Monday, June 08, 2009

Reading Comics



Photo of Alan Moore courtesy of acb.

Question time: has anyone in SketchKrieg! read their comic books live before? And if so, what approach(es) did you take? What worked well? What failed miserably?

I've got a couple of 'reading' opportunities coming up (including the Taddle Creek comic issue launch party on Friday night), and I'm trying to step up my live performance game. Working in book publishing, I've been to my fair share of readings, but whenever I tend a comic book event, it's more likely a discussion of the creation of the work or interview. Straight readings are pretty rare.

That said, I've done comic book 'readings' before, usually paired with a projection of the images. And at this point, I'm probably better at using Powerpoint than I am with a pencil or brush. Not too worried about the readings, but I'd love to hear if anyone else has comic performance experience.

3 comments:

Tyrone said...

Yeah Evan ... I've done a reading of one of my Corduroy High shorts at a Word on the Street panel... of course the story I picked was appropriate for the younger audience ... it was weird ... but yeah ... I basically just read it ... and showed my originals so the audience can follow the story ... I think the whole power point thing would be a great idea ... maybe have other people read as some of the characters in the story ... like have a female read a female character etc. ...just an idea ...

Zen said...

I think what people are going to want to experience is the creator's voice, cadence, and personality behind the visuals.

Regardless of how you present it, I am sure they it will go well if it goes beyond sounding like a half asleep parent reading a bedtime story to their fully awake child.

As you know I am a total spazz when it comes to passionately telling stories in general, especially to kids.

Brian Hoang said...

zen's right. you know more than anyone else what mood the characters are in when they say certain lines so make that the focus and the power point is also an excellent idea. also, have zen read it for you. that's another option.