Recap Recap
Okay, that covers the happenings at the SDCC Webcomics School panels; I’m thrilled by the positive reaction they’ve gotten so far. Here’s what’s going to happen with them:
- Your suggestions — what did you find missing from the discussions? What topics do you think would make for a good set of lessons about how to do webcomics?
- Ask the experts — finding out from people who do webcomics well what lessons they want to convey and fleshing out these session notes with futher content; also, asking the participants to list out any topics that they wanted to get to during the sessions but didn’t.
- Ruthless editing — having a narrative of the sessions is nice, but it doesn’t make for a good teaching/research tool; we’ll deal with some of the overlap, expand and trim as needed, and generally turn them into something a little more readable.
- Permanent home — they will be placed here at Fleen as a permanent resource. A free Fleen t-shirt¹ to whoever comes up with a really good name for these lessons.
- Planning for next year — this was the second SDCC with a webcomics curriculum, and maybe it’s time to add some 200-level courses. Start brainstorming and let’s get a discussion going about what you’d like to see covered next year, and who you want on the panels. I don’t have anything to do with organizing these things, but we can use this forum as a feedback mechanism.
I’d like to take this time to publicly thank all of the panelists: Dave Kellett, Jon Rosenberg, Brian Fies, Phil Foglio, R Stevens, Kristofer Straub, Scott Kurtz, Mike Krahulik, Jerry Holkins, Robert Khoo, Howard Tayler, Jennie Breeden, and Phillip Karlsson, for all their expertise. Between them, I think you’re looking at about a century of direct cartooning and webcomics experience.
Extra big thanks to Bill Barnes for his moderation and direction of the panels. He was also largely responsible for putting them together, so if you liked ’em, be sure to thank him.
Finally, a request for everybody reading this: if you attended one of these sessions, if you wanted to attend but couldn’t, and especially if you lined up but didn’t get in, please contact the organizers of SDCC and let them know what sort of demand there is for this kind of panel. Be polite, but let them know, in Krahulik’s words, “that webcomics are kind of a big deal now.”
Back to regular stuff next week; look for book reviews and whatever happens on the day. Thank you, and drive safely.
¹ Note: Fleen t-shirts do not actually exist.
It is interesting that one of the bigger lessons people seem to be taking away from these sessions is that merchandise sells better when it doesn’t have much to do with comics. In short: merchandising works best if it is a separate “real job”.
Of course, creating t-shirts, etc., is a chance to be creative in another venue, and as Straub noted in WC102, that may bring in other readers. So it’s not as separate a real job as say, working at a gas station.
Fleen t-shirts do not actually exist.
And why the hell not, may I ask?
By Michael Kinyon on 07.28.06 1:31 pm
Gary,
are you the guy I met at the panel that night from Fleen when we were sitting with Dave Kellett and Bill?
Email me. I can’t find your god damn email on this site anywhere.
By Da Kurtz on 07.28.06 2:04 pm
Gary can be found 24/7 at gary [ @ ] fleen [ . ] com .
(That’s 24 seconds per minute, 7 minutes per day.)
(edited by phillip to try and make it a little harder for spammers to grab Gary’s email address.)
By Michael Kinyon on 07.28.06 2:18 pm
Oops, right, sorry ’bout that, chief.
By Michael Kinyon on 07.28.06 2:27 pm
educomication
…and I would enjoy a fleen t-shirt regardless of their non-existence
By robert anke on 07.31.06 3:42 am
The above comments are owned by whoever posted them. The staff of Fleen are not responsible for them in any way.