Sunday, September 1, 2013

Graphic Noveling @ Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival

"Can't talk... must... concentrate..."

Earlier this season I got the wonderful chance to do a guest artist show & tell for Layla Lawlor’s “Graphic Noveling” workshop at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival: thanks for the invitation & to the students! (See her write-up here)
Kept thinking that amidst the constant media onslaught of Comic-Con hype which was going on at the time, that this was where it's at, far removed from the crowds and industry feeding-frenzy. This is where the magic happens: in the minds and imagination of all the folks toiling away in relative obscurity... following their passion at the point of a pencil or pen. You don't need anything more than a blank page and something to make those marks, be it a ballpoint or a Sharpie or a yellow #2. And I know that compared to many others in the field and in the industry it isn't much, but pausing long enough to look back and see how many different folks were interacted with over the summer about cartooning: from the fairground to the classroom, the internet to the newspaper, the gallery wall to a tshirt, and from lectures to laughs this is one area that quantity most definitely doesn't translate into quality. Be it "graphic novels," "sequential art," comics," cartoons," "manga" or whatever you call it... it's all good. And every single, possible opportunity to talk about, demonstrate and teach the making of comics and cartoons is an absolute privilege and a responsibility for any practitioner and professional.

Expressing through gestures alone the dubious aesthetics of drawing a raven molesting a rubber ducky.

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