DC entertainment director inspires students during PCC visit

WINTERVILLE, N.C. — Pitt Community College students preparing for careers in the fine arts and graphic design fields had the rare opportunity this week to hear from the leader of one of the largest entertainment companies in the United States.

On Monday, Janice Walker, senior art director for DC Entertainment’s creative affairs division, visited campus to discuss her role with the production arm of DC Comics — the company responsible for bringing the world’s superheroes and villains, including Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, to life. Includes The Joker, Penguin and Lex Luthor. After being hired as a graphic designer by illustrator Joe Orlando in 1986, Walker worked for nearly four years at DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Warner Bros. Discovery Channel.

“Janice’s visit was unbelievable,” said Charity Valentine, Chair of the Fine Arts Department at PCC. “She was the first visiting artist we had on campus since the pandemic, and it was our most well-attended artist talk ever.”

With Superman’s original 3D figure sculpture nearby, Walker spoke to students gathered in PCC’s Davenport Multipurpose Room about taking classes at Michigan Community College as a high school student before heading to New York’s Pratt Institute to study graphic arts Design and illustration. She discussed her professional background and the evolution of her job responsibilities at DC Entertainment in a wide-ranging presentation.

“Ms. Walker’s visit is especially timely for our students,” said Dr. Eleanor Willard, chair of PCC’s Department of Advertising and Graphic Design. “Her explanations of character skin tones and the use of Pantone colors in clothing, as well as her insight into manga character art and development, lined up perfectly with what I was teaching in class this week. It was great to be able to refer to her talk. That way Do make what the students are learning in the classroom more effective and really bring the material to life.”

Walker, who recently moved from California to North Carolina to be closer to his family, works remotely at DC Entertainment. In addition to design work and hiring artists, she oversees a variety of projects for television, film, merchandise, and more. Even though her role has become more administrative in nature over the years, Walker is still “living (her) best life” in the DC Universe. She says she’s always “hungry for more” and loves the hands-on nature of creative content design.

With a background in employment that includes hands-on text and image processing for newspapers, creating cover illustrations for black history magazines, and arranging merchandise displays for Macy’s in New York City, Walker offers some sage career advice for PCC students:

• Give any job at least a year to interact with other professionals and learn as much as possible.
• Know when it’s time to leave the company.
• Through tough times, “As long as you’re learning, keep your head down and hone your skills.”
• The way to resolve conflicts is to confront them head-on and be friendly while identifying what the real problem is.

At the end of her presentation, Walker answered questions from the students and presented more than 45 DC/Warner Bros. memorabilia.

“After the event, the students stayed and talked to Ms. Walker for a long time; the questions just kept popping up,” Valentine said. “It’s great to see the students being so inspired.”