Comic Book City, Portland, Oregon USA

Article on the editing of COMIC BOOK CITY

I have an article in the current issue of you are here: the journal of creative geography on my approach to the editing of the film and what that approach suggests about digital media and the theory and practice of montage.

Read the article.

Contribution to anthology on COMIC BOOK GEOGRAPHIES

I have a chapter in the forthcoming anthology, Comic Book Geographies, edited by Jason Dittmer (Franz Steiner Verlag, 2014). My contribution is in the first section, "Representing and Performing Place/Space", and is chapter 3, "Live/Work: Portland, Oregon as a Place for Comics Creation", 59-71. This paper is based in the research I did for Comic Book City. The book can be pre-ordered on Amazon or, appropriately, at Powell's, so I imagine that it will be appearing in library collections presently as well. The range of subjects and approaches in the anthology is demonstrative of the potential for comics as a research area for geographers and social scientists.

COMIC BOOK CITY added to the institutional repository at WOU

The film was recently added to the Digital Commons @ WOU, which is the institutional repository at Hamersly Library for student and faculty research and scholarship.

Go to the entry for Comic Book City.

Watch the film on Vimeo

I've posted a copy of the documentary - in its entirety - to my page on Vimeo. Browse the Comic Book City album or watch now.

Download or view Comic Book City

You can view or download a copy of Comic Book City, Portland, Oregon USA to use in accordance with the film's Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.*

Download Comic Book City USA 337MB (QuickTime)
Download Comic Book City USA 133MB (QuickTime)

UPDATE: larger file sizes and additional formats available via the Internet Archive.

Feel free to contact me with inquiries about higher resolution copies, specific file formats, or playable DVDs. If you are organizing a public screening of the film, let me know, and I will add the details here.

*Please note that Comic Book City features works of original comics art. Use of these images outside of the context of the film may require additional permissions. Contact me with queries.

Dylan Meconis interview

I've added my interview with Dylan Meconis to my Vimeo page. With the addition of this excerpt, you can now view all of the artist, writer, and publisher interviews from Comic Book City via the film's album on Vimeo.

 

Screening report: Graphixia 2013

Last Thursday (6/13), I screened Comic Book City at Comics and the Multimodal World at Douglas College in New Westminster, British Columbia.

Much like last month's ICAF screening, this showing was well attended by conference participants and attendees, and the conference itself was an interesting mix of papers, panels, speakers, and "teach-ins." The focus of this conference on locating comics in the wider contexts of popular media made the event a particularly suitable one for showing the film.

Organizers Peter Wilkins and David Wright were generous enough to include about thirty minutes for discussion after the screening, which also included the short film, "The Comic King of Guatemala." I was gratified to have the chance to talk more in-depth about how the documentary fits into my work as a geographer, as well as about my creative choices and the nature of my research process.

With the conclusion of Graphixia 2013 I am bringing to a close the period where I emphasize public screenings of the film. Look for updates on how to access, view, screen, and share the film on your own.

Related articles

Note on the screening at ICAF

Before Comics & the Multimodal World: two new excerpts

In advance of this week's screening at the Comics and the Multimodal World conference, I have posted new author interviews on Vimeo: Sarah Oleksyk and Graham Annable (from Canada!). Watch below or on Vimeo.

 

 

 

Screening details: Comics & the Multimodal World

Next week, I will be screening Comic Book City at Comics and the Multimodal World at Douglas College in New Westminster BC. The film will show at 3:30 in Lecture Theater 2201 1606 with the short film, "The Comic King of Guatemala" (2012). The screening is open to the community will be followed by a discussion.

For more information on the conference.

Note on the screening at ICAF

Last weekend was my screening of Comic Book City at the International Comic Arts Forum. The event was well attended and in a good space for a screening. Most of all, I appreciated the opportunity to show the film at a meeting where the current state of the art and emergent scholarship in comics studies was on display. The ICAF also included a number of panels with some of the notable creators who live and work in Portland, as well as special guests (for example, right before the screening was a panel on collaboration with Matt Fraction, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Fabio Moon, and Gabriel Ba). 

The following day a panel on comics and the Pacific Northwest with Greg Rucka, Chris Roberson, Megan Kelso, and T Edward Bak covered a lot of ground about place and creativity, but I was interested to hear how many of the themes from the film - sense of community, creative earnestness, the effects of the grey weather - were also central to the discussion.

Finally, it was exciting to screen the film with so many of the locations within walking distance or a quick train ride away. The film even features a shot of the building where the conference was taking place. The location also allowed a few friends and family to see the documentary with an audience. Unfortunately, the tight scheduling of the conference did not allow for a formal question and answer session, but I did a get a chance to talk to a few audience members informally.