Comics Sans Frontières No More
It's all over, and yet preserved forever!
Last weekend was the Comics San Frontières conference at Rice University. Was it a success? I was running around trying to keep the train on the tracks and didn't get to participate as much as I would have liked. Other folks enjoyed it, though.
A conversation with Art Spiegelman kicked off our event. Art was clever, engaging and honest. Afterward, he was kind to everyone who got him to sign their dog-eared copies of Maus despite a clearly announced prohibition against asking him to sign things. Art was GREAT! and the perfect choice for our conference about crossing borders. We also gave Art the Comic Art Teaching and Study Workshop Comics Pioneer Award, nicknamed the "Yoink!"
I insisted on a few things for the conference that made it more meaningful for the people involved. The first is that everyone who presented, except one late addition, submitted either a 1,200-word text or a 4+ page comic. We collected the material into a book published by kuš komikss. Kuš! published the book before the conference and given away for FREE to attendees. The book informed our audience about the panelists and topics. We could all speak at a higher level. The book is now available for sale at comic book stores in 30 countries, or you can order it from the publisher. The cover is by Art Spiegelman, with color by me.
Since we had the book, panelists were limited to speaking for 15 minutes at most. As a result, we had up to an hour to discuss with the audience during our panels. There were some serious professionals in the audience. The conversations went beyond the typical "What pen do you use?" questions I've seen elsewhere.
In the early planning stage, I got pushback on the book and the panel format from all quarters, but I was like a dog with a bone. I had gotten these ideas from Edward Tufte. He knows a thing or two about communicating information. It was a grind to get it all through, but worth it in the end.
The other unconventional thing I did was putting most of the panelists visiting from the outside into a nicely appointed eight-bedroom, eight-bathroom Airbnb (with a pool). Living together gave them facetime with each other during the interstitial moments. It created a bond between them that would not have happened otherwise. They swam, ate and traveled around town together.
We had about 500 people attend over the three days but if you missed the conference, don’t cry! Grab a copy of our book. If nothing else, it's a unique comics publication. You might see something like it again, but it's never been done before. I hope you like it - and if you get the book, let me know what you think -- and if you made it to the conference, please tell me about your experience.
The other remnants of the conference are the two exhibitions on the Rice campus. One, at the Moody Center for the Arts, is the tip of the iceberg of the collection of Jack Katz original art that is a new gift to the university. This exhibition will be up through July. If you’re in the area, pop in and check it out. It’s modest in size, but Katz’s work is a revelation.
The other exhibition presents recent gifts of newspaper comic art and is on display in the main entry hall at Fondren Library.
The last aspect that I’m really proud of is that we held four workshops during the conference - two for the public and two just for Rice students. We did risograph and letterpress, and learned new ways to think about representation and how to use a grid in design. They were well attended and lots of fun!
Now that the conference is in the rearview, I can get back to producing this newsletter more regularly. Over the next few months, my work will take me to Venice, Paris, Berlin, and Tokyo. I'm printing photogravure, teaching comics, and curating a comics show. I'm also going to learn Japanese woodblock printing. I'll let you know about all of that and more!
If you came to the conference, thank you. If you missed it, buy the book!