Making Comics Arteest Weekend
Had another great arteest weekend! Started early this time with Making Comics lecture on Thursday.
T'ed into Cambridge on a crummy rainy day. To get out of the weather we hung out killing some time at the Stata Center, home of
CSAIL (the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab). They have these huge chalk boards set up with a bounteous supply of chalk available in the 1st floor Student Street (virtual tour). So bettinamarie drew a bunch of My Cat Loki stuff all over them. :D
The lecture was held at the MIT Media Lab. The auditorium had seats for-- probably a couple hundred people is my guess and every seat was taken with people sitting in the aisles as well.
McCloud was awesome-- very smart, very geeky but also personable. His lecture was fast-paced and well accompanied with interesting AVs. He went through a brief overview of the new book then spent some time showing how it was an expansion of his earlier work-- and how his point of view on the future of the comics medium has evolved. I was a little surprised that he brought up the whole scroll-to-navigate infinite canvas thing again but I suspect the lecture was naturally somewhat skewed towards comics media-- presentation and technology-- given where we were. The crowd was respectful and appreciative-- a good mix of students, faculty and staff-- and I think we would all have sat there happily listening for quite some time-- it's too bad it ended with it did. At the end of the session McCloud gave a few minutes over to one of his daughters for a presentation on the roadtrip itself (very entertaining!), fielded somewhat involved Q&A from 3 hand-picked grad students in the program, then opened the floor to questions.
But we had a Date With Meat at the Brazilian BBQ down in Inman Square and had to bail before that really got going.
Saturday we popped down to Harvard Square to the venerable Million Year Picnic (great name for a comic bookstore, yeah, I know) for the signing. I can't believe they managed to squeeze that many people in the little basement space MYP occupies. The people on line to get their copies of the book signed were obvious fans and McCloud did a good job of putting people at ease through their various breathy questions and compliments-- and the atmosphere gradually developed into something more like a gathering with a bunch of happy people standing around talking comics with McCloud and family in the middle of it. I'd been ORDERED to get a copy of Making Comics signed for some demanding Canadian I know :D and McCloud recognized Svet's name so we chatted briefly about DramaCon. He complimented the work and spontaneously shook my hand -- how cool is that!
It's abundantly obvious that McCloud knows a great deal about his subject, that he has thought about it deeply and, even more impressive, that he cares about it too. And that somehow he has managed to maintain an enormous enthusiasm for comics and comics creators-- escaping the sort of back-biting bitterness that too many of the old guard in the comics industry wallow in. It was a real pleasure to meet him. Now that all the fun's over I guess I'd better sit down and read his book. :D
T'ed into Cambridge on a crummy rainy day. To get out of the weather we hung out killing some time at the Stata Center, home of
CSAIL (the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab). They have these huge chalk boards set up with a bounteous supply of chalk available in the 1st floor Student Street (virtual tour). So bettinamarie drew a bunch of My Cat Loki stuff all over them. :D
The lecture was held at the MIT Media Lab. The auditorium had seats for-- probably a couple hundred people is my guess and every seat was taken with people sitting in the aisles as well.
McCloud was awesome-- very smart, very geeky but also personable. His lecture was fast-paced and well accompanied with interesting AVs. He went through a brief overview of the new book then spent some time showing how it was an expansion of his earlier work-- and how his point of view on the future of the comics medium has evolved. I was a little surprised that he brought up the whole scroll-to-navigate infinite canvas thing again but I suspect the lecture was naturally somewhat skewed towards comics media-- presentation and technology-- given where we were. The crowd was respectful and appreciative-- a good mix of students, faculty and staff-- and I think we would all have sat there happily listening for quite some time-- it's too bad it ended with it did. At the end of the session McCloud gave a few minutes over to one of his daughters for a presentation on the roadtrip itself (very entertaining!), fielded somewhat involved Q&A from 3 hand-picked grad students in the program, then opened the floor to questions.
But we had a Date With Meat at the Brazilian BBQ down in Inman Square and had to bail before that really got going.
Saturday we popped down to Harvard Square to the venerable Million Year Picnic (great name for a comic bookstore, yeah, I know) for the signing. I can't believe they managed to squeeze that many people in the little basement space MYP occupies. The people on line to get their copies of the book signed were obvious fans and McCloud did a good job of putting people at ease through their various breathy questions and compliments-- and the atmosphere gradually developed into something more like a gathering with a bunch of happy people standing around talking comics with McCloud and family in the middle of it. I'd been ORDERED to get a copy of Making Comics signed for some demanding Canadian I know :D and McCloud recognized Svet's name so we chatted briefly about DramaCon. He complimented the work and spontaneously shook my hand -- how cool is that!
It's abundantly obvious that McCloud knows a great deal about his subject, that he has thought about it deeply and, even more impressive, that he cares about it too. And that somehow he has managed to maintain an enormous enthusiasm for comics and comics creators-- escaping the sort of back-biting bitterness that too many of the old guard in the comics industry wallow in. It was a real pleasure to meet him. Now that all the fun's over I guess I'd better sit down and read his book. :D