Upcoming Events
But first, a quick note. In my discussion Al’Rashad yesterday, I mentioned author Chris Bird a good deal, and did not give enough credit to the artist, Davinder Brar; Bird has pointed out my omission. In my defense, it’s much easier to find information on Davinder Brar, pharmaceutical executive, than it is to find Davinder Brar, comics artist. It appears that Brar’s work is mostly available at his deviantART account, and that Al’Rashad may be his first publicly-discoverable comics work. In which case — holy crap, this is pretty accomplished stuff for what constitutes a rookie outing. Fleen regrets the oversight.
Various places you might want to go, starring various people you may be interested int:
- J Baird, having just passed the fourth anniversary of the Create A Comic Project, is busy putting polish on a presentation — South By Southwest Interactive 2011 have invited him for a solo talk in March on interactive comics and math education:
As a teaching tool, comics are inherently well suited for patterns, geometric shapes, and visual representations of data. They can be a form of stealth teaching — engaging students to think creatively about mathematics, helping instill intrinsic motivation and improving long-term retention…. Navigating the symbolic language of math is a known barrier for many students. Current research into how the brain translates concepts and similarities suggests that comics provide a pathway for alleviating this barrier through the very nature of being “sequential art.” By traversing through each of these stages, a holistic picture of comics’ place in the development of advanced math pedagogical techniques becomes clear.
Fascinating stuff. And before anybody in the back row starts snickering “pedgogical” refers to the study of teaching and the process of teaching. Perverts. But back to Austin; using the “webcomics” tag in the handy-dandy panel search tool doesn’t turn up any other presentations at SxSWI, but that hasn’t stopped Rosscott of The System from participating in a panel on image manipulation without Photoshop. Anybody else from the community going to be there that I missed?
- It’s sold out, but tonight is the Child’s Play Charity Dinner/Auction, when the cream of gamerdom gets all fancy-dressed and drops major bucks towards charity. Given that this year’s Child’s Play was up over US$750,000 a week ago, the total will in all likelihood eclipse a cool million by this time tomorrow, and almost certainly surpass last year’s US$1.2 million.
- Speaking of Austin, local comic shop Dragon’s Lair will be hosting Webcomics Rampage this weekend. Last year’s event got good reviews from the creators and fans who attended, and no reason to think that this year will be any different. The fun runs 10am to 7pm Saturday and Sunday, with a veritable plethora of webcomickers in attendance. If nothing else, you’ll have Randy Milholland and Danielle Corsetto in the same place, and that’s always good, wholesome fun.
- Advance planning: inspired by today’s opening of San Diego’s Exhibitor Room Requestarama, it looks like the next con after the Rampage is likely Arisia, in a month or so in Boston; Shaenon Garrity will be Webcomic Guest of Honor. Then I don’t think there’s much on deck until Em-City, with its numerous webcomicky guests and exhibitors. Enjoy the break, everybody; it might be cold, but at least it’s relaxing.
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