La historieta contemporánea argentina desde una perspectiva económica

(please scroll down for english version)

Charla y proyección a cargo de Claire Denton Spalding

En el Muelle Flotante* de

La Dársena_Plataforma de Pensamiento e Interacción Artística

presentamos el jueves 22 de febrero de 2012, a las 19:30 hrs a:

la investigadora norteamericana Claire Denton Spalding

Claire Denton-Spalding ha pasado un año en Argentina con una beca Fulbright estudiando la historieta argentina desde un punto de vista económico. Ha asistido numerosos congresos de la historieta y entrevistado a 30 guionistas, dibujantes, periodistas, editores independientes y dueños de comiquerías no sólo en Buenos Aires, sino también en Córdoba y la Patagonia.

Claire hablará y proyectará sus experiencias y los hallazgos de su investigación en Plataforma La Dársena. También será una forma de despedirse hasta el año que viene, ya que Claire regresa a Chicago a fines de febrero.

http://thepapertigress.blogspot.com/

*El Muelle Flotante es el lugar de Plataforma La Dársena para la cooperación artística, el diálogo, la difusión y las presentaciones de artistas y asociaciones locales e internacionales. Está abierto a recepción de proyectos (presentaciones de libros, videoproyecciones, charlas) y funciona también por invitación.

Miércoles 22, 19:30 hrs. Entrada gratuita.

La Dársena_Plataforma de de Pensamiento e Interacción Artística

Mario Bravo 298, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Dirección: Azul Blaseotto y Eduardo Molinari

plataformaladarsena.blogspot.com

........................................................................................................................................

An economic perspective on contemporary argentinian comic

Screening and talk and with Claire Denton Spalding

On the FLOATING QUAY * of

La Dársena_Plataforma de Pensamiento e Interacción Artística

The Dock_Platform of Thinking and Artistic Interaction

we present on tuesday the 22.th of february at 19:30

the northamerican comic searcher Claire Denton Spalding

Claire Denton-Spalding spent the past year studying the economic aspects of the Argentine comic with a Fulbright Grant. She has attended numerous comics conferences and conducted interviews with thirty writers, artists, journalists, independent publishers, and comic store owners from not only Buenos Aires, but Córdoba and Patagonia as well. On February 22nd, she will present her experiences and findings at La Dársena Platform. It will also be a way of saying goodbye until next year because Claire will be returning to Chicago at the end of February.

On the Floating Quay Claire D-S will present a summary of her investigation in Argentina, whose name is the title of this show.

*The Floating Quay is a permanent section of La Dársena: the place for artistic cooperation, dialogue, diffusion, and presentations by local and international artists and organizations. Floating Quay Works by invitation, but is also open to receiving projects (book presentations, videoprojections, talks).

+ about Claire: http://thepapertigress.blogspot.com/

Wednesday 22th. february at 19:30 hrs. Free entrance

La Dársena_Plataforma de de Pensamiento e Interacción Artística

Mario Bravo 298, Buenos Aires, Argentina

plataformaladarsena.blogspot.com

The Dock_Platform of Thinking and Artistic Interaction

is a cultural and activist space, a dialogic-critical tool in Buenos Aires. Here we develope collective processual practices of contemporary art and thought in context. We create transdiciplinary networks, pedagogical projects and art methods based researchs. We realize non-profit activities, based on solidarity and reciprocity, looking for more cultural biodiversity, social incidence and communitarian Buen Vivir / Good Living. We encourage the continued blurring of aesthetic and political borders, the expansion of glocal debate and dialogue.

Concept / Direction: Azul Blaseotto & Eduardo Molinari

azulblaseotto.blogspot.com

plataformaladarsena.blogspot.com

Loss and Inspiration

I have no experience writing or talking about death. I know the words of condolences that people offer, but these phrases feel so stiff and overused. The writer Carlos Trillo died, and my friends in the Argentine comics community are mourning. For many of them, he was a companion and colleague as well as an admired and popular writer. I don’t know how to console them, so I listen to their memories about this man that guided them and had such a profound impact on their lives. When talking about Trillo, they lament the fact that I will never get to meet him and learn from him, like they did. I wish I could have got to know the man that wrote so many of my favorite comics, but in terms of inspiration, Trillo has already changed my life. It was through his words that I came up with the idea for my Fulbright project.

It was the talk “Carlos Trillo y Sus Dibujantes” at Viñetas Sueltas in 2009 that made me aware of the economic aspect of the comic book world. At this point in my life, I had given up sending ideas to Donald Andrew, the Fulbright Adviser at Smith College, because he had vetoed every single idea I proposed for a possible Fulbright project. I attended Viñetas Sueltas solely because of a growing interest in Argentine comics. My favorite comics at the time were Clara de Noche and Las Puertitas de Señor López, two comics written by Carlos Trillo, and so I decided to attend his talk. Trillo spoke about working abroad for Spanish companies because of the multiple domestic crises and limited Argentine market. He spoke extremely honestly about these financial and personal matters. And beyond that, he was funny and engaging, really connecting with the audience. Before hearing Trillo speak, I had no idea how comic book artists and writers lived. His experiences conveyed the complexities of living life in Argentina as an artist. After the talk, I went home and sent Donald Andrews an idea for a project about an economic analysis of the graphic novel industry. That one idea, out of many, was accepted and eventually resulted in my grant.

So I, like my friends here in the comics world, want to express my gratitude to Carlos Trillo for being so forthcoming about these challenges and being the catalyst for my investigation. Although I didn’t have the pleasure of studying with him or becoming his friend, I am grateful for the opportunity to listen to tales of him as told by his many admirers and to learn about the profound impact he had on the comics community.

Living Comics

(Here is a colorful picture of my bookshelf.)

After two months of socializing, reading comics, and generally stressing out, I have finally figured out what I am going to do for my Fulbright project. When I wrote my project proposal almost two years ago, I wanted to focus on governmental and academic support of comics and the publishing industry. After living here for two months, I can probably answer those questions with a few interviews. I have decided to focus instead on the lives of comics creators. How did they decide to create comics? How do they make a living with their work? How is the rest of their life influenced by their work? (I already have three pages of questions.) Diego talks quite often during the workshop about how he makes a living by writing comics. From the way he describes it, writing comics professionally is a constant battle to find work and create stories. Many other artists and writers are not able to survive solely on comics, and do freelance work or have day jobs. Ideally, I would interview a range of creators from the beginners in my classes to professionals. I love learning about peoples’ lives, finding patterns, and coming to conclusions. Also, apparently there has been no overall study of this sort, so it might be useful to someone.

I know people read this blog. I check my Blogger Statistics three times a day because I like to find patterns and make conclusions. (For example, I noticed that my readership doubles if I post color photos or comics.) So, readers, what do you think about this topic? What would you like to learn about comics creators?

This is going to be one busy year...

I met with my research adviser on Thursday at the Petit Colon, an old fashioned café. We had only emailed before, and although we had been able to communicate, our conversations had never been personal. They were purely business due to my inability to communicate well over email in Spanish. Well, after talking for two hours I don’t think I could have found a better adviser. She not only knows everything about Argentine comics, but was friendly and welcoming. We talked about her work and my project. These are the things that I will be doing this year:

• This semester I am going to take “History of Media,” which includes TV and photography, and next semester I am going to take her “Sequential Art” seminar about comics.
• I am going to work in the archives in the Biblioteca Nacional, scanning old comics and writing about my findings.
• Helping her prepare for the Viñetas Serias conference in September and then attending the conference.
• Meeting every comic artist/writer EVER. She is friends with all of my favorite writers.
• Going to shows about comic books…apparently there are different ones every week!
• Classes on guionismo (comic book “directing” aka writing) with her husband, Diego Agrimbau, and at Escuela Argentina de la Historieta.
• Reading everything from her giant library of comics.

Laura always ends her emails by telling me to prepare myself for all the work to come. Given this list, I will be quite busy this year.

Frustration and the eventual Fulbright

Coming up with the idea for a Fulbright was a long and infuriating process. The grant writing process is hard. Finding sponsors in your host country is hard. Revising your application a million times is hard. But nothing compares to the difficulty of finding a topic. I decided I wanted to apply for a Fulbright my first year at college and didn’t come up with a suitable topic until the very end of my junior year. Why is it so difficult to find a topic? The topic has to be original, not embarrassing to the host country, and have an immediate and important impact. The topic had to be something that I was interested in and knew about.

During my first few years, I tried to get suggestions from teachers. I asked my economics professors, art history professors, even my economic history and human rights professors in Argentina. None of the suggestions they gave me coalesced into a topic. I sent about 20 suggestions to the Fulbright adviser, but none of them fit the idea for a perfect Fulbright. Once, angry about the fact that he had just rejected a bunch of new ideas, I wrote him:

“I have been talking to you and emailing you for about a year and a half. In this time, I haven't found a suitable subject. We have already gone over everything I know: economics, art history and Jewish immigration. I would really like to continue looking for a subject, but I feel like everything I know is either too controversial, too historical or has already been done a million times before.”

Needless to say, I was pretty frustrated.

Around this time, I attended Vinetas Sueltas, a weeklong international comic book festival hosted in Buenos Aires. I came across the festival at a friend’s house. We were watching the local news, when a segment came on about Vinetas Sueltas. I looked up the schedule online and began attending the next day. I ended up going to one class “El ojo del lector” (“The eye of the reader”) and two talks “Carlos Trillo y sus dibujantes” (“Carlos Trillo and his drawings”) and “Humor a diario” (“Daily Humor”). A constant theme throughout the festival was the difficulties of getting published and making a living off creating comics. In “El ojo del lector” I learned techniques to create an easily readable narration. The class was filled with struggling comics artists and writers who were trying to break into the industry. In “Carlos Trillo y sus dibujantes,” Trillo talked about the limited Argentine market for comic books. The most successful writers, like Trillo, must publish abroad to sell enough comics to make a living. In “Humor a diario” I found out about the business of creating comics for a large audience.

On the last day of the festival, I told my mother about my problems finding a topic. She asked me “Why don’t you write something about comics?” I sent the Fulbright adviser a few ideas including one about graphic novel industry in Argentina. Much to my surprise, he said that it sounded interesting and I should look into it further. After years and constant frustration, I had found my topic.

"The government's paying me to study comics in Argentina!"

I met Harvey Pekar at a book signing a few months before his death. When I handed him my copy of The Beats, I said “Your work got me interested in comics and now the United States government is paying me to study comics in Argentina.” He smiled, wrote “Good luck in Argentina” on the first page of my book, and then moved on to the next person.

That much-practiced one-liner refers to a research Fulbright award I received to go study the market for the graphic novel in Argentina. I won’t go into the details of the highly stressful process of applying or the stressful months of waiting for a reply. That is a very, very long story. Instead, in this post I will talk generally about my Fulbright grant and what I am going to do.

My project title “Emergence of the Graphic Novel as Mainstream Literature” was a title that took weeks to emerge. My abstract concisely describes this project:

“The Argentine graphic novel defines generations through culturally relevant themes. It is now transitioning to a respected literary form through academic and financial support by universities and governments. I will investigate the conditions necessary for economic and literary viability. My project includes researching at the University of Buenos Aires, interviewing academics, printers and authors, and travelling to provincial communities of artists and writers.”

Some of the highlights and goals for the project:

*Join the research group Historiography of the Argentine Comic as a North American investigator

*Take academic classes on the graphic novel with professor Laura Vazquez and artistic classes at Escuela Argentina de la Historieta

* Attend comic festivals throughout the country

* Teach children the basics of comic creation through the program LIFE Argentina

*Interview writers, artists, critics, owners of comic book stores, and heads of publishing companies

I’ve had a lot of people ask if this project has anything to do with my future career plans. It was classified under “History, Modern,” but really involves economics, art history, history, and literature. Perhaps I will go to business school? Work in the publishing industry? Marketing? I’ll let you know a year from now.