The Next Project and Hal Mayforth

The problem with starting school when you are really sick... is once you make the effort to drag yourself out of bed, into the cold, walk a few blocks, and then participate in class discussions... you can't go BACK to bed!

Yesterday, I thought I'd go "just for a little while." At 10am. It was good I was there because we learned about Silver Age Adventure Comics.

And then we learned we were being split into teams again. This time to create our own, color, 24 page comic. Due in 2 weeks.

This time, we have an editor - our team has our teacher, Jason Lutes. And our task is to explore outwards - so - "space" - while also adhering to the rules of the Comics Authority Code that was in place in the 1950's. Meaning - any horror, torture, killing, or monsters, had to be "good, clean, fun!"

So, as my temperature rose and fell (between 10am and 5pm), we brainstormed the entire book, setting, characters... then assigned pages for each of us to create thumbnail sketches and write the dialog for, and characters or settings for us each to research and sketch... and then return early the next morning to revise and consolidate.

As I said, I'm glad I was there. This was a much more fun brainstorming session than the anthology was. And despite (or maybe BECAUSE of my fever) not feeling well, I got really excited and contributed a lot of cool ideas to the plot. Hey - it's a comic about space archaeologist-plunderers looking for a mysterious library that just happens to look a lot like Petra... sqweeee! :-)

On the down side, after another night with little sleep, I went to what turned into a three hour meeting this morning, then class this afternoon.

I'm really tired.

So the Visiting Artist this afternoon was Hal Mayforth. He happens to be one of my favorite illustrators and turned out to be a very cool guy and fun speaker! Again - I'm glad I dragged myself out of bed!!

While looking through his sketchbooks during break, I mentioned that my son had had to choose between Skidmore (where Hal went) and Vassar. Which led to a discussion about where we now live and he said he had used the gas stations in my town many times. How exciting!

It was interesting to see how his work has evolved from what I know - the cartoons of little people with big eyes and noses, to paintings of similar characters, to his current fine art, abstract paintings.
I felt really inspired and exhausted.