Allison Bannister is a cartoonist and comics scholar. She has an MFA in Cartoon Studies from the Center for Cartoon Studies, a PhD in Communication and Rhetoric from Rensselaer Polytechnic, and is currently a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in the writing program at Northeastern University. Her research explores comics composition and design, examining the affordances of unconventional materials, the histories of comics-making practices, and the multimodality of comics rhetoric. Her own cartooning work is focused on short pieces for a wide variety of publications, experimental hand-made comics art pieces, and her webcomic At the Inn.
At the Inn launched in September 2022, and updates whenever new pages are ready. It’s a fantasy slice-of-life series with an ensemble cast, queer romance, and a Ghibli vibe. Allison’s previous projects have included editing the comics anthology Who is the Silhouette? with Tom O’Brien, self-publishing the graphic novel Wit’s End, and, way back in the mists of time, running the webcomic Emma and the Fairy Queen on this very same website.
The name Basic Telepathy comes from Stephen King’s On Writing–he argues that writing is a powerful yet simple way of sending thoughts and images from one mind to another across time and space; that it is a kind of telepathy. When the original version of this site launched 10+ years ago, connecting with an audience through comics was the goal. Now, Allison just wants to make something she loves in a space that’s all hers. If you find it, and it connects, that’s gravy.