1.14.2008

No new art with this post, sorry. :(
I've been kicking around the idea to start a sequential arts club here at SCAD-Atlanta again. I figure I could get work to give me an additional Friday off every month for meetings, plus I normally have Tuesdays and Thursdays off anyway for planning...
There's a number of reasons I want to start the club, really. Here in Atlanta I can see that those students that aren't influenced by if not drawing with an anime/manga style are really limiting themselves, not just by confining themselves TO anime/manga, but really by confining themselves to what's only available in America. Really guys, there's enough Naruto and Inu Yasha-esque crap being put out. It's time to dig a little deeper and explore what's out there.
Also, sticking with the manga thought stream, there's a lot of symbolism in manga that is unfamiliar to western readers that haven't like, grown up with it. I never even considered this until Shawn and Chris brought it to my attention last semester. These are things that I've always just taken for granted. Meanwhile though, I HAVE noticed that a lot of people that DO read manga could tell you WHAT a symbol or expression means, but not WHY (i.e. why guys get nosebleeds in manga/anime to symbolize arousal. Manga artists figure "Hey, all that blood's gotta go SOMEWHERE, but we obviously can't show the NATURAL reaction in a childrens comic...")

I'm going off on a tangent and I'll be running late for class soon.
Basically I just feel like SCAD-Atlanta has students interested in soooo many different comic genre's that I feel we'd all really benefit by getting together and sharing what we know. I feel like already I've matured as an artist just by being open to reading a lot more western comics, and I'm really eager to read more.
Long-reaching goals for a club would be things like having Drawing Jams like, once a week or month or something and, ideally, putting out a comic anthology showcasing the Atlanta students and faculty. Maybe we could have guest speakers come in (there's plenty of comic/manga artists in the Atlanta area). Field trips are a possibility!

See, I'm getting excited again. It's just a lot to commit too when I've got two studio classes, a writing class, and a job that expects me in 30 hours a week :\ I'll see if I can't find some classmates that'd be interested in helping....

CLASS TIME!

2 comments:

Chris Schweizer said...

You've got 100% backing from me! I tried this my first quarter, but with bleh effect -- there were people interested, but not a whole lot to do, so it sort of disappeared.

There might be a way to incorporate this into the Friday studio sessions - have students or local pros, etc do lectures, q & a (if you'd do one on Manga symbolism or something...), etc. That way there would be a regular meeting sort of thing.

Anyway, if you need anything, lemme know.

Dianna B. said...

You know, I've never actually thought about why they bled from the nose 0.0... Now you've brought that to my attention lol. I now ponder how they came up with so many other beloved emotes...
btw, I'd love to be in that club XD