It's a new school year, and the Comic Collective is looking for new blood! Join us during Recruitment Week during July 14-18, 2003 at the Colayco Pavillion and help us spread the love! (For comics, that is.)
::posted by Elbert::
Thursday, May 01, 2003
The Comicol Ashcan for Free Comic Book Day is finally finished and will be released on Saturday, at Comic Quest and Central Comic Headquarters. Entitled OST - Original Story Theatre, the ashcan is thirty-two pages of all new content, grafic stories from and inspired by the Muses.
Contributors this time around include: Franz dela Merced, whose Biyo Biyo one-pagers from Grafic seems to have attracted us a number of female readers, is making another appearance with a four-pager called Inspiration Boy; Chito Esguerra, one of the runner-ups from last year's Likha Comics Making Contest we sponsored, has written and drawn four comics pages; there's Gabriela Lee, from who I asked for a short story for me to illustrate; and the ever-prolific Andrew Drilon, who not only wrote and drew eight new pages based on concepts originally presented in his self-published Subwhere, but also illustrated a Two Color Truth Theatre vignette I wrote.
Do look out for it; while it may not be as glossy or snazzy as Grafic, it's something that I'm quite sure everyone involved is quite proud of.
::posted by Elbert::
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Some bits of news for you to spread the word about:
- Grafic is now also available at Comic Quest. It's forty-eight pages of lovely work by student creators, as well as exclusive new artwork by Arnold Arre, Gerry Alanguilan, and Carlo Vergara. Comics for people who don't read comics, a steal at sixty bucks.
- Eyes peeled for Grafic: A Tribute to the Muses, a special format ashcan with all new content, to be given away during International Free Comic Book Day on May 3. (Participating stores include CCHQ in Katipunan and Comic Quest Megamall.)
::posted by Elbert::
Wednesday, April 09, 2003
What makes an anthology work?
brainfarting aloud
Humor me now as I go on at length about comix and, well, mostly comix.
Now that Grafic is out, I can look at the next comic project that I'm doing. There's no rush; I want the stuff to look as good as can be and time should be taken to think all this through. Obviously I can't afford production quality as snazzy as the Alamat books and Culture Crash, but if I have material that I feel is worthy enough to be published, I might as well put out a package worthy enough to contain it. Otherwise there's just no point to doing it.
The traditional method for Independents-on-a-Budget has been to photocopy their books and sell them at a price point that returns a marginal to zero profit. But, you know, it gets the work out there. The method though is quite labor-intensive and expensive, which is most likely why the New Media Method - I'm just coining phrases here - becomes a more attractive option. It's relatively free, and the chances of reaching a wider audience base is much higher. The promotions are mostly hassle-free as well - send it out to a few search engines, e-mail the link to all your friends and mailing lists, and the bean counter is bound to move a few units. Not much by way of peddling to people you meet on the streets.
But there's simply nothing like having something you can hold in your hands. Plus, you know, it's easy to post something on the internet, it's already pretty much a tried and tested method. I need a challenge. I need a stretch.
When I set out to distribute my 24 Hour Comic Project, I didn't want to just go the internet route, because I know that there are few people with the patience to read anything off a computer monitor. At thirty pages which people on dial-up connections will have to wait a bit for it to download, eyestrain inevitably sets in. On the other hand, as I said it's expensive and labor- and time-intensive to reproduce by photocopy. So I went for a middle ground of some sort, a multimedia CD-ROM that you can hold in your hands, a digital comic book taking on a tangible form as opposed to remaining ethereal and abstract data on silicon. At the very least the tedium of waiting for images to download would be eliminated, if not the eyestrain. I learned something else from the exercise too: that a lot of people are more willing to assign some sort of monetary value on something they can actually touch, hold, fondle.
(On another note, it gladdens me to no end, that half-consciously, my decision to go this route has sparked a small trend of some sort. Two people who've gotten a hold of my CD have sent me their own comics CD, and at least one other person I know has adopted my payment system of read-now-pay-later-what-you-think-it's-worth. I wonder: is this a first in the comics history of the country, this thing I did? Boy, will that be something.)
standards of measure
The number of local indie comics has increased in recent years, to the point where what once would be considered underground or alternative has almost become mainstream. Most of them are photocopies on bond paper, folded in half and stapled and sold, and this is what I'm trying to avoid. Because obviously I can't afford the sleek production quality of Atlas and Mango Comics or Culture Crash and Kestrel (which may be considered an independent as well, but production quality is at a point high enough that I can bunch them together with the others). So this is what I'm measuring myself against. The independents. The ashcans. The photocopied's.
Something has to be done to rise above the pack, to distinguish the product from all the other black and white powdered Selex comics on the shelves. Not just the indies, come to think of it, but something that makes it a bit different from the mainstream offerings as well. At the same time, they shouldn't just be different for the sake of being different. It has to fit the project; it has to be just right.
I mean, obviously, I couldn't publish the comic magazine Grafic as a multimedia CD. Well, I could, but the org members for whom I was brainfarting the whole thing would probably have killed me for doing so. Even if they didn't, the novelty of a comic CD would've already worn out on me if I did it twice in a row, on such short intervals - two months -between the projects.
There's goals to consider too. Grafic, meant to impress the academic community and persuade them to rally for our cause, would have to assume that most of the members of the academic community especially the ones who have enough weight and leverage to get us to a better position of spreading our comics activism programs in the university, did not know anything about computers. A book would have to be the way to go.
(I should also note that the cover was in a large part influenced by the goal, of impressing, attracting a largely non-comics reading audience. Hence, a cover design that cribbed more from books rather than comics magazines, and an orange spot color that was a decision made out of equal parts the abovementioned reason and economics. Spot color was cheaper, and orange just screamed "Look at me!" Besides, no one wanted to go with my idea of using hot pink.)
content development
So. The projects. There's Train Boy, which I'm prepping for il piazzo, one of the more prolific members of the org. Its a collection of short comics stories, the strongest of which is the titular Train Boy, a ten page excursion into philosophy, life, and the big cosmic picture. I'm considering playing with the format a bit, perhaps printing it in a quarter of the size of a bond paper, a big thing in a small package sort of thing. We'll see; friends have pointed out to me that people tend to have a treshold of sorts when it comes to shelling out money and a quarter of the size of a bond paper may be too small. But I dunno. We'll see.
What I'm more worried about at this point is Sansinukob. Sansinukob is a pet project of mine, my own thing, which means unlike Train Boy, the org won't be paying for it. So apart from the question of where to get money for it, I have to ask, what's the best, cheapest way of getting it done?
And even before that, I have to ask myself what Sansinukob will be in the first place. I pretty much am dead set about the idea that it'll be an anthology of graphic histories, comics relating anecdotes from periods in Philippine history. But that's still not narrowing my options much; at this point, I've already filled up three hundred-leave notebooks with notes and sketches, and I haven't even started any actual work for it. Do I, at least for this outing, pick one anecdote from each of the major periods to give people a broad chronological view of what I'm trying to do? Or, can I just concentrate on, say, the Spanish period and tell stories from there?
the gameplan
One other thing: is the idea that there's just one author enough to justify a seemingly haphazard collection of works? I'm thinking Train Boy may strike people as an odd duck, as it puts together a pretty serious story like Train Boy side-by-side with a laugh-out-loud strip like Biyo Biyo. Should there be a theme then that unifies the content, or is the author's name enough of a unifying element? Then again, you probably would have to be some name to be able to pull it off.
(What about if there are multiple authors? What will make those sorts of anthologies work?)
I'm also thinking about language. I'm writing Sansinukob stories, some of them in English and some in Tagalog. I'm wondering if I can pull off collecting both languages under one cover, or if that will be too jarring for some readers. Although I've been told repeatedly never to underestimate the audience, there's still this part of me that wonders that maybe some people aren't that adept at Tagalog, or that they'll find it baduy. The snob in me will say that those who don't get Tagalog still have some other stories in English to read, and those find it baduy can, well, can just fucking ignore my product for all I care.
So now there's funding Sansinukob to consider.And this is what I've been thinking for quite some time now, so stop me if I stop making sense, so I can think of something else:
I'm thinking alternatives to corporate sponsorship. I know I have a small base of family, friends, and people who are already familiar with my work. And those who don't know my work I can put up a web site with previews of Sansinukob for. The idea being I print out a number of tickets and sell them to these people; the tickets they keep and use to claim their copy of the comic book when it comes out. The money from the tickets will help subsidize publication costs, the logic being if people are willing to buy tickets for a concert performance they've yet to see, why wouldn't they buy tickets for a book they've yet to read? Of course, people will argue that people already have an idea of what to expect from the performing musician from the albums and radio airplay. And I know that. Which is why I'm thinking of putting up a web site with previews of what will be on Sansinukob. So that they would know what to expect. And if I start selling them coupons now, I probably will have enough to have it released in one form or another by end of the year.
Ha. Sounds like a plan.
::posted by Elbert::
Wednesday, October 30, 2002
It's come to my attention (thank you santino) that a number of you have not started creatig your own comics because of that one big hurdle: No idea.
Hence, a number of exercises for your benefit.
They're exercises, mind you; meant to get your creative juices flowing and your hands moving. It's completely okay if you don't turn in award-winning, critically-acclaimed works - that's not the goal. The goal is to get something done, to get you into the groove and rhythm of getting things done, and hopefully stumble upon something mindfuckingly brilliant along the way.
---
THE TRYOUT (Originally due: October 2002)
This is a pre-requisite exercise for all the artists, and I've posted this before. It's a simple exercise, really, and it goes a little something like this:
Below is a plot. You know what a plot is: I tell you what's supposed to happen, and you be the one to draw it. But for this exercise, I'm giving you all free reign - draw it in as many panels and pages as you want (or can), using characters of your preference wherever applicable, pacing it in however which way you deem is most effective, drawn in the medium you feel most at home with.
This is to gauge your general skills in comic book illustration, as well as your personal leanings towards certain genres and styles. No dialogue unless you really feel it's necessary; but remember, you're artists who're supposed to tell the story visually. Dialogue is for writers.
THE PLOT:
We see our hero on a date. They could be doing anything - walking in the park, dining out, whatever. Hero is about to confess something to date. A proposal, perhaps?
We never find out because in comes the villain, terrorizing some people nearby. Our hero rushes and they engage in battle.
And that's it. I managed to drawall this in just one page, while a friend of mine expanded it into forty whole pages. So you see how flexible this is. Now it's up to you to put your own vision to it.
---
ON THE FLY PART ONE
If you've been to the FormSem, then you're familiar with this already (except of course, groupwork will be a bit more challenging to coordinate, so try and work this one out for yourself).
The idea being you open up a book, or read a magazine (or just think) and whatever sentence or phrase that happens to catch your eye, then you try and make a comic out of that. It's a short, short exercise; as short as three panels to a page (or two or three).
To get your started, here are some of the phrases that the FormSem attendees worked with:
Man Eating Shoe
I Love Spaghetti
I Am the Most Beautiful Dog in the World
---
ON THE FLY PART TWO
More of a writing exercise, this one. If you have one of those Boggle grids (you know, those grids with letters where you try to link adjacent letters up to form as many words as you can?), try and play a game, and make as many words as you can. Then, using the list of words, try and string the words up and turn them into a story.
Then you can go and make a comic out of it.
---
Oh, and something I just had to say: if you're having difficulty with drawing your comic, have you ever considered trying to illustrate a comic using magazine cutouts or geometric shapes? Recall our previous definition of what comics are, which gives plenty of leeway in terms of art materials to use; it, in fact, tells you that you can pretty much use anything, as long as it works! Who knows what interesting results you may come up with?
Some other things you might be interested in: Scott McCloud, who we're often citing, has two inventions (of sorts) that may help. One is the 24-hour comic, and the other is the Story Machine. Both are intended to help in the creation process, and both are worth giving a look at.
::posted by Elbert::
Sunday, October 27, 2002
Here's a novel idea: If you want to make comics, why not make comics?
You may have heard that remark before, but it's a shockingly brilliant idea nevertheless, don't you think? If you want to make comics, if you want to get into the industry of comics, then why aren't you writing and drawing your own comics? Much in the same way that if you want to be a short story writer, then you go an write a story. So why is it that a lot of you - and you know who you are, whoever you are - are sitting in your drawing boards, just doodling pin-up after pin-up? Not that there's anything wrong with that, but really, why not comics?
FROM NEIL GAIMAN'S JOURNAL
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And about fifty people have asked me to plug, or just wanted to know what I thought, about National Novel Writing month. The object of which is to write a 50,000 word novel in a month, on which getting to the finish line is more important than the content. I think it's a great idea -- anything that makes people who want to be writers write is a good idea. It's too easy to let your life slip away, convinced that all you need to be a writer is an idea. In reality, what you need to do is put one word after the other until you're done, with all the work and pain and triumph involved.
Chuck Jones told would be artists to draw, explaining that "you've got a million bad drawings inside you and the sooner you get them out, the better". Raymond Chandler is reputed to have told would be authors that they have a million words of crap to get out of their system. And in both cases there's a lot of truth there -- if only because it allows you to keep going despite your technical limitations and inability to get the words or the pen to do what you want, and eventually find yourself, well, competent. And some of the words and pictures you turn out on the way can be pretty good too.
::posted by Elbert::
Thursday, October 24, 2002
okay, let's try out this blog
COMIC REFLECTION FOR THE WEEK: How College Can Be A Pain To Your Writing by Snow
Around five years ago, I was a writer. This is probably a surprise to many people, especially since I have not truly written in the past three years. Many people have gotten to know me, yet they have not known the writer. And this is because school can kill a writer.
Don't get me wrong. This is not a rant about school. This actually a rant/reflection on how narrow-minded teachers can form you to become something - and leave your other possibilities in the trash bin.
Y'see, I really enjoyed my english classes. I know our dear freshies are having a hard time with english, but it's really not that hard. John Labella was a great teacher. he taught us the beauty of the written word, and how you can meld it to become even more beautiful. However, it was also there where my writing skills died.
Before college I had a specific writing style. I entered college with around three or four unfinished novellettes, largely due to my tendency for slacking off. But I didn't really care. I expected to go to college and add more ideas to my stories. A little bit of college color here, a little bit of adult philosophy there and - voila! I expected my works of art to be finished within another year. However, the irgorous training and analysis taught to us in the preliminary english classes totally changed the way I write. For example:
---------------------------------------------------
high school:
NO by Snow
Negative Onslaught
On a mere child’s brain
Constant on each moment
Of his waking day.
Turning the pious,
Tiny child’s dreams
Into little monsters
Materialized in society.
Each happy hobby
Always frowned upon,
Joy upon existence
Marred by scars.
Optimistic happy child
Thrown out into the jungle
Tears drank by the sidewalk . . .
Negative Onslaught
A pessimist is born
-----------------------------------------------------
college:
Goddess by Snow
I grieve
for a friend's loss
of a father well-loved
and wish
to wax
poetic.
Do I
spread mist over the purple sunset,
blow horrid rains through green lands,
spread devastation
to show my sympathy?
No.
Let trees spread forth green shoots
reaching for the sky.
Let flowers bloom
and give glory
to the one on High.
Let there be no change.
For my grief is not the loss of the world
but the loss of the inner being.
-----------------------------------------------
There is a difference in the quality of the play of words that I cannot express. It's like a horror writer shifting his works to pure flowery romance. Check out this sample for prose:
-----------------------------------------------
high school
Blue Wings:Prologue
It's the first of November in the small town of hidden greens. The sky is tinted with the warm red glow of the sun as it prepares to rest and wash the world into the darkness. A plane could be seen at the horizon on its way to the runway, as the waves yearn to reach it.
Minutes later, as the sun kissed the sea, waving goodbye to the land, a young man, his platinum blonde hair awash with the sleepy sun's light blowing in the wind, watches a tiny town at the edge of his balcony. But none of these lovely scenes pervade his mind as thoughts of an old friend come rushing to his memory. As the sun gives its final caress and the land succumbs to the dark, his whisper could be heard flowing with the sentimental wind, "I shall finally see you again ... Ranier ... "
college
Tales of the Kine
January 1 – midnight, inside a dirty apartment
Tonight… the start of a new year… Fireworks… tiny tendrils of glittering ash up in the night sky… You would think that we would be tired of all this brushed up gaiety… But, no, we persevere in the farce that we know of as life…we move towards that happiness we never could reach…because others have reached out and gotten to it first.
Tonight… I have no regrets. I will start my journey tonight. And I give a toast! To pure knowledge… and my only chance for happiness…
A week later – at the library
There have been many tales of these demons in the past centuries. To collate them all may take a life’s work. But, then, I may be able to afford even that…
Rashull looked up from the book he was holding. It was now twilight, and he had to hide.
----------------------------------------------
I can't exactly pinpoint what I feel was lost in my writing. But there is a certain luster that disappeared in my tales. It's like I am growing old, like a wicked spinster ready to lash out at opportunistic youngsters. And the only thing I have learned is this: I had become too much of a sponge. Yes, we re taught to drink and soak in all that knowledge and follow what our elders (a.k.a. tecahers or parents) say like it was the holy word. They mold us to become better citizens of the nation, but to what avail? To the extent that we lose who we are? To the extent that a developed possiblity becomes null and void just because it does not coincide with what they think is correct?
This is reflection is my warning. Not to say that I have gone bad - more of complacent. Never let yourselves be stuck to one method, to one view, to one life. Let yourselves live on, even after death. Gabriel Marcel, a philosopher, says that love enables us to live on even after death. Love yourselves. Rather, love your selves. You are the different facets of your life and personality. Develop them, and you can set yourselves free.
And what does this all have to do with comics? Well, doesn't a comic have a story? and doesn't it begin with the writing of the story? The genius, I tell you, lies in the heart - how it overcomes those that confine it. Let others love you through your work. You will live far longer than the dust that created your body.
::posted by Thyalla::
Wednesday, October 23, 2002
In a few days, I will be alone no more.
I've added Charles Tan, Doc&Pub Head of the Comicol, and Kristine Bartolome, Comicol President, to the list of bloggers. They'll probably have words of their own to say, so I might as well let them say it.
Not that I expect all of you to be joining in the blogfest soon; I'd just as soon have created a message board. Remember, children, just because the car for your benefit, doesn't mean you get to drive as well. We do, however, have a number of opportunities for you to voice out your opinions; among others, there's the mailing list, the comment tags at the end of each blog entry, and the tagboard you see at the left hand side of the screen. If I'm doing this HTML coding thing right, you'll also be having a guestbook somewhere here as well.
::posted by Elbert::
Wednesday, October 23, 2002
What Me, Comics?, an essay based on Saturday's Formsem lecture. Written by yours truly; read on:
WHAT ME, COMICS?
As we attempt to promote public awareness of comics as a valid medium of expression, worthy of both literary and artistic merit, and perhaps more importantly, as we attempt to tap the vast potential of comics as a medium, we find that a formal definition of comics is integral. That we know it is a powerful medium of expression is not enough; we must know exactly what comics is, what sets it apart from other media such as film or TV, books or paintings, and what makes for its essential parts and properties, so that we may better focus our vision, in line with the aforementioned goals.
In seeking a definition for what comics is, we narrows down certain options by laying out what comics is not.
Comics, of course, is not radio. This much should be obvious, but in the explicit statement above we note one essential difference between the two, and corollarily, hit upon an essential element of comics: radio is primarily aural, a medium dependent on sound. In contrast, comics is visual, relying on the audience's perception of pictures and to a lesser extent, words. We shall be revisiting the latter - words - in a succeeding section.
COMICS IS VISUAL...
...But comics is not film. Neither is it theatre, television, nor any number of similar forms of media in existence. For film, television, etcetera, share a similar trait in that they, while also visual in nature, are unlike comics in that they feature moving images. The presence of animation. Comics, on the other hand, are static, of which can be attributed to the pictures, images that compose it.
COMICS IS COMPOSED OF STATIC PICTURES OR IMAGES...
...And so are, apparently, pictures, paintings, and photos. For that matter, so are storybooks, which are themselves composed of static pictures or images, illustrating a story told in prose.
Of the former, we may argue that pictures, paintings, and photos, can not be comics because they are precisely what they are - pictures, paintings, and photos; rather, comics are composed of these such pictures, paintings, and photos. A sequence, even a sequence of two, of these imagery make up comics. What needs to be noted, though, are the manner by which the images are placed in sequence. In an art gallery, for instance, one may note a series of paintings on one wall to be a sequence of imagery and thus, comics. However, such imagery is more often than not intended to be appreciated and taken within the context of the work itself, without consideration of imagery that came before or after, in front, beside, or behind it. Comics relies on the idea that the series of imagery one sees has been intentionally placed in sequence, to be taken as a whole.
COMICS IS COMPOSED OF STATIC PICTURES OR IMAGES PLACED IN DELIBERATE SEQUENCE.
Thus, the storybook is also taken out of consideration, for illustrations in storybooks are almost only decorative in function, an afterthought to the prose story which it illustrates. They are never meant to be seen as a deliberate sequence of images; rather, they exist to enhance the story. Likewise, in novels or short stories or poems, the words are most important.
In comics, the reverse is almost always true. We have, of course, established the idea that comics is composed, essentially, of a series of images in deliberate sequence. What of words, then? Certainly, words - or more specifically, the interplay between words and pictures - play an integral role in the growth of the medium; however, to say that words are essential to our definition of comics would exclude the "silent greats," comics by authors such as Peter Kuper and Sergio Aragones, who have always focused their energies in creating visual comics stories that use little to no words.
In the end, Scott McCloud, a scholar on the medium of comics and author of Understanding Comics, offers the most compelling definition for comics. He defines it as "juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/ or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer."
Scott McCloud even takes our understanding of comics one step further, in that just as our definition of comics narrows down our view of what it is based on what it says, it also opens up a lot of things, based on what it doesn't say.
For instance, it says nothing about GENRE -- no restrictions on comics being just about superheroes, science fiction, fantasy, and funny animals. We can make historical, or educational comics (about economics or math, even!) if we so much as set our minds to doing it. Nor does it say anything about the MATERIALS we can use -- nothing about 11x17 Bristol Boards, inks, pens, or Adobe Photoshop. STYLES are also an open matter -- pointilist, expressionist, impressionist, whatever floats your boat.
And this, in my opinion, is what should be part of your personal manifesto, your credo, your motto. That yes, comics is just one thing - it is only just one medium for expression, after all - but when used properly, when genre, materials, and style are pushed to the limits of what it can do, comics can also be everything.
COMICS IS JUST ONE THING, BUT IT CAN ALSO BE EVERYTHING.
Think about it.
::posted by Elbert::
Saturday, October 19, 2002
Oh. And I know I promised to post a text version of The Comics Lecture, but I'm tired. I did manage to plug in some nifty new additions to this site, though; the link-a-palooza is up, so feel free to add your own favorite comics-related link for everyone to see.
::posted by Elbert::
Saturday, October 19, 2002
FORMSEM Update: What the heck just happened?
1.) Connect.
The search for a more efficient mode of communication continues. Thus far, there's the org mailing list, and this online journal here, but we really need to get a permanent office space. Really, we do.
2.) Projects. Don't forget to sign up for org projects for the second sem. I sound like a broken record, but we need to have these projects off the ground so that we can get ourselves accredited, recognized, praised, noticed...you get the idea.
You have, of course, four projects you may choose to associate yourself with, listed in order of (what is, in my opinion) top priority:
- The reading corner. For those who came in late or weren't paying attention, the reading corner is a pay library we're setting up on campus where, upon paying for a minimal fee and temporarily surrendering their ID, people can read all the comics that they want. As of now, it's lacking a venue, so if you have any ideas, let me know.
- The publication. Judging from the amount of submissions I'm getting, the regular newsletter is probably as far from reality as it gets. So I'm focusing my energies to a cheaper, but no less better in quality end-of-the-year comic publication. Send me stuff, goldarnit.
- The film showings. I'm just hoping that whoever's in charge of this won't just be exclusively screening anime; it gets tiring after a while. Oh, and do remember to announce the screenings at least two weeks prior to the day? If no one knows about it, who'll be going to see it?
- The ACP sponsorships. Apparently, we're supposed to be sponsoring a class on comics for Alternative Class Program Day. I just hope this doesn't mean we'll be spending too much money all over again. My wallets are pooped. Pooped, I say, pooped!
3.) Lectures. The rest of the meeting was devoted to a lecture on comics; in particular, the definition of the medium, what it is, and what it isn't. A creation exercise followed, where the members were broken down into smaller groups and asked to make comics of their own. Interesting results.
::posted by Elbert::
Thursday, October 17, 2002
ANNOUNCEMENT:
Comicol Formation Seminar
1:00 PM
CCHQ, 3rd floor FBR Building, Katipunan
What's in it for you there aside from the free food and drinks?
Well, there's the free food and drinks.
And a lecture on what comics are, and why we're going out on a limb for it.
There'll also be an activity that I promise won't be anything as embarassing as those "group dynamics" activities during general assemblies of most other orgs. Promise. It'll be productive, in fact...or, well, at least in theory. Whether it will succeed in actually being productive or not largely depends upon you and your willingness to work in a group environment.
After that is a portfolio review of your sketches, doodles, writings, and other works, with the purpose of making you feel bad about your work just so you could work hard to prove me wrong. I was just kidding about that making you feel bad part, so don't be afraid to bring your works with you.
Besides, if you've seen me in person, you know that I'm the last person in the world that deserves your fear. Your laughter and mockery maybe, but never fear.
Tomorrow: Resources for the would-be comic creator.
::posted by Elbert::
Thursday, October 17, 2002
Pool your funds and buy me this for Christmas:
::posted by Elbert::
Thursday, October 17, 2002
Hear me sing praises for comics; but before that, introductions, explanations, and disclaimers:
I've only started reading comics seriously five, six years back, so I suppose that still makes me a relative newcomer to the wonderful world of sequential art. Before this, the only serious comics collecting I did was the Bazooka Joe strips that came with the bubble gum - they are still around, aren't they?
Nevertheless, I've devoted much of my time (more than what would be considered healthy, actually) to the study of comics - what makes it tick, why superheroes are the dominant genre (and why spandex of all things), why manga is an entirely different animal from American comics, so on and so forth. Yeah, I'm learning geekspeak is what I'm doing.
Why? Because I'm in love with the medium. I've sold soap, homemade bracelets made from safety pins and beads, cookies and brownies, photocopied self-made mini-comics, pens, essays, and stories, just so I can sustain my admittedly expensive diet of comics (and film).
Because the idea of comics being a medium that tells stories through pictures appeals to me. (And, contrary to what most people think, comics does not equal to "the marriage of words and pictures" - that definition, I think, is too restricting since it excludes all those great silent comics like Sergio Aragones' work on Mad) Because as much as I want to be as enlightened as the next guy, read as much literature as I can, I'm realizing more and more that my reading speed isn't as fast as I'd like it to be. I read Orwell's 1984 in something like three weeks' time.
Comics (the good ones, at least; just like in any medium, there are ten bad apples for every good one) provides me with my fix of literature and mindfuck* ideas. In something like thirty minutes' time. I read Alan Moore's Snakes and Ladders. From Hell. Gaiman's Sandman. Peter Milligan. Grant Morrison. Mike Carey. Warren Ellis. Mark Millar. It's as fast as MTV but not as stupid.
I don't want to say it's the words. Like I said, they're not an essential component to the equation of comics creation. But it's the ideas, see, the ideas and the stories, and pretty pictures that tell it.
At the same time, there's this tiny pride in knowing that comics remains a niche. A minority medium. Something only I and a small circle of friends know about. Something I can smile about whenever the grown-ups tell me to grow up and read something else. What are they reading? They're reading stuff like Good Housekeeping. Comics is cult pop media, it's how the rabbit came from the hat. I know that. I know what people are missing out on. I know the trick behind the magic.
It's comics. It's the literature for the new century.
Peace out.
::posted by Elbert::