Dupuy and Berberian Report

My talk with Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian at Housing Works Bookstore was a huge success. The only downside was that Philippe and Charles were on such a whirlwind visit that I barely got to chat with them after our onstage chat…

Here’s a photo taken for me by Isaac Cates, who also wrote up the event on his blog (that’s Charles on the right and Philippe in the middle):

You can also find a few more photos at the Drawn & Quarterly website (where you can see just how big the turnout was), and possibly soon at The Beat.

I was really happy Philippe and Charles were both game for reading excerpts of their work. I was talking afterwards with Bob Sikoryak, who regularly hosts a comics slide show/readings series called Carousel and we agreed that although it’s far from the ideal way to experience comics, there is definitely something to be learned by looking at a projection while the author reads the text. It’s great to be able to talk about specific ways that the artists make comics–for instance, the way Philippe did a “mash-up” his autobio comic and the Monsieur Jean book he was working on at the time (from Maybe Later):

or the way the duo use extended visual metaphors in their work (from Get a Life):

It’s very hard to talk about in the abstract, especially to an audience with many readers who are new to comics.

Last but not least, the event was recorded by an NPR producer as part of a segment he is pitching on graphic novels. I’ll post here if that piece gets aired in the next few weeks.