Won't anyone think about the children?

Friday was a school day beginning in the morning with Lincoln Peirce, who was on his second day of visiting elementary schools in the area.

At both the schools he went to that day (while being simulcast on a distant-learning system to others), the librarians introduced him with the comment that they hadn't been able to keep their Big Nate books on the shelves in the run-up to his visit, which, if you know any kids in Grades 3 - 6, was hardly a surprise.

The former teacher has his presentation well-worked out, and it helps that he doesn't have to introduce his work but can get right to the cartooning content. And as to the enduring question of whether kids read comics, they sure are picking up some knowledge of the format somewhere, because he begins by asking some very basic questions about comic symbols.

The kids had no problem calling out that their schoolmate had had an idea. Lincoln replaced the lightbulb with a "Z" and they knew that she was asleep. Then he asked them why it was a Z and not some other letter and things took on a little more complexity.

From there, he challenged them to help him tell a one-panel story on a whiteboard that began with an expressionless face and then was modified into a picture of a man who had been hit on the head with a baseball (not a tennis ball -- it has stitches) that was moving fast (straight lines incoming, curved lines as it rebounds away) and left an absurdly big lump (because this is a cartoon!) that hurt (shading and birds flying around his head) and made him angry (steam coming out of one ear, smoke coming out the other),

At the first school, he had a chance to visit with a few kids after the presentation; the second was more tightly scheduled, but he still got in plenty of face-time with kids Friday.

 

After lunch, the entire crewe decamped to Prairie Trail High School for a session with 200 or so enthusiastic students chosen by the art teachers. The presentation began with a Tom Racine rock-star WWF SundaySunday intro that set the mood for inspiring frivolity.

 

Each artist was brought up for a brief interview by Tom while drawing a topic chosen by the students from a list of three possibilities (Terri Libenson was given "ice skating"), and the other panelists drew along, but only held theirs up at the end.

This not only let the kids watch eight different artists draw and hear them talk about their technique, but added to the number of souvenir sketches to be picked up at the end.

 

Scott Stantis was given the topic "yoga" and began getting howls of laughter from the audience as soon as the head became identifiable to them.

 

Then, to even greater howls, Scott and Greg Cravens, who was not on the panel this year but has been a county fair caricaturist, squared off to draw one of the art teachers.

 

After which the kids got to come up for a meet-and-greet-and-draw with the cartoonists. This, I think, was the coolest cartoon event I've been to and maybe also the coolest school event I've seen.

 

And it wasn't only young potential cartoonists who were being inspired by meeting the pros. While the others were sketching and signing for their new fans, Racine gave videography tips to an enthusiastic junior who was shooting the event for the school.

 

Meanwhile, back at John Hambrock's studio, a different sort of schooling was under way, as Washington Post Writers Group Comics Editor Amy Lago was doing portfolio reviews. (Disclosure: I didn't invade anyone's privacy to get this shot, which is a re-creation of friend-of-the-blog Parnell Nelson's earlier session.)

Amy told me later that the people who made the $50 donation to the Festival's charity fund were all qualified to the point of being critique-able and she seemed to have had an enjoyable day talking to them, which might well not have been the case.

Then (after a very nice dinner at the home of a Festival patron) it was off to the first cartoonist sessions at the Kenosha Public Museum.

 

Rick Stromoski had the crowd laughing throughout his deadpan talk, which was high on gags and low on technical details about Bristol board, but did include a brief discussion of nibs which then prompted a question in the Q&A, which brought out the nice mix of comic fans and general public in the room and at the Festival in general.

 

 

As Todd Clark then took the podium, I thought that I was glad I didn't have to follow Stromoski, but Clark, who draws the strip "Lola" but sells gags to a pantheon of others, was more than up to the task, which he began by admitting that cartooning was only one of two careers for him, then threw up that slide and asked that the doors be locked.

 

And the fans did more than applaud: They either brought books or purchased them at the gift shop and put Rick and Todd to work signing. 

Meanwhile, I met a couple of more friends-of-the-blog, including Owen Dunne (visible above in the purple shirt), who came over to the evening's final meet and greet at a pizza-and-beer session that closed the evening.

Now I'm off to restock my supply of anecdotes. Check back later.

 

 

Comments

[Mary in ohio]

I'm having fun trying to envision what "Lola" would do to an Amway salesman who showed up at HER door!