Art & Comics by Katherine Roy

We’re back after a delicious whirlwind trip to New York City! I hope all of the SPXer’s had a great time; I’m sorry to have missed it.

It was a great honor to meet David Small and his wife Sarah Stewart on Tuesday night after David’s presentation on Stitches with his host Jules Feiffer. The book is his first graphic novel after a long career as a children’s book illustrator, and it looks to be a wildly successful addition to the canon of the genre. It is deeply powerful in its silence and masterfully drawn. I enjoyed hearing his thoughts on walking the line between absolute fidelity to Truth and telling a cohesive story. David’s and Sarah’s combined energy and shared passion as a powerhouse creative couple is very encouraging. Good luck on your tour!

"Cut the adjectives-- they tell you what to think."

Our booth before the show opened at 10:00am

We are back from Providence after a full day of selling cards, comics, and book jewelry at the RISD Alumni Fall Sale of 2009. It was a great success! We did very well this year and extend our great thanks to all of you who purchased our merchandise and shared your stories. If you are interested in any additional items from us please email me at katherine@katherineroy.com and we can easily get it to you right away. Our store is currently under construction; our sincere apologies. Happy Fall everyone!

This week I’ve been working on writing scenes for a graphic novel idea about a wedding. Writing is hard! But I’m learning so much by really trying to understand structure and character development, building moment after moment into a comprehensive story. I’ve had positive feedback on the project this week from an agent with Sanford J. Greenburger Associates and from Rich Johnson (Publishing & Graphic Novel Consultant, formerly with DC Comics) during their respective visits to the Center for Cartoon Studies. My hope is to have a full proposal and a rough dummy by the end of the semester!

We woke up this morning and came downstairs to subtle evidence from a mysterious guest. The mouse actually chewed through the towel to get to the cookies! They are that good!

This weekend I have the honor of doing a presentation on my first book, A Kid’s Guide to Boston’s Freedom Trail, published with the Freedom Trail Foundation in 2008, for the Boston Book Festival of 2009! I will be standing in the shadows of many creative greats, including Ken Burns, Chris Van Allsburg, John Hodgman (“I’m a PC!” and The Areas of My Expertise), Anita Diamant (The New Jewish Wedding, The Red Tent), and… Alicia Silverstone! with her new book The Kind Diet, just to name a few. Huzzah to my kid’s guide book! And for those of you who join me tomorrow at the library, I’m looking forward to it! See you at 1:00pm!

Thousands of readers gathered yesterday in the shelter of Boston’s Public Library to celebrate this year’s Book Festival with many great authors of New England, and the schedule was packed with discussions and signings. My presentation on drawing and cartooning happened in Story Place, where a variety of kid friendly performances engaged the youngest readers throughout the day. Thanks for your interest and enthusiasm, kids! I hope you enjoy your books!

Drawing the cartoon alphabet to make faces in a crowd.

Alec Longstreth just had us read a short interview with Hope Larson on writing graphic novel scripts and working with an editor for our Professional Practice class at CCS. I liked Larson’s approach and philosophy a lot. It’s nice to hear of creators who work from scripts, as I’m trying it out for the first time now. I’ve been putting in long hours writing out my wedding graphic novel idea, structuring the acts, working out scenes, and now finally flushing out more of the actual dialogue. Here’s what my “Board” looks like (an idea I got from Save the Cat, by Blake Snyder), with each card showing a scene, and each row is an act (Act 1, Act 2.1, Act 2.2, Act 3). It’s been a lot of fun!