9.14.00: Meltdown, Los Angeles, CA: Ware, Clowes, and Kidd
9.17.00: Cartoon Art Museum, San Francisco, CA: Ware, Clowes, and Kidd
9.19.00:BookPeople, Austin, TX: Ware, Clowes, and Kidd
9.21.00: Barbara's, Oak Park, IL: Ware, Clowes, and Kidd
9.23.00: Quimby's, Chicago, IL: Ware and Clowes
9.24.00: New York is Book Country, New York, NY: Ware, Clowes, Katchor, and Spiegelman
9.25.00: Virgin (Union Square), New York, NY: Ware, Clowes, and Kidd
9.27.00: The New School, New York, NY: Ware, Clowes, and Kidd
9.28.00: Million Year Picnic, Boston, MA: Ware
9.28.00: Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA: Ware, Clowes, and Kidd

9.27.00: The New School

Dispatch From Mary Clark (Pantheon Marketing Coordinator)

Mary attended all the New York tour events. These are her notes from the Wednesday night appearance by our heros at the New School in New York City...

...We're starting to recognize these people. They've literally shown up at every single New York event that Dan, Chris, and Chip have been at, and I have an inkling that a few might even make it up to Boston. There was "red corduroy boy" who arrived an hour early for New York Is Book Country, "Orgy Bound" girl who looked like Wanda/Judy/Pamela from David Boring, and the Kevin Nealon look-alike who now owns about 25 signed Jimmy Corrigans. And someone swears they saw Sean Lennon waiting in line to meet the boys.

Host Robert Polito (director of the new school writing program) deemed Jimmy and David "the coolest books around." Then the "extremely illuminating and pleasingly charming" panel discussion began (Chip's words, not mine).

Chris Ware showed slides of his early work (including Jimmy Corrigan's origins in a painting that chris' art teachers weren't particularly fond of) and elaborate research notes on the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. (He even went so far as to study the vegetation at the grounds of the fair!) His work was steered in new directions by the examples of Frank King's brightly colored Gasoline Alley and Jimmy Moriarty's quiet tone. He fully admits to learning through others' comics in developing his own style.

Then came Dan Clowes -- he presented a slide showing the cover of his sketch book and one page from the interior. Childhood favorites like Superman's Pal: Jimmy Olsen and Captain Marvel were shown to be the inspiration for "Yellow Streak," a mock strip which appears in David Boring.

Then came the multimedia event ... we saw a double feature of DAVID BORING: THE FLASH PREVIEW by John Kuramoto (the animated comic available on this very website) and a sneak peak of "Ghostworld," the movie that Dan is making with Terry Zwigoff.

But the die-hard fans wanted more details. Dan likes Nabokov, Booth Tarkington, Robert Crumb, and T.V. Guide, while Chris prefers Tolstoy and turn of the century military march music. Chip likes the New York Observer. Dan explained that his comics are a result of the fact that he often feels "confused and alienated by the world in general" and Chris admitted that Jimmy's jump from a Chicago high-rise was semi-autobiographical.

Throughout the night, Chris used musical terms to describe his work--the panels are like beats in a measure, the overall rhythm is key--but both Dan and Chris maintain that music is somewhat distracting to their art. Dan goes so far as to wear headphones to block out ALL noise, and Chris can only listen to his favorite military band music and ragtime once he is finished actually drawing the cartoons. Sometimes he even listens to books on tape.

Most of the discussion revolved around their work, although there was some talk of superheroes ("the greatest metaphor in the world" according to Chris), the future of graphic novels and Pantheon's role, and the Great American city of Chicago ("Paris on the Prairie"). Both authors have lived in Chicago--Dan actually grew up in a house that was built for the 1893 World's Fair. The fans were excited that both guys are already at work on their next projects--for Dan, it's a movie based on "art school confidential" (the crowd went "oooh"), for Chris a comic about the deteriorating world of a toy collector.

They apologized profusely for the event and promised to give folks their money back, but there was clearly no need. Over three hundred fans waited in line for an hour to get their books signed and elaborately drawn on by Dan and Chris--some for the third time this week.

A drawing done by Chris Ware on a post it during his time in the Pantheon offices.

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