Maya- 6 page final layout

SPX

European Comics and the Absurd 

• Not all characters need to be nice
• It can literally be about anything
              we live in an age of criticism 
• "I find it weird how one work can be more popular than the other."
• Make use of Facebook and other mass networking sites
• When using paint, and if scanned, the Internet supposedly makes it look "better." Since the texture that traditional medium creates is so unique.
  

Its a small, small, small press world
Q:What makes you start publishing your comics to publishing other people's comics?

A: If they can make comics faster then they can make money faster also. However, since that is not possible they use their connections in order to publish others. (Retrofit)

All of these publishing companies all started for their love comics.

Standard run for prints: 1300

Being mentioned on a blog not about comics is much better than getting mentioned on a blog about comics.

SPX Response

This was my second time attending SPX, but my first year that I attended talks there. In the past I had learned a lot by just chatting with artists at their tables, so it was interesting to attend more structured panels. The first talk I attended was Scott McCloud’s. He broke divided artists into four categories - classicists (which focus on beauty), animists (which focus on storytelling), formalists (who do research through trial and error), and iconoclasts (who focus on honesty and humility). He also acknowledged that these categories can intermingle and overlap, and formalist may try hard to be more like an animist, etc. Obviously no artist can fit into just one category, and he acknowledged this, but also said that all artists will have at least one category that they struggle with/cannot fit into.

The next talk I went to featured Sam Bosma, Kali Ciesemier, Luke Pearson, and Philippa Rice. All of the artists have strong web presences and followings, and are successful in a variety of fields, ranging from comics to editorial work to animation. Despite their success, they still face artistic struggles, and it was interesting to hear them talk about how they dealt with these. On the subject of art block and creative ruts, they said to examine what you want consume and what you want to create - if there is something you want that isn’t out there yet, you should make it. Kali also mentioned that what you have in your portfolio is what you will get hired to do, so put thought into what you choose to create for it. Towards the end of the talk, Sam Bosma talked about working on projects for weeks then just throwing the drawings out. It was frustrating to hear that an artist of his skill level still feels this frustrated with his own work, but he also said that unpublished and failed drawings are still incredibly valuable because of what you learn in the process.

Maya- SPX write up

I went to 2 panels at SPX. The first was an informal interview of Scott McCloud and the other was a talk about the small print comics business.

The Scott McCloud panel first started with a discussion of McCloud’s four categories: Classist, Animists, Formalist and Iconoclasts. The Classists who are the artists who strive for perfection, the Animists who tell the story, the Formalists who are interested in experimenting and the Iconoclasts are interested in being true to life. However, McCloud called this a “toxic theory” since many artists do not fit neatly into one category and was reluctant to put newer, Internet-age artists into a category. The discussion ended when he noted that there is usually one category that artists don’t fit.

The rest of the panel was about the process for creating “Sculptor”, McCloud’s latest graphic novel. He started off by drawing 40 pages in Photoshop and attempted to format the comic so that he could create “forward movement” in the flow. He also talked about techniques he used such as bleeding panels, digital manipulations and disorientation in order to invoke feelings within the audience. Then there was short audience Q&A.

The 2^nd talk I went to was about the small printing business featuring people who ran small print companies that printed more indie and short comics. Many of them started to get into the business by printing and promoting their own comics and just decided to turn it into their career. All of the panelists agreed that it was easier and more fun to promote the works of someone else then their own and found that they were never unable to find new talent or comics to promote.

At least 2 of the speakers also said that they are not making huge money off of their businesses but rather that most of the money they make goes back into their businesses, in order to produce and create. I found this fact to be reassuring in financially.

Final Sketches - Frank Frazetta

SPX

The two panels I went to were "Life, Death and Comics" and one about building webcomics. The "Life, Death and Comics" panel was about writing and drawing memoir comics! They had three authors to talk about their most recent memoirs. Some advice I thought was funny but helpful was to portray yourself truthfully, even if you were in an asshole in the situation! Readers will be able to tell if you're being genuine or not. Similar advice was to draw yourself worse than you draw the other characters! Readers won't like it if you draw yourself really beautifully- it feels shallow. My favorite advice from this panel was about why these authors liked using comics as a medium (as opposed to just writing their life-stories) and that was because they said comics are very accessible and immediate- and memoirs work the best when they're immediate. The other panel was also very helpful. They had three "P's" to remember when making webcomics: people, persistence and pennies! They also had advice on what websites to host your comics on, how to make money off those websites and readers, and how to publish your webcomics in print. My favorite tip from here was about networking- you should link to your friend's comics, you should meet other artists- anything to put yourself out there and make readers feel like they're in a cool "club" by reading your work! Ultimately SPX was really helpful, and all the art being sold at the tables was really amazing and unique- I can't believe how packed the room was and still, every piece of art was a completely different style. I'm really glad I had the opportunity to go; I've heard about SPX before and now I finally went!

Lecture Summary/ Notes -Devon Bragg

Devon Bragg

SPX Lecture

Response and Summary

SPX Scott McCloud & SPX Across The Seas-Style Lectures

            Visiting SPX for the first time was a very eye opening experience. You follow, and enthrall yourself in the artists online or in a book and then all of a sudden, they’re in front of you. One of the lectures I couldn’t miss was Scott McClouds lecture. A role model for many young artists and experienced ones alike, he gave his presentation on his interpretation of the artistic work ethic and comic theology. He called it his “toxic theory”, and in this toxic theory he stated that there are four “tribes” or groups: classist, animist, iconoclast and formalist. Classist being beauty and work ethic, animist being storytellers, iconoclast being honesty and real humanity and formalist being figuring out form all of these groups are his “formula” to how comic creators work; and this became the base of his lecture.  He also spoke to the young artists that sat in front of him, giving them a few pointers before ending his lecture, “have some humility, they’re only lines on paper. Have vitality and have pure truth to your material. If you stay honest to how you work and feel, then work will come to you, don’t worry.”

The other lecture I attended was “Across The Seas-Style”, which focused around four main artists, two from America and two from England. Representing the United States was Sam and Kali Ciesemier and representing England was Mark and Eden Miller. Both couples are considered “Tumblr famous” by the sheer thousands of followers they have. The base of the lecture was to show the difference in styles from across the seas but to be honest to me, there wasn’t a huge difference. Most artists have a different style from each other and since these artists both originate on Tumblr and earned their fame through Tumblr, the styles were actually similar in ways.  Both couples have to convey a message that internationally will be understood. Plus the couples apparently keep in contact with one another in both countries, so you can see each person bringing a little bit of  everyone’s style into their own. It was interesting to see. Besides talking about style, the rest of the lecture revolved around keeping true to your art and how to build a name for yourself.  They had the same notions as McCloud, basically to put yourself out there as often as possible, even if you think you can’t.

Script:

 

Page 1:

Title

Names Listed next to the correct panel (Left to right): Elizabeth Shippen Green, Violet Oakley, Jessie Wilcox Smith, Henrietta Cozen.

Page 2:

-We met at the Drexel institute, the three of us studying under Howard Pyle where he gave us our nick name.

-We moved in together to the old inn with my roommate Henrietta,

-and we promised that we would stick together.

-Even later on, when we moved to our self named Cogslea home.

Page 3:

-We called each other our sisters and we built our careers together.

-We got a Dog named Prince, and had our parents and siblings around often

- and we were happy and successful

Page 4:

- the Papers deemed us examples of the New Woman, successful and all about our careers.

-Living together worked and we lived our lives together

-until eventually Elizabeth made the decision to be married, which meant leaving us.

Page 5:

- Violet was especially unhappy, and in 1911 we all moved away from each other, except for Henrietta and I.

- The arguing didn’t last long, despite what the papers had to say about it. and we wrote so many letters between us all.

Page 6:

- No matter what everyone said; and oh did they talk about us, it made Elizabeth so mad; We continued on with our work and calling each other sister even as we no longer lived together as the Red Rose Girls. 

Amrita Sher-gil

Artist - Frida Kahlo Layout

Evey Cahall - El Lissitzky Layout

Rosa Bonheur----Katherine Henri

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec

Caravaggio (michaelangelo merini) murder story layout

4. "no, i can't do it."

5. "im not a murderer, I can't kill a man."

6. 'besides, he is a pimp, he might have gangster friends."

7. "i have to clear my mind"

8. "ill go for a drink"

11. "hey, Michelangelo! what are you doing here? come over!"

12. "sit! sit sit sit sit."

13. a. "how are things?"  b. "well, you know"

14.  a. "what the hell are you doing?"  b. "hey fellas! this is my friend Michelangelo Merini, he is a famous painter.  he goes by the name Caravaggio!"

15. a "you'll like this guy.  he's really funny."  b. "sup man"

16. "whats up with a little beard?  is that a painter thing?"

18. "im gonna get going."

20. "what the hell was that about why the F*ck would someone do something like that to a dude?"

21. 'is that because i am a painter? they think im weak?  like Ill let go a disrespect like that?"

1. "Oh i bet that pimp tomasoni thinks like that, too.  taking my lover? thats the ultimate disrespect."

2. "my sweet Fillide, we had a good thing going yes she is a hooker, but we had a connection I swear."

24. ' I bet they are F*cking right now. that dirty little bastard. with his filthy thug body, disgusting."

25. "I have to kill the guy.  there is no other option, my body wants it, my mind wants it."

26. "it is the right thing to do.  he soiled my good name, my honor.  a Meridi did not move to Napoli to be humiliated in such a way.  think of my father. he will be ashamed of me if I let this go.  god wills for it."

28. "I know where he usually is at this time of night."  

30. a. "so I was like, yo, the money's over there, and the f*cker believed it, haha."  b. "hey tomassoni!"

31. "who the hell is it?"

36. "where do you think you're going, man?"

37. "hey,   hey, hey hey hey."

38. "come on,.  stand down."

39" I'm only just gonna cut your balls, okay?"

40 a. "AAAAAHAAHAHAargh!"  b. "sh---shshshshshshseesh."

41 "auuuaaaagh..."

42. "...yeah, that's right."

43. "i'm Caravaggio."

speech in panels