SPX Panels

Summary 1:

Life, Death, Comics, and Everything in Between was a panel consisting of Jennifer Hayden, creator of Story of My Tits, Derf Backderf, creator of My Friend Dahmer, and Frederick Peeters, creator of Blue Pills ). The topics discussed were mostly about those specific works and other comics deriving from personal life experiences, and how to depict such experiences effectively. Backderf offered some interesting bits of advice concerning character development as self portraiture, saying “You can’t be afraid to portray yourself as an asshole. You have to service the story”. Hayden added, “You always have to look worse than whoever you’re depicting. You have to be harder on yourself”.  They each had differing answers when questioned about depicting real life characters. The views were split between an obligation to the individuals to ask each living person for permission and sometimes changing names and details, versus an obligation to the honesty of the work through the literal representation of the reality of the situation.

Summary 2:

SPX Spotlight on Luke Pearson, creator of Hilda and the Mighty Giant, Philippa Rice, creator of Soppy, Sam Bosma, creator of Fantasy Sports, and Kali Ciesemier, MICA alum and creator of All My Anime Boyfriends, was a pretty general panel about the artists’ lives, work, and artistic processes. One interesting aspect of this panel was the fact that they were a pair of working artist couples (Luke with Philippa, and Sam with Kali). They spoke for a bit about working and living with another comic artist/ illustrator, and they all generally advised to try and work separately from another, so as to keep their work fresh and not too heavily influenced by a particular person’s taste or style. I found this relevant as an art student and found it applicable to anyone living in a community of other artists who may find it easy to get caught up in a style shared by any particular social group. On a similar note, they also discussed some helpful ways to get out of a creative rut, such as a change of scenery, change of social group and opinions, as well as making a conscious effort to examine the kind of work you like to consume.