Supanova 2012
I went on the Sunday this year, which, sadly, meant I missed the friends who went on the Saturday. Then, also sadly, Hayden Panettiere cancelled. So it was a kind of low-key Supanova for me this year.
(It was good to catch up with you, fluffyduck!)
David Mack
David Mack's Kabuki is one of my favourite comic book series, and I especially love the final volume, The Alchemy, which says so many wonderful things about creativity and courage and transformation. I was lucky enough to hear him speak the last time he came to Supanova. (Which, it turns out, was ten years ago. Man, I feel old.)
This time, he talked about the projects he's been working on recently, including a Dexter animated series, a collaboration on a poem with Neil Gaiman, and a comic for the Occupy Comics anthology.
He also spoke about the new Daredevil project, which was like "a love letter to the Daredevil mythos". He talked about the challenge of being respectful of continuity and of other creators, and the need to bring something brand new that only you could bring to it.
When asked about his favourite DC character, he said he'd love to do a Batman story someday.
When asked about how to balance creating work with all the other demands of life, like getting the groceries and cleaning house, he admitted he didn't do them ("I delegate"). (Which made me mentally facepalm - nice if you can manage that, not so helpful for the rest of us.) He said he planned a comic book like a military operation, working out what needed to be done when, and cutting out things that weren't necessary.
Just do it, and you learn how to do by doing it. You don't need permission, otherwise you feel constrained to do it a certain way.
Making comics was a way of telling his stories and integrating all his passions. In college, he thought about how he could he get the most out of his classes that he could. So with the first Kabuki book, he completed it and turned it into as many classes as possible.
He made copies of his comics at Kinko's, and traded some for the photocopying. Making art is making your own currency. Printing art is like forging your own currency.
As Neil Gaiman said: start it, finish it, show it.
Steampunk
This panel was hosted by Richard Harland and Michael Pryor, two authors who were great speakers and dressed in steampunk gear.
Costuming is a big part of steampunk, and often about the eclectic.
Steampunk is not the Victorian or Edwardian era as it was, but as it should have been. As we see them, and as they saw themselves.
The steampunk renaissance came from the historical recreationists and the maker culture. This is the time you can write steampunk.
Definitions. Science fiction with a Victorian or Edwardian ethos to it. Either set during that era, or where that era never ended. The alternate steam age. An era of more extremes (eg revolutions, injustices, passions). An era of transition (old manners, new technology/politics/society, the start of the modern era.) Historical feel, but not history.
Inspirations: Dickens (London or Britain), Wells (techno-pessimist), Verne (techno-optimist).
Why now? We live in a technological age where we can't get inside machines anymore. There is nostalgia for world of elegance and style.
They both read from their steampunk books.
Richard Harland mentioned his website of writing tips, and his thirty unfinished novels, and that every book is a new learning experience.
Michael Pryor mentioned his future idea for an Australian steampunk book, where the gold didn't run out when it got hard to extract, because there were steam machines, and Australia became the world power.
Shopping
I picked up kinds of blue, an anthology of comics about depression (also readable online), and two issues of Dream Logic, the new comic book from David Mack.
I also picked up my SMASH! ticket (now $29, ouch). I had planned to stop going this year, but - Shin-ichiro Miki.
Photos
Plush Adipose.
I'm not sure how I feel about The Hunger Games merchandise.
It would crack me up to see anyone wearing this t-shirt.
I found Wally!
One shiny dragon.
Solve the puzzle.
Turtle power!
Is there a Doctor in the house?
(It was good to catch up with you, fluffyduck!)
David Mack
David Mack's Kabuki is one of my favourite comic book series, and I especially love the final volume, The Alchemy, which says so many wonderful things about creativity and courage and transformation. I was lucky enough to hear him speak the last time he came to Supanova. (Which, it turns out, was ten years ago. Man, I feel old.)
This time, he talked about the projects he's been working on recently, including a Dexter animated series, a collaboration on a poem with Neil Gaiman, and a comic for the Occupy Comics anthology.
He also spoke about the new Daredevil project, which was like "a love letter to the Daredevil mythos". He talked about the challenge of being respectful of continuity and of other creators, and the need to bring something brand new that only you could bring to it.
When asked about his favourite DC character, he said he'd love to do a Batman story someday.
When asked about how to balance creating work with all the other demands of life, like getting the groceries and cleaning house, he admitted he didn't do them ("I delegate"). (Which made me mentally facepalm - nice if you can manage that, not so helpful for the rest of us.) He said he planned a comic book like a military operation, working out what needed to be done when, and cutting out things that weren't necessary.
Just do it, and you learn how to do by doing it. You don't need permission, otherwise you feel constrained to do it a certain way.
Making comics was a way of telling his stories and integrating all his passions. In college, he thought about how he could he get the most out of his classes that he could. So with the first Kabuki book, he completed it and turned it into as many classes as possible.
He made copies of his comics at Kinko's, and traded some for the photocopying. Making art is making your own currency. Printing art is like forging your own currency.
As Neil Gaiman said: start it, finish it, show it.
Steampunk
This panel was hosted by Richard Harland and Michael Pryor, two authors who were great speakers and dressed in steampunk gear.
Costuming is a big part of steampunk, and often about the eclectic.
Steampunk is not the Victorian or Edwardian era as it was, but as it should have been. As we see them, and as they saw themselves.
The steampunk renaissance came from the historical recreationists and the maker culture. This is the time you can write steampunk.
Definitions. Science fiction with a Victorian or Edwardian ethos to it. Either set during that era, or where that era never ended. The alternate steam age. An era of more extremes (eg revolutions, injustices, passions). An era of transition (old manners, new technology/politics/society, the start of the modern era.) Historical feel, but not history.
Inspirations: Dickens (London or Britain), Wells (techno-pessimist), Verne (techno-optimist).
Why now? We live in a technological age where we can't get inside machines anymore. There is nostalgia for world of elegance and style.
They both read from their steampunk books.
Richard Harland mentioned his website of writing tips, and his thirty unfinished novels, and that every book is a new learning experience.
Michael Pryor mentioned his future idea for an Australian steampunk book, where the gold didn't run out when it got hard to extract, because there were steam machines, and Australia became the world power.
Shopping
I picked up kinds of blue, an anthology of comics about depression (also readable online), and two issues of Dream Logic, the new comic book from David Mack.
I also picked up my SMASH! ticket (now $29, ouch). I had planned to stop going this year, but - Shin-ichiro Miki.
Photos
Plush Adipose.
I'm not sure how I feel about The Hunger Games merchandise.
It would crack me up to see anyone wearing this t-shirt.
I found Wally!
One shiny dragon.
Solve the puzzle.
Turtle power!
Is there a Doctor in the house?