This happened on Saturday the 28th of January at the Seattle Design Center, which happens to be two blocks away from my house, so I had to attend. I’m pretty glad that I did.
The panel well-represented the different classes of cartoonist: Mark Monlux the current SPGA/Seattle Chapter Ethics Chair and well-established designer who studies sales of books at conventions in order to best choose design elements of his own books before printing, expert in all things copyright and trademark; Megan Kelso an indy creator, former self-publisher, who makes personal comics in a literary tradition, once-contracted by the New York Times as a staff cartoonist; a “big two” (Marvel & DC) professional artist (snarky and self-effacing), Matthew Southworth who straddles the chasm between drawing the Spidermans of the industry and his personal work; Emi Lenox, the young ingénue, [I recently realized that this word could also mean an art-less and naive young woman, and this is not the sense I meant: Emi, if you ever read this, I apologize if that’s what you took from it. I meant to express how you were new on the comics scene and you have a genius for it. My bad — Fort] social-media-maven who stumbled into her first publishing deal; the charmingly geeky, comic-book-guy writer, Brandon Jerwa, with an impressive professional résumé of licensed products and an official comics ambassadorship to Algiers; lastly, the owner of the number one independent/artsy comics publishing outfit in the United States, Kim Thompson of Fantagraphics.
There were about 45 attendees and I think that’s a fairly excellent turnout for such a panel. Most impressive was that the audience was pretty much 50/50 in male/female ratio. That tells me that the proponents of comics are making progress at expanding readership.
The one main point I walked out of the room with came from Megan Kelso, though it was expounded upon by most of the panel: participate in some manner, participate interpersonally. Join groups and forums, attend conventions, post comments on review websites, and promote, promote, promote: not just my work, but all of comicdom. Spreading the word helps us all.
Our problem, I’m sure this is a widely spread problem among sequestered artists and writers, is that we focus so intently on how to be productive, we develop poorly at self-promotion. I’d hazard the assumption that most artists are introverted by their histories and, hence, even further behind in our networking abilities.
So, I walked out onto Orcas Street with the word “participate” floating in a thought bubble over my head. And I realized that what I want is respect. I think my work if pretty effing good and it deserves to find its audience. Self-respect demands that I present what I’ve done. Maybe it’s not your cup of nutritious broth, but I’m going to start ladling it out, one mug at a time, all over town.
So, in line with this commitment, I present to you my website, and my most recent work of which I am most proud I Quit my 30-page, page-a-day, improv comic about quitting smoking. If I may toot my own horn: this comic is being circulated in the office of the WA State Quit Line, and used by a Seattle-area therapist to help his chemically dependent patients. Enjoy!
Read comics!
Fort Dudak
8 replies on “Seattle Graphic Artists’ Guild Panel: The Graphic Novel”
Dude!
Thanks for the great comments. A few corrections:
The president of the Graphic Artists Guild (Nationally) is Haydn Adams.
The president of The SPGA/Seattle Chapter (Locally) is Sara Chapman.
My role for the SPGA/Seattle Chapter is Ethics Chair. I answer questions regarding contracts, copyright and business practices.
Many thanks for a great review of the event.
Mark Monlux
Thanks for your comment and corrections. I apologize for my error and will edit my posting.
Thank you, again, for moderating the panel.
-F
I certainly wish I could have attended. I went to the first event last year and was blissed out over all the trenchant info that poured out of it. I agree with the take-away message. Produce, produce, produce, but then MARKET IT! If no one knows of your work it’s as if you never did it! I’m working up “Blender”s plan right now and hope to debut some of it at ECCC (table M-01)
Good luck with your work. Maybe all the different states’ and cities’ and nonprofits’ antismoking campaigns can use your book.
Do you have a web presence for Blender?
I had a certain misgivings about attending this panel, and I’m pleased that for the most part those fears weren’t realized. I wasn’t able to stay for the whole discussion, but the biggest message I got was:
Success comes from years of dedication or luck. In either case, you simply have to sit down and do the work. Write, draw, write/draw, and do it to the best of YOUR ability. But at the end of the day, there is no super-secret to success aside from getting it done.
It’s interesting to me, this idea of doing ‘the best of your ability.’ I find that I always struggle between doing my best and doing it faster. I think it was Matt Southworth who made a strong point about producing as fast as you can. I think that producing routinely is a key to successful self-promotion.
Thanks for your comments, Larry and Jon.
Jon – you are part of the Capital Hill Comics Meetup, yeah? Good stuff happening with them?
-F
Like someone else said, I think “I Quit” should be sent off to the various stop smoking programs around the country, accompanied by an order form to purchase additional quantities. I also think that this version should be, well, PG. I don’t see anything wrong with self-censorship in order to reach a targeted audience.
In the same way that our political candidates often geld themselves before the media? I’ll do that for a dollar!
Seriously, good point. I’ve already culled some too-revealing pages from the version on my website, I can chop more.