Tonight I went to ACLib HQ to watch a presentation by award-winning graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang. I've been a fan of his since reading his National Book Award nominated American Born Chinese. I also enjoyed The Eternal Smile and Level Up and was pleased when he was chosen to write the Avatar: The Last Airbender "Book 4" comic book series The Promise. So I was very excited to learn that he would fly all the way from California to be a guest speaker at the local library.
It was an interesting and entertaining hour-long presentation about "How to Make Comics", starting with the definition of the comics medium, going through the whole process of creating a graphic novel, from idea to script to sketches to line art to completed pages, and finishing off with how to think and "direct" like a cartoonist. Gene Yang is a very good lecturer (he's a high school teacher), friendly, smart, and funny.
There was quite an eclectic mix of people in attendance. Besides Chinese Americans who related to his work, there were little kids who liked to draw or were fans of Avatar, teens who read comics, a bunch of art school students, and even senior citizen literary enthusiasts. ^^ I'm really glad I went, but I regret not buying one of his books for him to sign now. =/ Also, I was disappointed that he said Avatar: The Legend of Korra would be out sometime near the end of the year. (Boo. I'd hoped it would be out earlier.)
Anyway, I had a great time. If anyone is reading this, I highly recommend American Born Chinese as a perfect example of graphic novel storytelling, using words and pictures in a way that books, paintings, or films can't.
No comments:
Post a Comment