This weekend (9/14-15) don't miss FIVE TOON authors and artists featured at the Small Press Expo (SPX)!
TOON events at SPX on Saturday, September 14:
Jeff Smith’s career as a cartoonist has enjoyed one of the broadest trajectories in the field. His self-published, black and white comic book series Bone was an all-ages bastion of the independent comics scene before becoming an enormously successful series of full-color graphic novels for younger readers from Scholastic. Since then, he has completed the science fiction series RASL and has authored a comic for early readers from TOON Books. Smith returns to his roots at SPX, and appears in conversation with Isaac Cates.
Liniers is among the most globally recognizable cartoonists from Argentina, a nation with a strong cartooning tradition still largely unrecognized in the US. His diverse body of work includes formally experimental comics, painting, and work for younger readers. For more than ten years, Liniers has drawn a hugely popular daily strip, Macanudo, for the Argentine newspaper La Nación. The Big Wet Balloon (TOON Books) is his first book to be published in the United States. Moderated by Bill Kartalopoulos.
Rutu Modan has had a diverse and influential career, both in her native Israel and around the world. She was a co-founder of the pioneering Actus Tragicus collective, has been a children’s book author, an illustrator, and a teacher, and is the author of books including the acclaimed graphic novels Exit Wounds and The Property, both of which address historical and contemporary realities of Israeli life through the lens of fiction. She will discuss her work with comics scholar Marc Sobel.
6 - 7 PM: Rutu Modan signing at TOON Table (#K13)
TOON events at SPX on Sunday, September 15:
Humor in comics can be found in the writing and in the drawing, and most often is a product of the two. But some drawings are inherently funny in and of themselves, for reasons including style, structure, concept, and composition. Cartoonist Dustin Harbin will investigate the basis for humorous picture-making and ask Peter Bagge, Scott Campbell, Lisa Hanawalt, and Jay Lynch about their individual approaches to making drawings funny.
Children’s comics have opened up new areas of publishing to comics and have developed new generations of comics readers. But not every artist who produces comics in this field works exclusively for younger audiences. Roger Langridge, Liniers, Rutu Modan, Brian Ralph and Jeff Smith will discuss the practical and aesthetic similarities and differences between producing work for younger and older readers in a panel discussion with comics journalist Heidi MacDonald.
5 - 6 PM: Rutu Modan signing at TOON Table (#K13)