Understanding Comics

Jon Weddleton (owner of Bosco's), Sky McCloud, Scott McCloud

Tonight at the Loussac Library, Scott McCloud (writer of Understanding Comics and Making Comics) made a presentation about comics and their relevance as an art form, and about how exactly comics are put together and where they are going in the future. It was a very amusing and informative evening, especially for an intense fan of comics such as myself. Of course, it was also interesting to me as more of an expansion of my mind of ways to see comics and the intention of certain things within them. For myself, it was enlightening, for others it may have even made the medium acceptable to perhaps delve into if they haven't given it a chance quite yet.

The evening began with Jon Weddleton, owner of local comic store Bosco's (essentially the only game in town REALLY when it comes to comics, cards, and other things that are ridiculously nerdy of that sort), speaking about the ascension of comic books from something people would read and discard back in the Golden and Silver Ages of the medium, to the spectator heavy era of the 90's that almost destroyed the industry, and to now, where the medium is featuring unbelievable growth in sales and in creativity. This is an industry that inspired the number one movie of the year, spawned last year's top book of the year according to Time Magazine, and has created numerous award winners, including early 90's Pulitzer Prize winner Maus. Most people are not aware of this, they just brush it off as child's play and something that does not have any real value. Weddleton really let people know that they are more relevant than they are given credit for, and even though he felt like a poser when speaking about them (as per usual), the man is as important as anyone in the entire state of Alaska when it comes to comics.

After that, Scott McCloud's daughter Sky took over and took us a through a ridiculously amusing presentation about their current road trip that is taking them across the country, called the Making Comics Fifty State Tour. It was remarkably entertaining, and her and her sister Winter (she of the Winterviews that are posted on McCloud's website) provided some of the most entertaining parts of the evening.

After that, she introduced her father Scott, who took us through a 700 slide presentation taking us through the history of himself, the industry, the different influences in comics today, and even showing us a few pages of one of his current favorites on the market today. He told the crowd about some very interesting and seemingly important comics that are made today, such as Persepolis, a story of life in Iran from the point of view of a little girl. This graphic novel is required reading at the United States Naval Academy. Impressive! His history was extremely interesting, and sometimes very entertaining. He told us of his father who was amazingly impressive himself. This is a man who was so handy that when going through the Army's physical examination managed to last three whole hours before they realized he was quite literally blind. I'm not sure if that is sad for the Army or very impressive for McCloud's father. Either way, it was a fun little story.

Another really interesting thing about him (at least to me) is that one of his best friends when he was younger, whom he met through his interest in Chess, was Kurt Busiek. For you folks out there who are uneducated in the world of comics, Kurt Busiek is an extremely well respected creator who wrote Marvels and is the creator and writer of the entirety of Astro City. He actually was good friends with him, and three people who eventually became children's book artists, so this place he was from apparently was the nexis of the universe in terms of artistic and writing talent. In fact, Busiek was the person who got him into comics and essentially was a very important person in the crafting of who McCloud is today.

There were a lot of interesting things in the presentation, but he's touring the country. Instead of reading me talk about this, go see him yourself when he comes near. He's really quite amazing and I think he could convert most any non-comic reader into really respecting what the medium has to offer. He is respectful of the past of the industry, while being a big time forward thinker and one of the biggest proponents of digital and web comics. As a traditionalist who believes that comics should eternally be printed, I disagree with him, but I understand his point and certainly respect it.