Saturday, September 14th:
Cults, 12:00-1:00 pm in the White Oak Room: Cults (religious and otherwise) have been part of the fabric of American history long before it was officially a country. What often start off as utopian projects usually devolve into fanaticism, exploitation, and even murder. Join moderator Marc Sobel and panelists Jesse Lambert (Hyperallegenic), Ellen Lindner (Lost Diamonds), George Wylesol (Internet Crusader), and Emi Gennis (American Cult) will discuss cults from a personal, historical, and fictional perspective and why comics are an ideal medium to delve into the depths of their mysteries.
Building Comics Community Before The Internet, 12:30-1:30 pm in the White Flint Amphitheater: Before the internet facilitated interaction and community for cartoonists worldwide, there were still networks that drew them together. From the page of seminal zine Factsheet Five to a mail network that criss-crossed the globe to dozens of alt-weekly newspapers that disseminated comics, the cartoonists who emerged at the height of the first zine explosion established the groundwork for what was to come. Tom Hart of the Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW) has been capturing the experiences of the cartoonists who were there, and he'll join panelists Ariel Bordeaux (Deep Girl, Clutter), Anders Nilsen (Tongues, Big Questions), Carol Lay (My Time Machine, Story Minute), and Peter Kuper (Ruins, World War III Illustrated) as they discuss their varied experiences in establishing comics community.
Dash Shaw and Eleanor Davis In Conversation, 2:30-3:30 pm in the White Flint Amphitheater: Dash Shaw and Eleanor Davis are visionary cartoonists. Both coming from art school backgrounds, they made their mark at a young age and have continued to evolve over the years, crafting a wide variety of innovative comics while never repeating themselves. Shaw's body of work includes Bottomless Belly Button, New School, and the new Blurry, while Davis's comics include Why Art?, The Hard Tomorrow, and You & A Bike & A Road. Moderator Rob Clough will join them in a discussion of their careers, their aesthetics, and their working methods.
Warts & All Memoir, 4:30-5:30 pm in the White Flint Amphitheater: There's a new wave of young cartoonists specializing in a style of memoir that's more closely aligned with work from the late 80s and early 90s than anything being published now. There's a bold and refreshing frankness in their work where nothing is off-limits but little is sensationalized. It is the matter-of-factness with which they approach raw and thorny subjects that makes their work so compelling. Moderator Alex Hoffman will be leading a discussion with some of the vanguard in this new movement: Angela Fanche (Me & Night), Allee Errico (Froggie World), Kayla E (Precious Rubbish), and Tara Booth (Processing).
Carousel: Comics Performances, 5:00-6:00 pm in the White Oak Room: Since 1997, R. Sikoryak has hosted Carousel, a series of comics readings and visual performances by cartoonists and theater artists, presented around the U.S. and Canada. This special edition of Carousel at SPX features exhibiting artists and guests, performing live. Join us for an audio-visual journey to the place where comics and performance collide! Featuring: Stan Mack (Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies), Bianca Xunise, (Punk Rock Karaoke), Amy Kurzweill (Artificial: A Love Story), Jeffrey Brown (Kids Are Still Weird), Joel Christian Gill (Fights), Shing Yin Khor (The Legend Of Auntie Po), and R. Sikoryak (Constitution Illustrated).
Sunday, September 15th:
The Pitfalls Of Time Travel, 1:00-2:00 pm in the White Flint Amphitheater: While time travel stories can be fun and sometimes confusing, things tend to get complicated when someone goes backward or forward in time in order to try to fix something. Inevitably, that makes things worse. It could mean you get trapped in feudal Japan, have an awkward encounter with a younger version of your own self, or even worse, see a bleak future. Moderator Warren Bernard will talk about the time travel tales from Carol Lay (My Time Machine), Jess Fink (We Can Fix It!), and Benjamin Wilgus (Chronin).
Altered Realities, 2:00-3:00 pm in the White Flint Amphitheater: Comics provide a unique way of looking at consensus reality in startlingly new and different ways. Whether used to represent the way mental illness can affect the way we perceive reality, how occult forces can warp perception, or how in the far future the ways in which surviving species might perceive humanity, the use of line and color offers a world of possibilities. Francesca Lyn will explore the topic with Peter Kuper (Ruins, Insectopolis), Laura Pérez (Ocultos, Totem), Christi Furnas (Crazy Like A Fox: Adventures In Schizophrenia), and Nate Powell (Fall Through, Swallow Me Whole).
Big Concepts In Non-Fiction, 3:30-4:30 pm in the White Oak Room: Non-fiction comics span from the familiar biographies to deeply thought-out ruminations on science and technology, to deep dives into history, politics, and philosophy. They allow for complex visual representations of ideas and a compression of data that can make difficult topics easier to understand. Moderator Jonathan Gray will explore these concepts with Glynnis Fawkes (1177 B.C.: A Graphic History Of The Year Civilization Collapsed {with Eric H. Cline}), Caitlin Cass (Suffrage Song), Bill Campbell (The Day The Klan Came To Town {with Bizhan Khodabandeh}), Dan Nott (Hidden Systems), and Nate Powell (March {with Andrew Aydin and John Lewis}).
SOLRADIO Live: Spotlight On Beth Hetland, 4:00-5:00 pm in the White Flint Amphitheater: SOLRADIO, the podcast of the comics criticism website SOLRAD.CO, proudly presents a deep dive into the Harvey Award-nominated debut graphic novel Tender by Beth Hetland. Beth will join moderator Alex Hoffman and critics Jules Bakes and Rob Clough as they explore the themes and imagery of her harrowing book.
