Timing is everything, and for this Comics Academe, I wanted to share another type of Comics Academe submission: Con Diaries. Just like our WWAC con diaries, Comics Academe con diaries are a way for contributors to share their experiences when attending conventions that are organized by academic organizations in comics studies — like ICAF or CSS — or the academic at education tracks found at larger conventions like ECCC and SDCC.
WWAC contributor Anna Peppard just announced that TCAF will be adding its own comics symposium as well (and the CPF is open!). The symposium occurred on Saturday, February 26th, one day after Comics Academe was slated to be posted, but rather than wait another month, I’m posting it now while the event is still fresh.
The Symposium on Comic Arts held on Saturday, February 26th had only six panels in total, plus a networking event in the evening (on Eastern time…which I’ll address later). The event was open to all who purchased a ticket and was Kickstarted by Ramon Gil and The Comic Arts Workshop. I learned about the symposium through social media and was curious enough about the organization to purchase a ticket, even though I only knew one of the speakers (Nick Sousanis). The Comic Arts Workshop is an online community whose primary demographic is people wanting to “break in” to comics as a creator. Membership in the community is currently closed, but this event seems representative of the kinds of guest speakers the workshop hosts.
In the introduction to the first panel, organizer and educator Ramon Gil said that this is the first symposium the Comic Arts Workshop has put on, and it’s a credit to him and the other people involved that the event went as smoothly as it did. The format was typical of academic conferences in that the speakers made 15-20 minute presentations, which was then followed by a short Q & A session. The major difference between this event and others I have attended is that this event was Zoom-free. All of the sessions took place on YouTube and utilized YouTube’s live chat feature, which was new to me, but surprisingly pleasant and had some cool features that Zoom does not have — like the ability to share user questions on the main screen.
The use of YouTube also allowed everyone to see how many people were viewing the event at any time, and I kept a watchful eye on the watcher count throughout the sessions, which ranged between 18 to 23. But while some people (including myself) attended every session, there was no way for participants to see who was there at the event if they did not speak up in the live chat, so there’s no way for me to tell how many people attended the event overall, compared to how many purchased tickets either through the Kickstarter or online. But as someone who has presented at an 8 a.m. conference slot to an audience of zero people, I think the conference was highly successful–even if it did start at 7 a.m. for those of us on the west coast.
7 a.m.: THE QUESTION OF UNIONIZATION with Regine Sawyer
Waking up before 7 a.m. on a Saturday to attend a conference is a particular brand of misery that I haven’t subjected myself to at a long time, and I was only able to make myself do it by watching from the comfort of my bed, and I was rewarded with an extremely engaging presentation. Sawyer is a comics creator and the founder of the Women in Comics Collective, and as someone working in the industry, she has a vested interest in unionization, and that makes what she has to say carry extra weight. Sawyer concisely waded through the history of comics unions and guilds, beginning with the Comic Book Creators Guild that was founded in 1978 (by a group that included Chris Claremont and Neal Adams), and guided the audience through the legal and legislative barriers that are preventing unionization for comics freelancers today.
The mic drop moment of the presentation for me was when Sawyer showed the Comic Book Creators Guild document that contained their recommended payment rates.
$300 Art Work, per page
$100 Script, per page
$40 Lettering, per page
$70 Coloring, per page
This was 1978. When Sawyer adjusted the rates 3.6% to account for inflation, the numbers are:
$1080 Art Work, per page
$360 Script, per page
$144 Lettering, per page
$252 Lettering, per page
She then juxtaposed these rates next to the current rates (based on data collected in 2017) creators are collecting from DC and Marvel, it’s quite shocking.
Writers $75-100 per page
Pencils $155-200 per page
Inks $100-175 per page
Colors $75-100 per page
Letterers $35-50 per page
There’s really not anything that needs to be said, except that comics creators have always been in agreement that they should be paid a lot more. Negotiating rates is something that creators now, in absence of a guild or union, are increasingly turning to agents to do. But, as Sawyer pointed out, not everyone can afford an agent, or even knows how to get an agent to represent them, and the ability to unionize as contracted employees/freelancers — like rideshare contracted drivers from Uber and Lyft — would be the best path going forward.
8 a.m.: PRODUCT AND PROCESS with Tom Hart
This session was the biggest surprise of the day for me. I had never heard of Tom Hart or the Sequential Artist Workshop (SAW), but this presentation impressed me. One of the better-attended panels of the day (whether due to the time slot or attendees’ interest), Hart spoke from the heart about what making comics is all about: human connection.
He had several quotable lines, but the one that stuck with me is his observation that “students come in thinking what they can make, and not about who they can be.” The idea that comics should be a reflection of who you are and what you value isn’t new, but what makes Hart’s approach to this cliche different is his assertion that this isn’t about making memoir comics, or thinking through comics. To make his point, Hart shared stories about comics creators who work professionally in comics, and how their paths differed because of the choices they made that are true to themselves. One artist’s style was inspired by the masters of illustration, especially of the natural world, and the tradition of ink and brush. Another creator works in a sketchy pencil style, purposefully rough and imperfect. Another creator realized that drawing comics didn’t make them happy at all, and they moved from drawing comics to writing comics.
Hart ended his session with some thoughts about AI, and art created by AI. He poses the question that, if AI can draw whatever you want, in whatever style you request, how does this change the role of the comic artist? For Hart, it doesn’t change it at all, because comics isn’t about the product, it’s about the process, and the human connection to the comics history, traditions, and stories. But most importantly, creators create for themselves and each other, to be connected to something and someone.
9 a.m.: CENSORSHIP IN COMICS with Gina Gagliano
Of all the presentations given at the symposium, this one felt like the one that didn’t quite fit, and I’m not entirely sure why. Gagliano spoke passionately about issues of censorship and book banning, and a call for political action, but while any opportunity is a good opportunity to talk about local politics and the importance of school district elections, the audience for this symposium was supposed to be people who want to make comics, and so I felt a little confused about what the message or meaning of this session was supposed to be. In the Q&A session that followed someone asked if this current situation in the U.S. meant that comics publishers might be hesitant to publish books that are created by people targeted for book banning (BIPOC and LGBTQIA) or about topics that are deemed too dangerous for K-12 readers (like racism, or being queer). Gagliano was pretty unequivocal in her response that it didn’t make a difference, which seems reassuring to those wanting to be published, but the session didn’t really make an impact overall.
10 a.m.: GENRE AND DEMOGRAPHIC SHIFTS with Anthony Marques
This presentation was a pre-taped interview, and it was a nice change of pace and format after three pre-taped conversations. Marques is president and owner of the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, which I had never heard of before, and was fascinated to learn about. Most of the interview was focused on the degree and summer intensive programs that the school offers and the process for acceptance, which includes a portfolio review. Marques, who became president right before the pandemic started, also discussed the way the school quickly shifted to prioritize online education in a number of ways, which has resulted in not only a YouTube channel with tutorials (including some by Kubert himself) but a fully online degree program.
As promised by the title, the shifting demographics of its student body were mentioned, along with the way the curriculum has developed to include new genres, such as webcomics. Another insight that Marques talked about was how the school provides networking opportunities as a way to support students in the freelance, gig economy nature of working in comics, but that in a world where there are new publishers appearing daily, new platforms for webcomics, and crowdfunding opportunities, networking is not the only route that their graduates can take to working in comics.
11 a.m.: THE CURRENT STATE AND FUTURE OF COMICS CROWDFUNDING with Oriana Leckert
Whether on purpose or accidentally, the segue from Marques’ presentation to Leckert’s was a continuation of the discussion on the changing landscape of the comics industry. Leckert opted to not pre-record her presentation, but it still felt pre-taped in that it was focused on one thing and one thing only: Kickstarter. While Leckert covered a broad range of topics such as Kickstarter’s success, and how to make a successful Kickstarter, from the title of the presentation, I had expected something a little more general about the nature of crowdfunding. I was disappointed. Leckert began her talk by saying how much money comics Kickstarters have made and then proceeded to give advice on how to make a successful Kickstarter, and that was pretty much it.
The main reason I went to this presentation was to ask Leckert about the alleged moves that Kickstarter is making in answer to creators who are leaving the platform due to the crytpo debacle, and I did.
Lecker’s answer was predictable, but it seemed like she hadn’t anticipated being asked about it. Leckert began by stating that she hasn’t thought through how to talk about this publically, but she admitted that it’s the #1 question she’s been getting from creators since December. She also admitted that the announcement was rolled out prematurely before shifting to the familiar company line that Kickstarter is an ethical company that wants to do things creatively in a new space but also be environmentally conscious and they are exploring ways to do that. While disappointed by the familiar excuses, I appreciated the confirmation that this is an issue Kickstarter is getting pressed on, constantly, since the announcement. Let’s keep it going.
12 p.m.: THE ROLE OF COMICS IN EDUCATION with Nick Sousanis
The final presentation of the day was a live session from Nick Sousanis, who I have seen present before at other conferences like ICAF and SDCC, and have read a number of his articles and Twitter threads about comics as a way of thinking. Sousanis, as an academic, seemed to be a surprise to this audience of 20, who reacted with awe and approval in the chat to various slides and concepts.
Although I have heard Sousanis speak before, this particular talk was a really deep dive into what we learn in making comics, and the decisions that we make in communicating ideas in a way that is both sequential and spatial Sousanis is obsessed with the idea that comics are temporal and fixed — to the point that he admits that webcomics and the prospect of the infinite scroll aren’t interesting to him. He also mentioned the panels he hosts on his website about adapting comics for low-vision and blind readers, which is not a topic I have seen at industry presentations before.
The way that Sousanis talks about his teaching methods when it comes to craft is couched in terms of play and visual thinking. He quotes Canadian artist Seth that “Comics = poetry + graphic design” and while this is, on some level, technically different from the curriculums of the industry-oriented programs and schools I learned about today, it also feels aligned with what Tom Hart spoke about. Hart was not concerned with the style of the art or the medium or even if they made comics at all so long as the student was happy doing it. Similarly, Sousanis is not concerned with the quality of the art, but by the ideas that the creator is able to communicate through comics.
Seeing Sousanis engaging with this non-academic audience reminded me that this is one of the things that makes comics studies so different from something like film or television studies. In addition to the cross-pollination at events like SDCC or ECCC that have academic tracks at their otherwise fan-oriented conventions, this event was my opportunity to learn about comics educators who work at smaller schools and programs that are industry-oriented but still focused on teaching. While other disciplines may scoff at what K-12 or vocational training has to do with teaching comics, people in comics seem to be curious and surprised to learn about each other and each other’s approaches to teaching — and more importantly, they appreciate it and understand how they are connected to each other and can learn from each other.
While I objected to the early start time of this event, by the end of it, I felt renewed in my appreciation for comics educators and was reminded that we do what we do — for less money than we deserve — because we love comics.
