Comic Youth

HAPPY FACES for everyone (almost). Unlike the travel tortures which plagued our desert roaming  panel wrangler, we got to White River Junction in near record time (the actual record was so illegal, a certain Acre had to carry around a conviction stub for a seven year probation for a “Display of Speed” in order to skip out on a trip to the hoosegow). There was a goodie bag of locally rendered treats waiting for us at the Hotel Coolidge, including both comics and comestibles. Before retiring in nervous anticipation of a day and night of gourmet portfolio perusing, we made a booze-and-stuffed-fig run at Elixir. WRJ may seem to be the middle of Who Gives a Fuck Nowhere, but it’s closer to Hicksville plus foodies, which is plenty reason to make the trip. Throw in some good lovin’ and there’d be no reason to leave.

– The fairly nebulous subject of the digital future of comics lead to a fairly nebulous discussion, in no way the fault of our illustrious moderator. As an agent, Bernadette seemed frustrated that digital and print rights were typically stitched into the same agreements. As a publisher, Charlie voiced his frustration in acquiring those rights only to sit on them. He was quick to point out that the entirety of Wimpy Kid is online for free right now and hasn’t hurt its sales, which are in the territory of eleventy billion. As for us, we have a plan, so there’s actually a reason we want those digital rights. There’s a lot of development time and money that goes into making something cool that works for everyone, so be patient. It’ll happen sooner than you’d think.

– There’s one question we always get when the subject comes up and that’s whether or not there will be print in the future. The answer is yes. A rather large yes in the case of comics. You can look at the attention we get from printers as a solid indicator of this. They know that when it comes to comic books, as in things with a spine, the object is way more important than it is maybe anywhere else.

– We really only got in trouble when it came time to talk about submissions. Charlie was handed Wimpy Kid at a con. We hate being handed stuff at shows. If you can’t argue with success, then Charlie is absolutely right. In any case, at shows we’re working the table or we’re shopping, so we still don’t like it. Them’s the rules, for us. For further clarification, see here.

Fig. 1. Barry and Leon at the CCS Industry Day panel by T. Spurgeon and Lena H. Chandhok.

Overall, it was not a doom and gloom panel discussion, despite all the uncertainty in the future of comic shops and digital books. This was a big relief for us, considering the audience. When you have the hardest working students of the form staring at you, it’s clear from their looks and questions that they worry about what it will mean to go pro and be a cartoonist, whether or not there will be an industry waiting for them when they’re forced out of the nest.

It has not been the best of times for the world and comics is not immune to this stuff. However, everybody in that room was rightfully confident that things are turning around. Cartoonists and their agents and publishers, at this point in time, have to do everything. Spurgeon only said the word “solution” once, thankfully. There is no solution. There’s print, there’s digital, the direct market, the indie stores, the cons, Tony Shenton, Baker and Taylor, direct sales, etc. We can ignore any one of them at our peril. It’s all or nothing. Isn’t all more appealing?

Without getting into the nitty gritty of the portfolio reviews, there are a few things worth sharing with the world. CCS is very, very good at prepping students to tell stories. We’ve seen what other schools produce in this regard and CCS is way in the lead. There were wildly varying levels of technique in every other regard, as to be expected. There were exceptions, but lettering was more often a weak point. We agree that it’s the most annoying thing in the world for a cartoonist to work on, but everyone has to practice their free throws if they want to be an All-Star. Overall, it’s a deep couple of classes they have up there at the moment. If you CCS gals and guys are reading this, we meant it when we said we wanted to see what you do next.

Speaking of what’s next, there were a half dozen grads up there printing stuff for that MoCCA show this weekend. José-Luis Olivares and Melissa Mendes had their Kids anthology on the racks. A new Sundays anthology was in the making from editor Chuck Forsman, who has, even at a glance, clearly outdone the previous Sundays anthologies, which is saying something. It looks fantastic; we will be the first in line. Of course, our guy Joe Lambert was unpacking his copies of the Acres’ very own I Will Bite You! and Sean Ford did actually get that last issue of Only Skin done. Just for laughs, all of these guys will be sharing a row of tables at MoCCA with us. What a coincidence!

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

• Secret Acres visits the Center for Cartoon Studies « …….. LIGHT RIOT - 06. Apr, 2011

  […] Secret Acres visits the Center for Cartoon Studies […]

Leave a Comment