KINDERCOMICS
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Comics@CSUN
  • Comics Studies Society
  • KIRBY!

Chevalier’s Panel Report

3/17/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Not a photo by us, but rather a dated shot from Shelf Awareness, 5 Aug. 2016. Photographer unknown.

​On Thursday evening, March 15, my wife Mich and I were fortunate to attend a smart, intimate, charmingly informal panel discussion at Chevalier’s Books with Jen Wang (The Prince and the Dressmaker, In Real Life), Cory Doctorow (In Real Life, Little Brother), Molly Knox Ostertag (The Witch Boy, Strong Female Protagonist), and Tillie Walden (Spinning, On a Sunbeam). Wow, what a lineup!
Chevalier’s, in L.A.’s Larchmont Village, has been open since 1940, making it the oldest independent bookshop in Los Angeles. We had never been there before—but I expect that we’ll be back! Nice shop, cool space, and welcoming, with real personality and what appeared to be carefully chosen stock (the graphic novel buyer seems to have a definite POV).
Picture
L to R: Jen Wang (signing), Molly Knox Ostertag, Cory Doctorow, and Tillie Walden. Photo by Mich Hatfield.

​We arrived a few minutes late to the discussion, which took place in the children’s alcove, surrounded by books. A few rows of wooden chairs had been set up for the audience, but the space was fairly tight and the crowd small, maybe a double handful of people. Jen Wang served as emcee of sorts, sometimes referring to her phone for questions but mostly letting the conversation float along in an easy, unforced way. Yet the conversation was rich in information and insight, and covered a lot of ground: from writers’ habits (with Doctorow marveling at Anthony Trollope’s famed productivity and self-discipline), to artistic inspirations (movies, immersive theater, theme park rides, music), to elements of craft (layout; scripting versus improvising; research).

The speakers were at times disarmingly honest: Wang confessed that there are times she prefers not to draw, especially when she has recently finished a project as big as The Prince and the Dressmaker. Walden confessed that the response to her memoir, Spinning, has caught her up in its own momentum in ways that impinge on her current work. Ostertag likewise admitted that she worries about the success of one book making her too self-conscious or eager to please in her future work. Walden admitted how tough it could be to field difficult, sometimes heartrending, questions and stories from young readers, especially queer readers in search of advice and assurance (she mentioned that writing a memoir seemed to open her to this kind of response). Doctorow revealed how his fiction-writing is often fueled by anger over political events, and his need to free his social media use from the constant pressure to respond to provoking political news. All showed a keen interest in each other’s work and in sharing process (Ostertag, initially somewhat reserved, seemed to open up when discussing Wang’s new book!).

I loved the way the discussion wandered through big issues of audience, genre, and the depiction of sexuality and gender identity, to minute nuts ‘n’ bolts issues of page design and drawing (comics nerd moments: I just eat those up). All four creators gave me a sense of being extraordinarily busy and productive—every one of them has new irons in the fire, new books forthcoming, and so on. They got on well, unsurprisingly, with a nice collegial vibe (there were jokes about everyone now being in the First Second family, so to speak).
Picture
Jen Wang. Photo by Mich Hatfield.
Picture
Molly Knox Ostertag. Photo by Mich Hatfield.
Picture
Tillie Walden. Photo by Mich Hatfield.
In sum, an amazing panel—and so chill and easygoing, for such an amazing gathering of talents. After the panel, we chatted, then Mich and I bought some books and got ’em signed. I talked up this blog a bit, and informed Molly Ostertag and Tillie Walden that they had been nominated for Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards earlier that same day (they hadn’t heard!). I spoke with Jen Wang and (I think) Jake Mumm about the splendid CALA festival that they help to put on every year. A delightful experience—then I read Ostertag’s The Witch Boy when I got home (because man was I overdue).
Thanks to Chevalier’s for hosting such a strong comics event!
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    See Hatfield, comics and children's culture scholar

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    March 2024
    June 2023
    February 2023
    December 2022
    July 2022
    April 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018

    Categories

    All
    392
    About KinderComics
    Abrams
    Adaptations
    ALA
    Animal Stories
    Anthologies
    Anti Sexism
    Anti-sexism
    Awards
    Best American Comics
    Bookshops
    BOOM! Studios
    Business
    CALA
    CalRBS
    CBLDF
    CCEL
    Children's Lit In Academia
    Class/Classism
    Collaborations
    Comic Con International
    Comic-Con International
    Comics As Social Protest
    Comic Shops
    Comics In Academia
    Comics Studies Society
    Comic Strips
    Courses
    COVID-19 Lockdown
    DC Comics
    Decade In Review
    Dial Books
    Disability
    Disney/Hyperion
    Drawn & Quarterly
    Early Readers
    Ecology
    EGL Awards
    Eisner Awards
    Essential Graphic Novels
    Ethics
    Eulogies
    Events
    Exhibitions
    Fairy Tales
    Fantagraphics
    Fantasy
    Faves
    First Second Books
    Flying Eye Books
    Folklore
    Food
    French BD
    Friendship
    FSG
    Gallery 13
    Graphic Medicine
    Grief
    Harper
    Historical Fiction
    History
    Holiday House
    House Of Anani Press
    How-to Books
    Immigrants' Stories
    Instructional Books
    International Comic Arts Forum
    Jen Wang
    JLG Selections
    LA Is A Comics Town
    LGBTQIA+
    Libraries
    Lion Forge
    Markets
    Marvel
    McDuffie Awards
    Memoir
    Middle Grade
    Miyazaki
    MLA
    Music
    Mysteries
    Nature
    News
    Nobrow
    Nonfiction
    Oni Press
    Paper Engineering
    Picture Books
    Poetry
    Politics
    Public Speaking
    Race/Racism
    Raina
    Random House
    Reading (and Watching) Hilda
    Reviews
    RH Graphic
    Sales
    Scholarly Works
    Scholastic/Graphix
    Schulz
    SF
    Simon & Schuster
    SOLRAD
    Sports
    Superheroes
    Teaching
    Teaching Roundtable 2018
    Textbooks
    Tillie Walden
    TOON
    TOON Books
    Top Shelf
    Tributes
    Updates
    Webcomics
    Witches
    Year In Review
    Yen Press
    Young Adult

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Comics@CSUN
  • Comics Studies Society
  • KIRBY!