Laydeez do Comics

This week, the monthly evening gathering of admirers of female comic makers in London was bustling with new faces and regulars sharing ideas and recommendations.

This is a networking event, as well as an educational session, so I met lots of cool people.The girl drawing in the photo is Catari, an American student in London, on her way to NY soon. I liked seeing her drawings about the evening spread across an old book throughout the session. She knew her stuff about graphic novels, and she seemed pretty determined to learn well, so I’m sure we’ll be coming across her own graphic novels in the near future.

I also had a nice chat with Paul Shinn, whose blog is full of fun pictures. He is in the enviable position of starting a career as a freelance illustrator. I haven’t been to Camberwell (college of art), where Paul did his MA in illustration last year, but I have the privilege of knowing Mary Kuper, who teaches peripatetically there, and I love her! She’s very inspiring. So is Paul, full of enthusiasm! So there’s more potential to look forward to seeing published in the future.

Dan Berry from TheComicsBureau.co.uk runs the first BA in Graphic Novels in the UK. He was busy writing and drawing all night, and I saw some sketches he did that were really amusing takes on the presentations, so I’m looking forward to seeing more soon.

Next person I had the privilege to hear was Paul Gravett, whose online presence speaks for itself, I don’t need to give you the link. He’s an authority in the field of illustrated texts (that’s one way of describing it all) and offered some great suggestions that are now on my even longer list of books to read.

The two main ones are ‘Kari’ (shown here) by Amruta Patil and ‘Funhome’, by Alison Bechdel.

Our French guest Jean-Paul made some very insightful observations on this last book. He’s looked closely at the literary component as well as the images, and I was fascinated by his critique.

The two speakers of the evening, Kiriko Kubo and Sarah Zaidan brought a multicultural feel to this session, showing us their illustrated idiosincracies about geographical areas (Japan, and Savannah, Georgia). This is a large area of research in itself, (e.g. Dorren Massey) and it was good to look at something more localised and less laden with heavy-duty heart-wrenching tragedy. Those of you who know me know that I love a good bit of existential pathos, but a bit of superficial couch travelling is as good for the soul as any intense sharing of the human dramas!

#Graphicnovels #Illustration #WomenArtists #Comics #Sequentialart