Talk talk talk… at ComicCon ’07

July 16, 2007 10:30 pm by Neil Cohn

Just like every year, I’ll be talking next week at ComicCon. This year I’ve got two appearances lined up (with a booksigning on Friday):

Thursday– 10:30-11:30 Comics Arts Conference Session #1: Comics in Educational Settings—Comics have long been stigmatized as a lesser medium of communication than text. However, for many years comics have been making inroads to classrooms as an effective medium for learning, from analyzing graphic novels as literature to using superheroes to teach philosophy and writing textbooks in the comic medium. Neil Cohn (Tufts University), Diana Green (Minneapolis College of Art & Design), Leonard Wong (Templeton Secondary School, Vancouver), and Danny Fingeroth (Disguised as Clark Kent) discuss the various roles comics and the comics medium can and do play in education. Room 30AB

And then my theory talk….

Friday– 2:00-3:30 Comics Arts Conference Session #8: Storytelling and Visual Language—Neil Cohn (Tufts University) reports the findings of a psychology experiment showing that readers navigate comic layouts by using systematic rules that rely on subtle cues of panel sizes and relationships while often defying the stereotypical Z-path, “left-to-right and down.”…Room 30AB

This one is actually just my talk on a bigger panel, but I’m actually really looking forward to it. I did this experiment from a booth at ComicCon a couple years ago, and I’m excited to have finally analyzed the data. I’ve actually got cold-hard numbers that hint at how people read comic page layouts, so the talk is going to be a fun one (as if they’re all not!). I’m still tinkering with the essay, but I hope to have it online not too far off.

Following this Friday talk I’ll be signing at the Comic Relief booth, hawking my usual wares and looking to engage in lively conversation. Hope to see you there!