Story-boarding Like Nobody’s Business!

Hello from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee library!

We’re about a half-hour into our first annual 24-Hour Comics Day on the UWM campus and I’m super stoked!

Yes, I over-packed, and yes, that first PB&J is already calling my name, but it’s for a great cause: getting people excited about comics in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Molly, our Library Event Coordinator, hooked us up with some sweet tables in the middle of the Grind coffee shop, and she printed up signs for us. The library is abuzz with Thursday night energy.

Got two of my students in the thick of it, working on story boards, and I’m here with registration forms at the ready! First cup of green tea steeping, Drive soundtrack playing, drafting pencils working overtime…it’s gonna be a great night.

If you’re in the Milwaukee area and want to groove on this synergy, come on down!

Check back in with y’all in a few hours. Until then, happy drawrings!!

The Night Before 24-Hour Comics Day: A Host’s Tale

Hey 24-Hour Comics Day Fans!

Mel here, at Nefarious Fiddlesticks, getting ready for the big event!

This is the first year we’re bringing 24-Hour Comics Day to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus, and I’m really excited to be a part of bringing 24HCD to Milwaukee.

The week before last, I was in week two of the Fall 2011 semester, teaching the usual First-Year Comp class and a brand-spanking new class I’m super stoked about: Introduction to the Graphic Novel. Oh, what? Spend an entire semester reading and talking about comics? Oh NO! DON’T make me do THAT!! Hang out with comics enthusiasts and aspiring writers and artists?! That sounds just horrible!! Folks, we’re only four weeks in and already this is the best class I’ve ever taught. I really dig my students, and I love this opportunity to share my stoke for comics and graphic novels with students.

So, the week before last, one of my Graphic Novel students asked me if I’d ever heard of 24-Hour Comics Day. I said no. Here we are using Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics and Making Comics as our course textbooks, and I’d never heard of 24-Hour Comics Day! My student had signed up as a online participant, but I wanted more people involved. So I proposed setting up the event on campus.

Here we are, almost two weeks later and the night before the first 24-Hour Comics Day kicks off on the UWM campus!

I’m excited, and anxious. I didn’t have the time to pull together the kind of event I want to set up next year, with local sponsors, prizes, rare comics in the library display cases, and plenty of free food and supplies. But we’re doing this thing!!

Kinda like the night before Christmas, I’m having a hard time getting to sleep. The PB&Js are made, got some tea and my favorite commuter ready to go for tomorrow, and I’ve got my 24-hour outfit laid out. Got my overnight stuff, art supplies, and 24-Hour Comics Day Survival kit packed! Next step is to have wonderful dreams of endless comic possibilities.

See y’all at 5PM in the UWM Library!

Although I’m bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I imagine, at some point between Thursday and Friday, I’ll look a bit like this: