The NY Comics & Picture Story Symposium is a weekly symposium for artist/writers working in various text-image forms: comics, picture-stories, animation, etc. at which to present and critique current work.  The symposium will examine new ideas for the distribution of print and electronic work that move beyond the existing models of publishing and advertising. We will re-examine the relationship between readers and autographic writers. Emphasis will be placed on self-initiated work and the development of a self-sustaining economic model for such work.  Meetings will be facilitated by a rotating group of practitioners and guest speakers.  The symposium will offer an ongoing place to learn and think about the traditions and future of text-image work.

We meet at Parsons The New School for Design in New York City.

Our meeting space is located in the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at 2 West 13th Street, on the lobby level in the Bark Room, M101.

The Symposium is hosted by the Parsons BFA Illustration program and the Parsons School of Art Media and Technology. All events are free and open to the public.

Jan. 23 – Francisco Manuel Sáez de Adana Herrero on the representation of the Spanish Civil War in North American comic strips of the late 1930s (please note: our January 23rd meeting is in the Bob and Sheila Hoerle Lecture Hall, U L105 in the University Center building at 63 Fifth Avenue)
Jan. 30 – Bob Gill with an illustrated talk on “How to Get an Original Idea”
Feb. 6 – Joe McCulloch on “Total Language: Steve Ditko at 90”
Feb. 13 – Julia Gfrörer on “A Void Does Not Exist,” or the effect of leaving negative space in a work
Feb. 20 – Martin Lund on “Re-constructing the Man of Steel: Early Superman and the Jewish American Context”
Feb. 27 – Will Eisner Week with Danny Fingeroth, Dean Haspiel (The Red Hook), N.C. Christopher Couch (The Will Eisner Companion) and Christa Casano (Ghetto Klown)
March 6 – Eleanor Davis on “Why Art?”
March 13 – Tim Soter on “Photography and Comic Books: A Discussion of Commonalities in Sequential Storytelling”
March 27 – Bill Plympton on his career and how to survive as an independent filmmaker
Apr. 3 – Keren Katz on her new work The Academic Hour
Apr. 10 – Lim Cheng Tju (Singapore Comic Critic) and Ye Zhen (Comic Artist) in conversation via Skype from Singapore on “Ye Zhen’s Singapore Pok Kai Zai: Is He the Bastard Son of Charlie Chan Hock Chye?”
Apr. 17 – Cento Lodigiani on “Motion to the Essence and the Importance of Authorship”
Apr. 24 – Kevin Patrick on his book The Phantom Unmasked (2017) and the transnational history of America’s first superhero
May 1 – Frederick Luis Aldama on “Latinx Comics: Geometric Storytelling, Production and Consumption”
May 8 – Matthew Thurber on “The Hallucination of the Art World” and his forthcoming work, Art Comic

If you would like to make a presentation, please send an email to Ben Katchor with your ideas: symposium(at)katchor.com