SPX 2018 Panel - Illuminating Legends
Published on Sep 24, 2018
The adage "write what you know" has led to many beautiful and inspiring autobiographies; but when writing and/or drawing the life of another, you're given the chance to step into another's shoes. Ron Wimberly (Sentences), Hazel Newlevant (If This Be Sin), Max de Radiguès (Weegee) and Jérémie Royer (Audubon) dive into the research, editing, and artistic skills required to get someone else's life right. Moderated by Marc Sobel.
SPX 2018 Panel -Gekiga à la Mode: Ryan Holmberg on Baron Yoshimoto
Published on Sep 25, 2018
Celebrating the recent publication of Baron Yoshimoto's The Troublemakers from Retrofit / Big Planet Comics, professor and historian Ryan Holmbergl offers a fresh perspective on the manga genre of gekiga. Though usually known for its gritty stories about underclass life and male frustration, gekiga was also plugged into the rise of young men's fashion and the popularity of Anglo-American playboy types in the 1960s. Baron Yoshimoto, Saito Takao, and Tatsumi Yoshihiro are among the artists whose work is discussed.
SPX 2018 Panel - The Practice of Diary Comics
Published on Sep 28, 2018
Moderator Derek Royal joins a panel of cartoonists in discussing the nature of diary comics, one of the most popular forms of graphic memoir. Summer Pierre (Paper Pencil Life), Glynnis Fawkes (Greek Diary), Kevin Budnik (It's OK To Be Sad) and Dustin Harbin (Diary Comics) take a critical look at the definition of the subgenre, distinguish it from memoir and autobiography, talk about its history and discuss the problematic elements of the term.
SPX 2018 Panel - Roz Chast in Conversation
Published on Sep 29, 2018
Roz Chast is an artistic polymath. Her humorous single-panel cartoons on the tics and neuroses of everyday life have been entertaining readers of The New Yorker for years. Her first graphic novel, Can We Please Talk About Something A Little More Pleasant? garnered her both the Kirkus Prize as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award, amongst other honors. In this panel Roz talks about her affection for pysanka eggs, hooking rugs, needlepoint, William Steig, Charles Addams and drawing cartoons. Moderated by comics historian and SPX Executive Director, Warren Bernard.
SPX 2018 Panel - On the Ground: Reportage and Narrative
Published on Oct 2, 2018
Comics journalism often takes the form of the cartoonist being on site as they report directly on what they see and hear, often in explosive or dangerous situations. Moderator Chris Mautner joins comics journalists Ben Passmore (Fighting For A Better History), Mike Dawson (Dispatch From A Sanctuary City), Whit Taylor (Finding Your Roots) and Josh Kramer (The Cartoon Picayune) as they discuss the storytelling and journalistic decisions they have to make in creating a narrative, striking a balance between advocacy and objectivity, and the ways in which the time lag between observation and publication can create a new perspective.
SPX 2018 Panel - Look Back and Laugh: Youth & Autobiography
Published on Oct 2, 2018
Our renowned panelists Dash Shaw (New School), Kat Fajardo (Gringa!), Carta Monir (Secure Connect) and Nate Powell (Come Again) have all created beautiful books about the trials and triumphs of youth. Here with moderator Heidi MacDonald, they discuss what goes into making a book that's meant to capture the authenticity of an era you only see in hindsight.
SPX 2018 Panel - Teen Latinx Memoir
Published on Oct 3, 2018
Join moderator Jason Rodriguez and the mentors and students of the Latin American Youth Center as they discuss their experience in creating the anthology Voces Sin Fronteras. This was the product of an intensive workshop with first-generation Latinx teenagers, teaching them how to make comics. The result is a book dedicated to "Our Stories, Our Truth" and is designed to "inspire, educate and motivate its readers and that changes the narrative about America's immigrants."
SPX 2018 Panel - Adventures in Publishing
Published on Oct 3, 2018
Moderator Robyn Chapman (Paper Rocket) and publishers Taneka Stotts (Ascend Comics), Der-Shing Helmer (Ascend Comics) and Andrea Colvin (Lion Forge) discuss the challenges and rewards of publishing. What kind of models are there for publishing? What do publishers look for in a pitch from an artist? How are issues like distribution, markets, funding and editing addressed?
SPX 2018 Panel - Building the Jungle Gym
Published on Oct 4, 2018
J.A. Micheline moderates this panel with Shannon Wright (Castor and Carina), Benji Nate (Catboy), Molly Ostertag (The Witch Boy), and Gale Galligan (Baby Sitters Club) as they discuss the structures and signifiers of kid's comics and animation. How do you know a kids comic when you see one? What structurally indicates a comic as being for kids? What decisions are made? And what does it mean to have those structures used in adult comics?
SPX 2018 Panel - Liv Strömquist: Fruit Of Knowledge
Published on Oct 4, 2018
Liv Strömquist's new book, Fruit of Knowledge, is subtitled "The Vulva vs. the Patriarchy". The Embassy of Sweden's Cultural Counselor, Linda Zachrison, joins Liv in a wide-ranging discussion about how her bitingly satirical book details how men have denied, erased and stigmatized women's bodies and identities throughout history by making topics like menstruation and female genitalia taboo.
SPX 2018 Panel - Cutting Up: Julie Doucet's Reinventions From Dirty Plotte to Carpet Sweeper Tales
Published on Oct 5, 2018
With her medium-defining comic Dirty Plotte now set to be available to fans in full for the first time since its original serialization, SPX is honored to host Julie Doucet for a conversation about her long and varied artistic career. At the forefront of a generation of artists whose work bridged the gap between the self-published underground of zines and minicomics and the alternative comics peddled by independent houses, Doucet's career nevertheless refuses to settle into one medium. Feminist media scholar Rachel Miller joins Julie for a free-wheeling exploration of her work from comics to collages, dreams to diaries, and all the talking Tampax and rowdy alley cats in between.
SPX 2018 Panel - Process Party Live: Josh Cotter
Published on Oct 5, 2018
Veteran cartoonists Mike Dawson and Zack Soto host Process Party, the Internet's Only Podcast. It's the show where comics makers talk to other comics makers about the comics they make. Fantagraphics' Josh Cotter is the subject of this special episode recorded live at SPX, discussing Nod Away and ten years of Skyscrapers of the Midwest, in addition to his approach to craft and life.
