Festival of Cartoon Art

Dave -
That is so awesome. To be able to return to an event that was so inspirational to you in your formative years as an honored guest is heady stuff indeed! And to rebut the amazing Mr. Watterson's concerns with such a message of hope and inspiration is nothing short of Legen - wait for it! - dary. One of my favorite things about Sheldon has always been your sense of history, your awareness of of how you fit into the great scheme of things. Also, the fact that when reading it, I feel like I'm reading a missive from an old friend. As a gen-x engineer, your work often seems plucked from my own experiences growing up and my views in this strange world I find myself living in.

Again, Congratulations and good luck at the festival. Wish I could be there! One of these days, I'm going to make it to one of your events, instead of just trying to be the first person to order an Artist's Edition with every release.

Thanks for making my mornings bright!
Jim

Oh, yes, bonus points for use of the word "disintermediation"!

I had never read that speech before. It was great!

The crazy thing is, he all but advocated webcomics there at the end! "Obviously, if I had any business savvy at all myself, I'd lump the whole business tomorrow and self-publish." - I think if webcomics had been around at the time, they would have been exactly the solution he was looking for!

Dave, I just read through Bill Watterson's speech before reading the rest of your article and thought to myself 'My goodness, he hit the nail on the head there'. It's a big shame that the profile on comics in newspapers didn't seem to get raised as a result, but since they're on the way out now anyway there's no use lamenting that. The internet is the new, exciting frontier!

Congratulations, anyway - I know you'll knock it out of the park in a similar way to Mr Watterson as he did back then. I desperately hope that it'll be recorded and posted online so we can listen to you do so!

You've probably seen this, but since it's with topic and all your readers may not have, I wanted to share.

Bill Waterson did an interview for a local Ohio Paper, thought you all might appreciate it.

http://www.cleveland.com/living/index.ssf/2010/02/ bill_watterson_creator_of_belo.html"

There's a chap trying to make a movie about Bill Watterson, and our love for his art.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fingerprintfil ms/dear-mr-watterson-a-cinematic-exploration-of-ca ?ref=email

Fingers crossed that your wish comes true! Any chance that this will be taped? Or will we have to wait until you're invited to do a TED talk?

I wonder if I could get in there. I live in Columbus.

I hope I can attend this... I'm 2 hours away... I just gotta have the money and good timing...

Dave, will you make any other appearances while you're in Ohio? I'd love to go to this but with the cap on participants it's not likely, plus the cost of registration is prohibitive for sure. I'd love to participate in a round of high fives...

Any suggestions on locations are welcome!

This is too awesome for words.

I feel so fortunate to be living in this time, witnessing and taking part in this renaissance, and I'm as pleased for you on this opportunity as if you were a cherished member of my family for whom I always wish the best.

Squee!

- "Will it be taped?" That's a GREAT question, and I don't know the answer to that.

- "Disintermediation" ...thank you!

- "Possibility of a TED talk?" Highly unlikely! They like *true* world-changers. :)

In "How to Make Webcomics," you (Dave) and the other webcomic-artist authors touched on this radical new medium for distributing comics. I would be very interested to hear more about this and how it might affect the creative processes.

CONGRATULATIONS! Wow, what an honor this will be! I'd like to offer some unsolicited perspective on what you are about to do.

I went to school at the University of Kansas where Hallmark paid for all Fine Arts students to attend a bi-weekly symposium with guest lecturers from many creative fields. I had no idea at the time that I was being steeped in such a valuable brew. Anyway, I remember keenly two presenters. Massimo Vignelli and Milton Glaser, both prominent New York graphic designers, both fabulous people. At the end of each Symposium the presenter was always asked to comment on the role of the PC in design. It was the mid 90s and most established designers were frightened that desktop publishing would devour their livelihood. Turns out to be quite the opposite, I believe.

Vignelli responded with resigned contempt, Glaser with enthusiastic anticipation.

I mention this because you have a chance to undo some damage. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Bill's work and cry a little with I think about Calvin not being around. But the attitude in his lecture is wrong.

I'm in the midst of a forum on toy design on the http://www.webcomics.com site and it's struck me that already, with a whole new publishing and rights situation, how quickly we're settling into a model of "the right way to do webcomics".

Bill mentions that the time and work required to merchandise your own strip is prohibitive to the individual. Poppycock! I think, given the online tools for printing 3D objects (like http://www.shapeways.com) and Cafe Press and Lulu so many others we stand, once again, at the precipice of a new era of creative freedom. A return to the full page artwork he mentioned.

So sure, reflecting on what happened in newspapers is interesting, and to some the current state of webcomics is fascinating as well, but I think you may want to consider taking all that history and culture of comics knowledge you have and...well...throw it out the window. Paint your audience a portrait of an empty landscape and infinite real estate at amazingly low prices. Put the brush in their hands.

It's an astonishing time to be a creative. I'm slowly working my own way toward freedom from my full-time gig, so my naivite probably shows here, but even at this fledgling stage I'm already fighting to break down the box and explore all the places cartoonists have been kept away from.

You have the opportunity to show people that they can fall in love, without fear, with their own freedom.

As Bill himself said, "With the right publishing, comics can move into whole new worlds we've never seen." We can make things unimagined.

Thank you so much for this inspiring post today. It gives me the passion to pursue my dream too. Take a peek, if you like, at http://www.divsro.com