If you happen to be in the SF area, and are planning on attending Wondercon February 22-24, might I suggest stopping by the Comic Arts Conference as well? It's part of the convention actually, and if you're admitted to the convention you can get into the conference as well.
I will be presenting on Friday at 2 in a panel called "Finding Truth in Comic Books." Here is the abstract I sent in, as a preview of what my presentation will be about:
“Showing Helder” and the Problem of Truth in Autobiographical Comics
Truth is very much in the eye of the beholder, for what is believed to be true is entirely dependent on what is observed with the senses and what is retained in the memory. The malleable nature of truth causes even more problems when it comes to autobiography, for an account of real-life events written from the perspective of someone who observed those events may quickly take a turn into fiction.
A perfect example of this concept can be found in the autobiographical short story by Chester Brown entitled “Showing Helder.” In this metafictional story Brown documents the creative process behind an autobiographical story he had published previously entitled “Helder.” In showing this work to friends who had experienced the event, he has to wrestle with his own memories being in conflict with the recollections of others, as well as the accuracy of his artistic depictions being called into question.
Essentially this story illustrates how readers cannot blame the author for any inaccuracies or embellishments that may creep into a “true” story. The story is only as real as the readers believe it to be; therefore, the readers are as culpable as the author should the story’s veracity be challenged.
And Chad, two quick questions:
First of all, when is YOUR trip to San Fran? It's not the same weekend, is it?
And second, would you like me to post here a couple of comics-related CFPs that I have run across recently?
Wolverine #3 annotations
14 hours ago
