It's a good life, if you read comics.
I went to see Scott McCloud speak the other night. He, and his wife, and both of his extraordinarily precocious daughters all addressed the audience. It was mostly his show, though, and very good one it is.
Scott's latest book is Making Comics. It's kind of a logical follow-up to his earlier Reinventing Comics, which speculated on the future of comics in a digital age, and Understanding Comics, which is a combination of comics history and criticism, looking at how sequential art interacts with the human brain.
All three books are in comics format.
The lecture, and its accompanying slideshow, was attended by about 400 people. There was a vestigial nerd smell, but nothing as bad as you'd run into at a comics convention. The presentation is officially supposed to last about an hour, + X amount for Q and A. This time, it clocked in at around 2 hours, which was long even for the McClouds. Everyone had a good time, and it was an edifying and entertaining experience. Afterwards, I hung around and greeted the myriad other comics creators in the audience. The NC Triangle area has a disproportionate number of comics folk. Feral Chicken, Onion Head Monster, Painted Comics, and Sinister Bedfellows, were all represented, just to name a few. I stood around and spoke with people for a while, then noticed that Scott's line of admirers had dwindled. I went up and thanked him for the lecture, and was pretty much ready to go.
At this point, my friend cleahpatra spoke up and asked me if I wanted to join them for dinner. Leah organized Scott's Raleigh visit as her last great act for Lulu.com. She's tight with the McClouds, and awesome in her own right besides. I'd eaten beforehand, but I said yes. Duh. I write comics, and people who get me talking about Zot! are apt to hear a whole lot about that particular comic.
At this point confusion ensued, but eventually we all had a good-- extremely late-- dinner together at Gypsy's Shiny Diner. The jukebox was played, the conversation was excellent, the waitress was unaccountably surly. I sat with Leah, Sky, and Winter-- better companions will never be found.
We didn't talk about comics once. It wasn't intentional, and I didn't even realize it at the time. In retrospect, it's not a surprise. Most families probably need more comics, but not the McClouds.
Scott's latest book is Making Comics. It's kind of a logical follow-up to his earlier Reinventing Comics, which speculated on the future of comics in a digital age, and Understanding Comics, which is a combination of comics history and criticism, looking at how sequential art interacts with the human brain.
All three books are in comics format.
The lecture, and its accompanying slideshow, was attended by about 400 people. There was a vestigial nerd smell, but nothing as bad as you'd run into at a comics convention. The presentation is officially supposed to last about an hour, + X amount for Q and A. This time, it clocked in at around 2 hours, which was long even for the McClouds. Everyone had a good time, and it was an edifying and entertaining experience. Afterwards, I hung around and greeted the myriad other comics creators in the audience. The NC Triangle area has a disproportionate number of comics folk. Feral Chicken, Onion Head Monster, Painted Comics, and Sinister Bedfellows, were all represented, just to name a few. I stood around and spoke with people for a while, then noticed that Scott's line of admirers had dwindled. I went up and thanked him for the lecture, and was pretty much ready to go.
At this point, my friend cleahpatra spoke up and asked me if I wanted to join them for dinner. Leah organized Scott's Raleigh visit as her last great act for Lulu.com. She's tight with the McClouds, and awesome in her own right besides. I'd eaten beforehand, but I said yes. Duh. I write comics, and people who get me talking about Zot! are apt to hear a whole lot about that particular comic.
At this point confusion ensued, but eventually we all had a good-- extremely late-- dinner together at Gypsy's Shiny Diner. The jukebox was played, the conversation was excellent, the waitress was unaccountably surly. I sat with Leah, Sky, and Winter-- better companions will never be found.
We didn't talk about comics once. It wasn't intentional, and I didn't even realize it at the time. In retrospect, it's not a surprise. Most families probably need more comics, but not the McClouds.