Conferences, comics and politics

Okay. I’ll admit it. I’ve been neglecting this blog like it was a pile of dirty dishes. A lot of exciting things have happened in the comics world (to me, at least), so I’ll discuss them in order:

Dibujados:

Dibujados was an enjoyable event, mainly because it was filled with lots of comics and people I like. It was held in a hostel and was set up really well for selling, mingling and signing, but not for the lecture series it hosted.* The lectures were given in an open hall and there were a lot of people talking in the background, so I couldn’t hear much. In terms of my Spanish skills, I still haven’t mastered the ability to understand fragments of lectures. (I am proud to say that I am getting better at overhearing conversations. The other day I heard one street cleaner say to the other “He wanted women, but he could only find transvestite prostitutes.”) But I enjoyed the event because I bought a bunch of comics and saw my friends, so I give it four stars.

University of Palermo’s “9º Jornadas de Diseño de Historietas:”

The Jornada offered a series of lectures that dealt from all points of view from the creation of a comic to its eventual sale as a book. You can see the impressive series of lectures here. I attended the second half to learn about the part of the comics creation process that I hadn’t learned about through my interviews, like the printing process, sales in comics stores and magazine topic selection.

Seminar paper for “Artes secuenciales:”

The theme for my paper for Laura’s class dealt with how the economy has an impact on the ability for comics artists to live off their work. I turned it in on Tuesday and met with Laura on Friday for my oral final. Overall, I really enjoyed the final product, though the process of writing a paper turned me into a lunatic. (Makes me wonder how I ever maintained friends in college while turning in a 10-page paper every month.) I got an 8 out of 10, a good grade considering the fact that I wrote it in Spanish. Hopefully, I will translate some of the content for my blog and eventually turn it into some sort of paper.

Interview with Andrés Valenzuela and article in Cuadritos:

Andrés Valenzuela, comics journalist and generally awesome person, interviewed me for his blog Cuadritos. We met in the most silent bar I’ve ever been to in Buenos Aires and talked for about 30 minutes. Fortunately, we did the interview in English, so I don't end up sounding like a raving idiot in the article. The paper I wrote for Laura’s class helped me organize my ideas, so that when I talked about my grant my proclamations were focused and clear, looking at the larger picture instead of a few small details. Anyway, if you want to read the interview, you can find it here: “Los últimos ocho años beneficiaron a la historieta argentina.” ("The last eight years have benefitted the Argentine comic") As the title implies, I talk about economic stability in Argentina during the last eight years. During the past eight years, both Nestor and Cristina Kirchner were in power. Coincidentally Argentina had elections today in which Cristina Kirchner won.

Anyway, next week I’m going to continue with interviews and transcribing. I will be publishing piece by piece an interview I did with Diego Agrimbau. And, most importantly, I'm going to find a costume for Halloween.

*I complain about space a lot in this blog. Maybe I’m anal retentive or excessively bothered by everything, but I think layout can make or break an event. And other people have commented similar ideas to me in interviews or personal conversations, so I’m not the only crazy one.