Universal Online Library

Google's hope to make one was struck down.  So-called "orphan" books -- those out of print with no ability to actually find the author and secure copyright -- languish, waiting to be put online.  I would love to see these up and searchable. 
 From the editorial in today's New York Times: "[Congress] almost passed a bill that would allow anybody to digitize orphan works without fear of being sued for copyright infringement as long as they proved that they had tried to find the rights’ holder. This would give all comers similar legal protection to that which Google got in its agreement.
Congress should approve this legislation. While it’s at it, it should consider promoting a nonprofit digital library, perhaps seeded with public dollars. The idea of a universal library available to all is too good to let go."

C2E2 2011 DAY THREE

 

Methods and Mayhem: Designing an Action Figure

This panel, led by Mattel (unsurprising that they described the manufacture of a He-Man character)  described what goes into the planning and creation of an action figure.  Works a bit like advertising.  Research and Development (the creative guys) float an idea.  They plan the articulation.  Then they manufacture it.  Everything is done by a human being wit a brush.  Must train everyone to consistent quality level.

Early Works of Jim Henson

Tale of Sand -- is an unmade film.  Is being adapted to a graphic novel.

Wants to honor Jim, inroduce Jim to this side of Jim.  Archaia comics has also done Return of the Dapper Men and Mouse Guard.  Working on prequels to Dark Crystal and Fraggle Rock.

Alexander the Grape -- Cute, unfinished cartoon.  

Time Piece -- 1964, (now quaint) rhythmic meditation on modern life with animated live action starring Henson himself.  Has been used in film schools.  Very clever, only spoken word: "help."

Ripples/Bufferin/Cities -- Raymond Scott music over experimental animation of live action.  3 films.

The Cube -- From NBC Experiment in Television.

This site has a nice examination of his experimental films.

Drawing Fire: Editorial Cartooning in a Partisan Age

Bruce Plante, Dick Locher, Rob Rogers, Scott Stantis discuss how editorial cartoonists fit in.  Phenomenal panel.

Point One:

Instant news and variety of platforms makes us seem maybe more partisan than we really are.

A terrific sense of humor and perspective (mostly lefty) from this panel of extremely talented characters in their own right. 

Scott Santis: Squashed poodle = cartooning excellence. 

Comics, Censorship & the Law

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund & The Freedom to Read Foundation.   Deborah Caldwell-Stone talks about how comics and places that provide them are under fire.

Ulysses and Headquarters Detective were the first challenged.  In the 40's, it was determined to be a case of free speech.  I blogged a bit about this and the big comic burning in my hometown, Binghamton NY last year.  1954, Comics Code Authority was voluntary self-censorship vs. government regulation or commercial boycotts.  The Supreme Court has defined 3 categories of speech not protected, obscenity (sex, not violence), harmful to minors, and child pornography (doesn't include virtual).  AKA the "Miller Test"

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund -- Initially never meant for kids (really more for GI's), after the code, comics were infantalized.  For the first time in 70's artsits attempt to adopt content for social relevance.  1970's, Marvel did a book on drug abuse & horror books made a comeback.  1966/7 underground comix Jack Jackson's (aka Jaxon) "God Nose" the opening salvo.  Crumb pushing a baby carriage of Zap #1 down Haight St.  Dennis Kitchen.  Kim Deitch,.  Art Speigelman.  A lot of individuals who had grown up on EC, which disappeared and they didn't know why.  Frankly addresed sex, violence, issues of the time in a full range of expression.

Zap #4 included Spain Rodriguez, S Clay Wilson, Crumb, many others.  Joe Blow was a satire of 50's society -- incestuous family.  Gross out sick humor.  Addressed that nuclear family may be a myth.  A bust in 1971 led to the first modern conviction for obscenity for comics.  This is the first time the Government actually steps in.  Makes underground comix collapse.  Conventions spring up.  With newsstands dying, mainstream comics need a place also.   Cerebus and Elfquest self-published...majors pick up.  1978-1986 brought along Alan Moore and Frank Miller.  1978 A Contract with God sets the tone for the Graphic Novel and more sophisticated contact.  Raw is started with Maus serialized here.  Adult comics fully come back.  Watchmen, Maus, and Love & Rockets, Omaha, Dark Knight Returns all in 1986.  Friendly Franks comic bookstore was busted and CBLDF was established to protect him.  They won. 

The Freedom to Read Foundation

Librarians and staff bring most challenges, surprisingly -- parents (60%) + community members + organized pressure groups as well.  Circ clerk will bring it to the director off the YA shelves, etc.

Challenges:
Central Linn, Oregon Bunny Suicides committee stuck down

Brooklyn, NY Tintin au Congo committee vaulted it for special permission.  Should they also have gotten rid of Huckleberry Finn?  Views of past illuminated.

Marshall, Missouri Blankets and Fun Home had a student complaint -- returned book to the shelf.

Nicholasville, KY League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Black Dossier library worker tried to check this out and keep it.  Library retained the book, but put it in new graphic novels section.  Director received death threats, told to leave office, etc, etc.

Kids' Costume Contest

Thanks to my c2e2 pal for being there with her daughter.  Made it possible for me to sit there and absorb the cuteness without feeling like a creepazoid.  Dozens of adorable costumes on parade; some, like the Flashes who tended to run in a huge circle, a karate demonstrating Superboy, and an endlessly somersaulting Iron Man, were a blur of action.  Others shyly waved, half-chicken dancing to that song that happened to be playing.  One toddler Wonder Woman was asleep on her daddy's shoulder.  The Savage Dragon, Iron Man, Wonder Woman, many Flashes (some female), Spiderman & Spidergirls, Green Lantern, Princess Peach & Mario, Captain America and The American Dream, a few totally fabricated from the imagination like "the Beating Light Girl," and on and on.  Just amazing.

Popped into a couple screenings...

Dungeon Crawl (pictured right) is a film that anyone can watch for free here.  It's about just what it sounds like it would be...

Evangelion 2.22 -- Mecha anime.  A lot more people in this screening.

Meet Jim Martin

Legend in the field described puppeteers as "immediate animators" who watched their creations on the monitor while working them, instantaneous.  He told his life's story.  Did a bunch of local stuff in Pittsburgh before landing at Mr. Rogers, which used jazz uniquely as a kids' show.  Then met some Sesame Street people.  George Pal, others (stop-action Hansel & Gretel is amazing).  Hearing him doing his Gary Gnu voice was a real thrill, Mark Hammill was the president of the GG fan club.  Then moved onto Captain Kangaroo for its last couple of years and did Mr. Spaghettio.  Did the pigs, chickens, and cows for Sesame Street and then a director on the show, for which he won an Emmy.
Bonus: Martin said Jim Henson's big puppeteering innovation was that he made the hand go out as the mouth was opening and closing; try jutting that thumb out and you can almost imagine the ping-pong eyeballs on top of your fingers.

C2E2 2011 DAY TWO

 c2e-(day)2!

Adaptation Issues Panel
Shakespeare, Jonah Hex, etc!
To see the guts of this program, click here.
Thor will take place in Asgard.
Superman seems like it will be terrible.
Adaptation adds Complexity -- Stephen King has famously said movies of his work are better.
Shakespeare is the opposite problem -- must takes some out.  Here's a blog posting about how graphic novels help in understanding Shakespeare.

Vertigo Panel
What's cooking in comics' "edgiest imprint" with Bill Willingham, Scott Snyder, Shelly Bond, Jill Thompson and others.
The Marvel Fear Itself panel was full.  No big.  Let's see what these cats who've been publishing since the days of Hellblazer and Sandman to Fables and DMZ 

Jill Thompson Delirium's Party in May, companion to the Little Endless Storybook, reprint due soon. 
Scott Snyder American Vampire, very young.  One to watch.
Bill Willingham Fables series on ABC not happening.  Another novel?  Maybe.

Time to run to the costume contest!  Videoed some of the characters.  Wow.  Speaking of which, the costume contest seems to be ongoing...
Other costumes I Have Simply Seen While Walking the Exhibitors' Floor:
Weapon X, Mario, Green Lantern, Pokemon (20's guy), Waldo (30's girl), Baby Superman, Sideburns Superman, Authentic Superman (waiting in DC line), goths of all kinds (lots of dead girls), anime/manga that I don't know, Scott Pilgrim's girlfriend, Cleavage displayed in: wonder woman, futureshock cowboy lady, bo peep, supergirl, powergirl (remember her?), Princess Leia (as enslaved by Jabba), countless characters I don't recognize, some maybe fashioned around the cleavage.  Ren fair people (often hard to tell from the countless Obi Wans (one was a male-female couple!)), every Star Wars character, The Joker: asian, black, white, tween versions, begoggled steampunk characters, Star Trek characters (many blue, red, and green, less yellow tunics and dresses).
I love seeing those in partial dress; heroes and villains alike caught in vulnerable "backstage moments" such as: Thor (in blue jeans w/hammer), helmetless Stormtrooper on a cellphone, just about anyone (from Spawn to The Riddler in mask and suit as if they're en route to a black tie event)...and the kid with the Spider Man costume and Lone Ranger mask about made my day.

Otherness in America
Description here.
We3 by Grant Morrison provides animals' perceptions (of time, especially) to show how they're different from ours.  Lots of POV shots from animals, asserts against our general "lesser-than" view of animals.

Christopher Deis
The Politics of Popular Culture -- the zeitgeist, the symbolic powers.  
Overlaps -- Comedy & satire, movies, TV, editorial cartoons.  SNL, Glenn Beck, 60 minutes, etc, etc.  
Vice versa -- Cesnorship, propaganda, social networking and "Jasmine Revolution," moral panics, style/fashion, music by people's movements (Black Freedom struggle)
Race -- A fiction, there is only 1 (human race).  Has been a central fissure, tells us who gets what.  Critical readings, becomes moral conversation rather than analyzing it.  "Floating Signifier" like class and gender, it is a stand-in for something else.  Conscious or subconscious.  Collective subconscious, stories work because of this.  The white racial frame, language we use around normality or "the universal."  A challenge, problem, opportunity, selecting the cases to discuss.
Social/political context -- The creator -- comic books & GN's as social texts -- the reader, how it is received.
Captain America -- embodies nostalgia, Americana, "political" subject matter (WW2, 9/11, Tea Party, etc.)  Race, politics and memory.  Burdens of history and representation (segregation, Tuskegee, eugenics), Questions of canon, narrative, aesthetics, Divergent responses among fans and critics. The Truth complicates the story with re-imagining the origin of Isiah Washington, the first man that the Capt. America serum was tested on.  Stan Lee called challengers racists.
Walking Dead -- Apocalyptic setting and the "new normal."  Humans vs. xombies.  Preexisting social and identity markers made irrelevant, kills those lines.  Dystopian possibilities.  The relationship between national and personal trauma.  A metaphor for national trauma--hypervisiblity of race & gender.  
Fables -- Mythical ch's set in the real world.  Politics, immigration, assimilation, conflict, human drama.  Initially Eurocentric.  Now introducing Arabian Nights.  The corrective: a great opportunity for rich story-telling.  
Future Directions -- New York as a diasporic society of many cultures.  Specfic ch's: John Henry, the "bluesman," the Maroon King, Stagolee, Uncle Remus, Briar Fox, Shango, Obeah Man, etc.  GN as a sociological and politcal text.  Interdisciplanry conversation.  Academics + audences + creators working together.
Casting Films -- Donald Glover as Spiderman.  Asgard with people of color.  Moving towards multiculturalism away from the canon (which is the group in power).  James Bond can't be black because he's British.  Veerhoven's work is far-right (Starship Troopers, Robcop).  Green Lantern is black in print, not in the film.

Representing Science and Medicine in Comics
Stories optimize scarring.  Comics deliver stories in a unique way.  The gutter space, the making of boxes, the time it takes to represent visually what one's trying to convey.  Helps to process trauma, bearing witness to suffering for practitioners.  But also for patients.  Uses the whole brain.
Comics & Medicine conference at Northwest--Scott McCloud, David Small will be appearing.
Viruses are drawn as heroes.  Scientists are also drawn as heroes.  Great way to get kids into science.  Visual learners.  Differences in learning styles.  After 5th grade, text and image can still be married.  Note: the anatomy coloring book.  Essential for med school.

C2E2 2011 DAY ONE

DAY ONE...
I am posting from C2E2 while watching Hero Tales, a pretty-good anime due out soon.  Good enough to select for the library?  Maybe.  Popular enough, no.  But here's the thing, I am posting, while researching pop culture, which I am absolutely suffused in.  Costumes everywhere.  Allegiance-defining T-Shirts.  A wide swath of incredibly interesting people with equally diverse interests.  Animation, comics, Japanamania, TV shows, anything with a (potential or actual) cult following is presented here.

What did I do today?  Learned about the world's largest publicly-accessible comic library, Toby Greenwalt's great work in Skokie to not only involve patrons with comics, but to get out to the community as a whole.  This is obviously a passion of his and I intend to follow up on a lot of the great ideas he had.  A black comix panel celebrated the life of Dwayne McDuffie.  It was so full that I had to type it from the top of a garbage can. 

From the Windy City Jedis (lightsaber choreography and stage fighting!) to the costume contest (Skeletor was late), I also just observed, awe-struck at the amazing creativity people throw into things they are obviously passionate about.  At once complicatedly sophisticated and sweetly naive.


Reading Comic Books in College: Using Michigan State University’s Comic Art Collection for Research and Teaching

Library (in Basement):

Stated Goal – To have every American comic book every published, has over 200K.  Largest publicly-accessible collection in the world.  As well as fanzines.  Full text books trumps reprints due to additional content, including ads, letters column, etc, etc.  Meant to be accessed and used.  Teens come in; fully open to the public.  Doesn't include much art, mostly just the comics and books.  Comics must be read in reading room, cannot be browsed.  Monitored area ensures books stay in good shape.  Scan or reprint older books to preserve them.

The Comic Arts Collection @ MSU

Over 1000 books of Newspaper strips.  From 1935 forward, largest cataloged collection in US.  Many other countries, languages.  

MSU Hosts Comics Forum every year.  To promote comics research and expose the nexus of both comics study and historical study of comics and popular culture.  Site here.  I want to go to here.  The comic shop across the street stocks books for classes and takes part in this.

Ways of Teaching    

Historical Analysis -- Compare early Superman to current Superman book.  Relate historical context.

J Anthony Blair -- Comics, GN's,, video games are very easy for students to relate to and grasp.  Visual Rhetoric: arguments can be communicated in the traditional sense visually. 

David Birdsell & Leo Groarke -- Toward a Theory of Visual Argument: images can sufficiently carry meaning and words have their limitations.

Kathleen Blake Yancey -- "Delivering College Composition: A Vocabulary for Discussion."  The essay may be dead, since so little of it is done post-school.  Most write memos and formal technical reports.  How to manipulate fonts, include visuals, enter settings, may be more crucial.  Repurposing writing.  Composing rather than writing. 

Also: multimedia presentations, online writing, with a solid foundation of essay mechanics.  But can they make and upload a Youtube documentary?  They should in order to be successful in the modern world.

Why Comics? -- Watchmen & Sin City are important cultural artifacts.  They are suited to analysis rather than the reviews students may be tempted to write.  But they are easy to teach because:

They are accessible

They are fun (students put in energy)

They come in with knowledge of comics/films/games

Help illustrate (literally) thetorical concepts

Gives students experience analyzing media, crucial to looking at the world w/critical eye.

Heralds of Change: Comic Books, Libraries, and Innovation

Toby Greenwalt, Skokie PL Virtual Services Coordinator http://www.theanalogdivide.com/

Slides from the presentation here

 

Not a lot of popular books have a lot in common.  GN's have less shelf space, budget, but circulate more than any other genre once teen is added to adult.

We can use the same methods to hook people on services.  Building credibility.

Hanging out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out, book.  IMLS 21st Century Skills.  Libraries and Transliteracy.   Danah Boyd's blog.  ALA Graphic Interest Group. 

Hanging Out

A safe space for users.  As the get more comfortable, they approach us, and we can sell them on other programs and services.  Can do this virtually as well--Facebook, etc.

Messing Around

We surprise people as doing what we do best.  Going out there and being nerds.  

Setting up RSS feeds per question type and making those feeds go in a certain radius area.

Willingness to experiment -- making sure everything is mobile-friendly.  Can have a scavenger hunt through foursquare with prizes like bags, free pizza, etc.  Engendering discovery & reward.  Do the same thing with hiding QR codes.

Geeking Out

Chris Ware's cutouts.  Wednesday Comics allowed current authors to do old strips.  Seth's Dominion City model.  Best, though to look at making patrons create their own comics.  NANOWRIMO, 24 hour comics day.  Drawing Day 2011.

Skokie Stories -- is like Story corps.  2 people in community with shared connection to interview each other.  Archive in partnership with Historical society.

May Be Doing Allready -- People breakdancing in library parking lot.  14 year old kid who built an iPad app.  Capture what's happening.  Capitalize on it.

Digital Media Lab -- Give patrons the space to do this.  CPL's new media space.  Built from book's main ideas--hanging, messing, and geeking...

Use Gimp, Audacity, Scratch.  Recording equipment is cheap.

Collect -- After created also collect the info, innovations, culture, content!

We are one of the only tech centers for people, and so much more.  Brand recognition works against us, OCLC said 80% of teens think "books" and only books when they think of us.  We should refocus on "story" rather than books.  We are being cut left and right.  This is our way to establish credibility.  We need to get people to geek out about the library.

Black Comix: African American Comics Art and Culture
This panel had a conversation, mostly about Dwayne McDuffie.

Milestone Comics -- DC African American imprint has been putting out work since the nineties.  Still going in a different form.  Not the failed experiment it's often referred to as.  Comics failed Milestone, not vice-versa.  The same way they failed women.


Dwayne McDuffie -- RIP for this major artist, he made John Stewart, Luke Cage, Black Panther possible to be huge. 


Image/Tribe -- Told blacks that they could make books even more like themselves.

Library Unions!

This article by a Milwaukee librarian underscores how essential unionizing can be for librarians.  Unlike the teachers, though, we do not have a national union.  I wonder if an organization like that could help further professionalize and standardize our profession, setting salary levels, fighting for our rights, it seems like it could only be a good thing. 

From the author: "Silent acquiescence to the idea we are valueless to our communities will hurt us forever."  Amen.