200 Days

Updates! Updates! Read all about it! 

I'm nearly a month into my final term at Portland State University. I've been feeling a little anxious and stretched-thin as I'm working 4 positions, taking 5 classes (20 credits), preparing for conferences and setting up workshops. I enjoy being busy, but it would be nice to have some spare time to work on scholarship applications and preparations for moving home as well as moving to Scotland. 

The good new is that I've been accepted to present a paper at the Comics and Visual Culture Conference at California State University-Northridge. This will not only be my inaugural conference presentation, but also my first time in LA! It takes place February 27, so if you by chance are in the area it would be great to have some support! More information can be found here: http://www.csun.edu/humanities/comics

Also, the PSU Comics Club is up and running!  We've had two meetings so far and a lot of ideas. The wonderful thing is that we've formed a partnership with a university magazine, The Pacific Sentinel, and will have our own section!  It's only 1-2 pages to start, provides a great opportunity for lovers of comics, cartoonists and students in the comics studies program to get their work out there. Our next meeting is February 12th. It's a little bittersweet to be a part of the club knowing that this is my last term at PSU, but it's a great group of people that I am happy to know.

Since I've been looking for opportunities to gain some teaching experience, I figured why not hold a workshop of my own?  It seems right up my alley to just make things happen for myself, as in the past I argued and manipulated instructors to let me write about comics, and instead of waiting around for a workshop to present itself I'll do it myself! The focus of the workshop will be creating DIY 1/4 fold mini-comics that are 8 pages in length. I'll provide a step-by-step look at the process from making a dummy copy, thumbnails to how to scan and print it by utilizing resources on campus. My pal Andrew Paris has agreed to help out with the workshop by providing some insights into digital coloring through freeware, such as GIMP or PIXLR. Another cohort Chris Giles will lend his superb editorial skills to any writer in the group.

So far it's scheduled for March 7th, 5-8 in URBN 225 at Portland State University. I will be using this opportunity to also provide handouts and comics detailing resources for the frugal student, including websites such as ComicBookPaper.com, where to print for free and so forth. I'm very excited to put this together as I have a lot of information to share through my own trials and errors making comics and as a student at PSU.

I'm currently working on scholarship applications as well as my coursework, so I should get back to it! Until next time!