Another night of intellectual, hilarious and informative talks on the art of comics. Bernard is the generous host who relaxes and charms his guests into pouring forth their knowledge and experience of this art form.
This time he began with a kamishibai story - Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir arguing the value of the comic. Of course I raced into Carlton with Ted Smith's beautifully crafted paper theatre
and you can see for yourself how fabulous it looked surrounded by book shelves. The K is a bit like 'Wally'. Where is it? and where will it next appear?
Following on, Bernard flew Mike Shuttleworth into the room.
In January, Mike travelled to the town of Angouleme which hosts the largest comics festival in the world, to investigate the French scene. His report was a revelation. Mike described a town south of Paris full to bursting with folk from all over the world celebrating the art of comic making. What do we have to do to get our comic book people to Angouleme - a cake stall?
A highlight of the discussion was the surprise appearance of Baru, the 2011 festival president. I managed to get this lovely shot of Mike and Buru deep in conversation. Next year, the president will be Art Spieigelman.
Finally Brenton E McKenna stepped up to the easel. As Brenton drew he told us the story behind his book Ubby's Underdogs. Brenton grew up in Broome but a very different Broome to the one we might visit as tourists. He described the years of work behind his first comic book and the journey he and his publisher Magabala Books embarked upon when neither had ever attempted this type of publication previously.
1 comment:
Bernard and Brendon were great at Reading Matters too!
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