The Global Comics Village

Another week, another three posts based on the International Comic Arts Forum. (Actually, it's going to bleed into next week too.)

I don't think I have anything to write about the plenary speaker. What he said made sense, and there were good points, and I will probably think about it a lot more while doing future reading of Hellboy, but at this point I don't really have anything to add to it.

There was one funny moment, though, when a question was being answered, and I think Bukatman used the term "absorption", and there is this nod from all the academics in the audience, and he immediately had to backtrack that it was not like that, because someone "Brand" had used that term a certain way, and so if you are familiar with that field, it holds that meaning, but he needed the word to do something else.

(I didn't relay that well, but if you were there it made sense and it was humorous.)

This is a thing within various fields of academics, because there is an existing body of literature and thought, and so there is this collective mental stock that everyone draws from. They may not agree on what everything means - you get some passionate disagreement in anthropology for example - but still, there are some shortcuts, and people know what you mean, and they know whom you mean.

One of the first things that I noticed at ICAF was that the moderator of the first panel I attended, Ben Saunders. seemed familiar. He had presented the panel I attended at Stumptown. Remember  the broader world of geekery? I thought about calling this the narrower world of comics, except, I don't know that the world is particularly narrow. There does seem to be a reasonable familiarity between the residents of this world.

First of all, everyone knew about the MOOC. Some of them had participated, some wanted to but did not have time, but no one was like, really, that happened? I think the instructor said we had 7000 participants, so that's a big start right there. Also, it was kind of a new thing, so the possibilities heading down that road may have generated a lot of discussion.

Taking that was helpful for me. It had me reading a lot of different comics that I don't know that I would have gotten to, but also the discussions gave this greater sense of familiarity that made everything resonate more. So many people in the class said so many wonderful things about Greg Rucka, and there he was.

I did not recognize Kelly Sue DeConnick from the MOOC, because I already recognized her from a survey where I chose her as the comics figure whom I would most want on my side under zombie fighting conditions. However, it was having recently gone through her work on Captain Marvel that made so many of the things that she said make so much sense. Yes! I remember that! So that's why!

It was not just from the MOOC; Twitter and Tumblr have played a big role as well. For example, one thing that Matt Fraction is great at, besides writing comics, is answering questions people give him. Yes, they are often about comics, but there ends up being quite a bit of classic movies and fashion too, and there he was, in a kind of retro, very snappy suit, and okay, this makes sense to me. With Chris Roberson, there was his daughter (with his wife, whom I also follow), and of course she had a dragon (Toothless, specifically). It made perfect sense.

(And I hope that doesn't come off as creepy at all either. Privacy is important too, and any public figure or creative type needs to figure out the balance that works for them, between accessibility to fans and comfort and security for themselves, but there are a lot of options out there.)

I guess what I am getting at is the familiarity made everything better, and more interesting. And, yes, two things I am really gifted at are liking people and finding things interesting, so perhaps my enthusiasm should be taken with a grain of salt, but I thought it was all really, really cool, and the people that I was not familiar with before, I want to read their stuff now. And I will.

And perhaps this is the best time to get back to the Wonder Twins. One thing I remember from an interview with Gerard Way was him talking about realizing that he needed them in his life, because of their love for comics. I wish I could remember whom he was speaking to, because the interviewer totally agreed.

So I had that in mind, but otherwise did not really know what to expect, but they were so lovely! And they do love comics! I mean, "the love" was part three of their four part presentation, and one of the slides was that "All kinds of comics are awesome."

And I can't convey it. I did take notes, to jog my memory, but the notes mean nothing, and it cannot convey the smiles and laughs and the spirit that they brought with them. I was just lucky to be there. If you were there, you were lucky. If not, well, there are other things. There are videos and classes and panels and conventions, and Twitter feeds, and many things to give you insight into comics and just love them more.

And when Moon signed my Dark Horse Presents, he drew me Daffodil from Sugar Shock. I had to say it. I may just be bragging, but I will cherish that.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/05/gender-through-comic-books-my-first-mooc.html