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.