Silicon Valley Comic Con

I'm exhibiting at the first Silicon Valley Comic Con, March 18th to 20th. Find me and my fellow artist, Karen Krajenbrink, at AA1 S in Artist Alley as the Karen and Karen table. Hope to see you there!

Fanime 2014

I have a table at FanimeCon 2014 which runs May 23rd to 26th over Memorial Day weekend. Table number 401.

In addition, I have a panel on crowdfunding. Here's the official title and description.
Crowdfunding 101: Fun & Profit
When: May 25th, Sunday, 12 to 1 pm
Location: Panels 4 at the Fairmont Hotel, FanimeCon
Want to crowdfund your next creative project? Confused about the differences between Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Patreon? Come and learn from Karen Luk who has successfully created and funded two Kickstarter projects. Find out if crowdfunding can help you make your project a reality!

Hope to see you there!

Raconteur update and Manga Start

A new comic page is up!


I'm helping out with Manga Start. Check out the site for manga style tutorials!

Art Spiegelman and Chris Ware, Serial Boxes, April 30th

Chris Ware and Art Spiegelman were guest speakers at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco on April 30th. Their conversation, as guided by Heidi Chute, was part of Serial Boxes – a series of lectures exploring the graphic novel.

Ware is known for his graphic and geometric comics that look computer generated, but is done by hand. His notable works include the Acme Novelty Library and Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth. Spiegelman’s underground comics work began in the 1960s and 1970s and continued with co-founding of Arcade and Raw. His Pulitzer-winning Maus elevated graphic novels to literary status. He equated his recent work, In the Shadow of Two Towers, as current generation’s World War II influence.

Spiegelman believes that graphic novels are still bidding for respectability. The graphic novel is a medium, not a genre. He views the term “graphic novel” as a marketing term, instead of just saying “comics” to describe his work. Chute had Spiegelman define comics – words and pictures, reduced level of visuals, picture words. Ware shared his view of sequential art as “typography of picture words.”

To Spiegelman, comics represent timeless space, much like a musical score. Large panels may equal no passage of time. Spiegelman claimed rational barely exists in comics. Plain painting ignores the story. Ware creates his panels as he goes, increasing the complexity of the pages to have the reader linger over the pages. He joked how drawing naked people brings him to the drawing board.

Speaking historically, Spiegelman suggested comics as architecture derived from the church stained glass windows. Spiegelman focuses his narrative stories, looking for visual coherence of panels in and out of the story. On the other hand, Ware gives the story a more cursory glance (whether it works or not) tempered with real life parallels.

On the question about which panel to read next, Spiegelman replied that it was the artist’s responsibility to know. Spiegelman added that ambiguity lends to more reader involvement. “You have to use what little space you have to pack inside everything you can!” quoted Spiegelman of his father showing him how to pack in a cartoon strip. He stated that this was the best advice he ever received as a cartoonist.

Ware uses comic panels as a typographic element and as “memory pictures.” He experiments with story, not necessarily storytelling. Relying on the perception of ambiguity for his panels, he said that it must feel right to work. He commented that man is the only creature surrounded by man-made things.

Regarding influences on his work, Spiegelman cited Harvey Kurtzman of Mad magazine. Spiegelman showed slides of an ugly woman portrait that spoke more to him than some pretty girl magazine color. Ware cited Frank King’s Gasoline Alley for its parallel to real life story, use of contemplation and color. He also included Daniel Clowes’ Ghost World and Eightball.

Throughout the conversation, Spiegelman and Ware showed slides of their work, applicable cartoons and references. For example, Spiegelman showed a cartoon of himself overshadowed by a monolith of Maus with his grandson in the foreground playing World of Warcraft on a laptop. He wondered if could ever escape Maus’ shadow, while his grandson asked to be left alone to finish up a quest.

Ware discussed the details of the Acme Novelty Library, covering repeated letter design and a glow-in-a-dark constellation of the story’s cast. He lamented how much he over thinks his stories and their format. Spiegelman had single cartoons and strips ready to illustrate his answers, while Ware was self-deprecating about the fact he was not as prepared or witty.

Chute asked what concerns Spiegelman and Ware have about their own work. Spiegelman said that the birth of a notion was troublesome, citing the fame of Maus. Ware’s concern was keeping a grip on his self-worth as an artist.

Recognizing that inherent humor was in their work and answers, Chute asked if that was intentional. Ware remarked that comics are prefect for humor; although, it’s much harder for him to write humor, as his work reflects his “deep self.” Spiegelman paraphrased Mark Twain saying, “There’s no laughter in heaven.”

The conservation ended with applause from a full house. Both gentleman lingered afterwards, signing their books for an appreciative audience.

Orphan Works Bill for 2008

Please take a moment to fill this out:
http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/

More information on what it is about:
http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/issues/bills/?billid=11320236

A few key points:
The Orphan Works Act defines an "orphan work" as any copyrighted work whose author any infringer says he is unable to locate with what the infringer himself decides has been a "reasonably diligent search." In a radical departure from existing copyright law and business practice, the U.S. Copyright Office has proposed that Congress grant such infringers freedom to ignore the rights of the author and use the work for any purpose, including commercial usage. In the case of visual art, the word "author" means "artist."

It is a violation of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works for any country to impose registration on a rights holder as as a condition of protecting his copyright. See Article 5(2) "The enjoyment and the exercise of these rights shall not be subject to any formality (emphasis added)."

Publishers and other art licensees will be less likely to commission new work from artists if they can surf the net for free images that have become separated from identifying information. An artist's pre-existing paintings and drawings - orphaned through no fault of his own - would be competing against him for the new commissions he needs to make a living.

Bay Area Comics Workshop

Bay Area Comics Workshop, sponsored by the Friends of Lulu, is on February 2nd. Come on by!

Outspoken with Lisa R. Jonté

Read the inner workings of esteemed GAM editor Lisa R. Jonté on Outspoken!

I'm filling in for the next few Outspoken columns on Girlamatic. I highly recommend going back and reading through the previous Outspoken interviews to get more familiar with many varied creators of GAM and their comics.

The Graphic Novel Explosion panel from SDCCI

Here's my write up for the panel from SDCCI 2007:
The Graphic Novel Explosion

Behind the Table

Here's the article I wrote for Women's Work on convention table displays: Behind the Table.

Sakura of America Artist Meet Up

Last night, I went to the meet up sponsored by Sakura of America, the American headquarters of Micron Pigma pens and other products. Peter Ouyang and Julia Reed from Sakura presented their ideas about the emerging manga-anime artists and why they were interested in developing the new market now. Several local Bay Area manga artists showed up from Bay Area Arists Unite (BAAU), along with Ben Seto of Black Sheep Comics and PMBQ, who does the Tea Club.

It was an interesting pitch on Sakura’s desire to help create the marketplace with the assistance of local manga artists. The other part was for the artists/creators to meet other people. My work is not obviously manga influenced and I do watercolors for my comics. Everyone else I met there uses Photoshop and/or pens and markers.

It was nice meeting other artists, not busy drawing or selling. I’ll have to see how the next meet up goes.

April announcements

Today, I have announcements to share:

First up, I’ll be at Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco under Bobcat Publishing. That’s April 21-22, 2007. I’ll have comics, a sketchbook, prints and buttons for sale! I’ll also be raffling a print of page three from In the Water. On display, I’ll have the comic original pages from Raconteur so far. Here's a photo of the book and buttons:


Next, on April 28th, I’m a guest artist at the Manga, Art & Graphic Novel Expo. Again, I’m selling stuff. I have two short art demos scheduled. Come and share my comic-making ideas!

I hope to meet some of you fine folks!

Insomania Workshop drawings

I don't know if I would go to another Concerptart.org workshop. The party-like atmosphere of the first night was distracting from the digital painting demos plastered on huge projection screens. The rest of the workshop was punctuated by some talking demos, most were artists doing their thing on the screen without explaining much, unannounced schedule changes, and traditional painting/drawing free space. I did learn a lot from Dan Milligan's Storyboarding 101 and John Mueller's pointers on MMO/video game concept art portfolio. I also made some new acquaintances, which is always nice.

Here are sketches I did in the traditional free draw area. The models had on the strangest outfits.

Women's Work debut!

Women's Work

Because a woman's work is never done, we are pleased to announce: Women's Work - a brand-new website for a brand-new collective of women who work in and around the visual and literary industries.

Leigh Dragoon
Shaenon Garrity
Rachel Hartman
Lea Hernandez
Lisa Jonté
Karen Krajenbrink
Layla Lawlor
Karen Luk
Carla Speed McNeil
Rachel Nabors
Leia Weathington
Stevie Wilson

We are creators and storytellers. We've banded together and built ourselves a fort in our internet back yard and we invite you to come see. We have a database in which all creative types might take part, and a forum in which anyone might join the conversation. Art before housework. In a hundred years, no one's going to care how clean your floors were.

http://www.never-done.com/

Insomania Workshop by ConceptArt.org

I'm going to the Insomania Workshop this weekend, so I'll post about that and share the Sketchcrawl 12 sketches later next week.

Joann Sfar in Berkeley

Last night, I went to see Joann Sfar at Comic Relief in Berkeley. It was delightful hearing him speak about making comics. He really emphased to "forget beautiful drawings and focus on proper storytelling." He believes the drawing itself is nothing. He wants answers to: What is the voice? What is the character? and What occurs next? in his stories.

The profile portrait looks like him the most.

Neil Gaiman in Berkeley

Neil Gaiman did a performance from his new book of short stories, Fragile Things, on October 2nd at the Berkeley Repertory Theater. I sat in the third row, stage right, scribbling in the semi-darkness doing his portrait as he read stories and poems and zipped through a stack of questions. It was a very entertaining evening.