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
