Over the last few years, I’ve taught classes in comics-making for grown-ups at the Hugo House, usually with the goal of making one story or mini-comic. This fall, I’m trying something different: a class that propels writer-artists toward the making of a graphic novel.
Have you been wanting to make a graphic novel, but need a little boost? (Or maybe you know someone fitting this description?) Do you live in or near Seattle? Read on… (more…)
Greetings from the Bureaucrats!
Forgoing our usual annual Valentine’s celebration art show, many of our number are focusing on finishing up their pieces for our imminent and much ballyhooed foray into regular publishing. To put it another way, the Bureau of Drawers is hard at work on our first-ever entirely digital effort and first in a series of quarterly anthologies entitled The Bureau of Drawers Quarterly: A. The next edition will be “B”, et cetera. We’re all very excited to begin…I mean finish…our projects and submit them to you for your enjoyment in the incredibly affordable and convenient form of a digitally downloadable file. Please keep your eyes flickering nervously back to thebureauofdrawers.com for updates sometime near the end of this month.
In unrelated news, David Lasky, your friend and mine, has used his incredible networking powers to furnish me with his mother-in-law’s cat, Claudia. She is adjusting nicely and does not make my apartment smell any more than I am capable of doing myself. Let’s hear it for old friend’s old cats! Please let me know if you never want to hear about my cat ever again.
On September 10, comics creator and small-press publisher Dylan Williams lost his battle with cancer. He was my friend as well as a colleague. Dylan was a kind-hearted, funny, and insightful person, who perhaps knew more about (and loved more about) comics than anyone I know. Hailing from the Bay Area, he’d also spent some of his early years in India (due to his mother being a professor at UC Berkeley). His first comics teacher was Morrie Turner, of “Wee Pals” fame.
Dylan began self-publishing his mini-comic series “Horse” in the early 90′s. He dropped out of college, reportedly because his art teachers did not take comics seriously enough and began to work in comic book stores. While an employee at Comic Relief, he was able to peruse a wide variety of rare comic books and begin educating himself on comics of the past. Dylan began to champion the work of underrated and overlooked artists in his zine “86″ and also in magazines like “Destroy All Comics.” He created a superb website devoted to one of his favorite artists, Mort Meskin. He also interviewed Bill Blackbeard and raised awareness of his newspaper comics archive (then located in San Francisco, now in Ohio). (more…)
