NYCC 2019 & Q/A

• October continues to be a wild month, and NYCC definitely contributed to the craziness, but in the best way. My keynote speech went well!! Some were even moved to stand up during the applause. I am convinced that librarians and educators have the best energy, enthusiasm, and #vibes than any other group of humans.
  
• Check, Please! won the Harvey award for Best Digital Comic. 😭🙏 I got to congratulate fellow winners, Mariko Tamaki, Rosemary Valero-O'Connel, and Jarrott Krosoczka. I also got to meet Mike Mignola and ALLISON BECHDEL. I am a ghost now. 👻
  
• Most importantly, I got to catch up with and meet so many people!! As you probably could've guessed, I'm an extrovert, so this really fills my cup. In particular, I loved meeting students & giving portfolio reviews. So many inspiring up-and-coming artists!
  
• Thanks to everyone who dropped by my table. SO MANY PATRONS. AND ALL OF YOU ARE SO KIND.

Q&A

(I might have posted these...but here are answers to these questions again!)

Q from Edgarallanrose: I do have a question somewhat relating to your keynote speech and SCAD workshop! (Congrats, btw!) I know you said you were asked to do the keynote speech, but for similar events or cons that you’ve been involved in, do you typically get invited? Or are you submitting yourself for consideration? Do have a manager/publisher who is promoting these kinds of opportunities? 

A: Edgar Allan, this is a GREAT question! At this point in time, many of the conventions I attend are ones that I have been invited to. If I want to do a convention and I was not invited to it, I submit a normal application and hope they have me on! My publisher does a great job at getting me to shows to promote Check, Please. If it's a signing or bookstore even that's most definitely Macmillan. My manager does a great job at securing space for me and my fellow artists (Johnny Wander, Atomic Robo, Tess Stone, Ru Xu and Jenn Doyle) at 1 or 2 shows a year. For something like the National Book Festival or New York Public Library, that's board members/organizers reaching out to include me in the programming.

It's fair that your question has a lot of moving parts because well...there are a lot of moving parts!

Q from ForFutureReference (FFR): How does National Book Convention feel compared to the comic/fancons you been to previously? And for the events/talks you been to, what were some of your favorites (or alternatively, what did you like about each one?

A: The National Book Festival is one of the largest book festivals in the world! And it's a free public event. Therefore, it's VERY well attended. So it was packed. I think the NBF and book festivals in general feel more like TCAF (Toronto Comics Arts Festival) and maybe SPX? These events are less about fandom and more about the public engaging with creators and artists. The NBF is that times a million. Because you have people like Justice Ginsberg and David Brooks and Raina Telgemeier?

I love a fancon, but it's nice to see a totally new crowd of folks who are interesting in hearing authors speak. That's what book festivals are about!

A talk I really enjoyed giving was at Toronto Comics Festival in 2018, I believe? It was for their Word Balloon Academy. I did a presentation called "Writing What You Don't Know" which addressed writing about identities that you yourself cannot claim and how to do that with empathy, respect, and tons of research. I had a slide that addressed the fear that Tumblr Might Kill You if you "get something wrong" and how that really stinks and we shouldn't be afraid of Tumblr. We should be afraid of not doing our characters justice.

Q: I take it the "Writing What You Don't Know" presentation (especially the part about tumblr) connected well with that article you tweeted about the dangers of call-out culture?

A: This was years before the Call Out Culture article was even written! But it's the same sentiment. I think my approach is giving folks the benefit of the doubt when they're incorporating characters that aren't their identity. You can really tell when someone is approaching a character with authentic respect vs a lack of research or naivety.

And then if they're doing the latter, I'd rather condemn their storytelling skills than to dismiss their entire person.

Q from Katya: So I remember ARCs for #hockey came out months in advance. If you’re not planning to finish posting the comic until the official release, does that mean anyone with an ARC of Sticks & Scones is sworn to secrecy?

A: Instead of ARCs for Sticks & Scones, we'll be shipping out "BLADs." These blads will have story up until Year 3 I believe? Or even less. Very limited amount of story. (BLAD is a publishing term and the word has no real etymology (???) but it's just short pamphlets!)