activities: "I've been an actor and technician for CentrePlayers every year, and this year I'm also their treasurer. I was a founding member of two infamous independent groups—the Shenanigans improv troupe, and the all-IM-sport Sumatran Ratmonkeys—and this year I've been playing hand percussion with underground pop superstars Grandma's Genius. To earn my keep, I'm the Cheek-Evans and St. Mildred's Court student technology assistant for Centre ITS. I also draw a regular comic strip and am senior copy editor for the Cento, and I'm currently designing their Web site, which should premiere this spring. I also run a personal site, with a weekly adventure comic strip.

What cartoonist do you most admire or get inspiration from? Like most cartoonists of my generation, I started with Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes and Gary Larson's The Far Side, but today I get most of my comic fix from webcomics—Kris Straub's Checkerboard Nightmare, Phil Cho's Skinny Panda, the eponymous BoxJam's Doodle, and Vera Brosgol's Return to Sender, among many others. These people are not only doing great work, they're doing it for minimal or no income. They're doing what they love entirely because they love it. That defines inspiration to me."

As a writer yourself, who are some of your favorites, past and present? "Orson Scott Card and Neil Gaiman are my favorite storytellers; William Gibson and e. e. cummings, my favorite wordsmiths; Douglas Adams, my favorite humorist; and Margaret Atwood, my favorite historian."

Future plans: "I'm hoping very much to start my master's degree in computer science this fall, but I'm still waiting to hear back from seven of the schools to which I applied. I'd really like to go to Indiana University at Bloomington, the University of Louisville or Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh."

Quotable: "My Centre experience has, I hope, been a four-year proof of the flexibility and creativity that are possible at a small liberal arts school; if the opportunities you want don't exist yet, the system allows for and encourages their creation. In other words, if you can't find the right group to join, start it yourself!"

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