Comic-Con Report ’07

As ever, I had a great time at Comic-Con this year, seeing lots of friends and giving a few talks. My convention floor highlights were pretty subdued I think, as my favorite was perusing the gorgeous original Alphonse Mucha prints at the vintage art dealer. I would have liked to meander the hall a bit more, but having hip surgery two months ago took a little skip out of my step. Though, I did get to saunter about with my grandfather’s old pimp-like cane (the top unscrews to reveal a compass and a shaft for a flask!).

Inevitably at the Con I have some random encounters, especially since I’m originally from San Diego and have been at this Con in some professional capacity for 13 years now. Topping the list this year was a friend I’d lived with in Japan and hadn’t seen for six (!) years.

My panels seemed to have gone well too, and thanks go to everyone who turned out in attendance! You all are what make the experience a good one. The Comics and Education panel was fun, with a nicely vocal exchange between audience and presenters that made the discussion far more communal. I felt like my theory talk had a lot of good energy, largely drawing off the 100+ people who turned out. Durwin Talon’s presentation on color theory that immediately followed mine was fairly cool too.

A couple who heard my talk told me a fun story afterwards. They were next door at a workshop where the instructor said that layouts are read just like text, left-to-right and down, which they found to be a little boring. So, they came next door and heard me, where I presented my experimental data showing that people don’t just read comics left-to-right and down! Yay science!

In any case, for all you that missed it, I’m aiming to have the paper for this talk online in a month or so. Next on the docket I’ll be flying out to New Mexico to talk about visual grammar. I’ve heard they’ll be taping the talks, so an online lecture may be coming soon…

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