animation, comics, exhibits, events, etc!

Members of the Sequential Art Collective (including executive boardsters Matt. Murray, Allan Dorison, Jennifer Babcock and key supporter David Wasserman) were pretty busy this past week networking, geeking out and just being general nuisances at the San Diego Comic Con.

Left to right: Matt. Murray, Jennifer Babcock, David Wasserman and Allan Dorison.

For those who aren’t friends of ours individually on facebook (where most of these pics were originally published), below are some highlights from our exploits.

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In Die By the Pen, Jared Gniewek discusses what feeds his fires as an author of comics, screenplays and radio dramas.

As writers, we are by nature introspective creatures. We always know what we think about things. Sometimes it takes a ridiculously long time to get there, but we tend to arrive at opinions. We have too many or two few of them — depending on your spiritual elevation.

This is wonderful, if we couldn’t tap into what we think or believe,  we wouldn’t be very good at laying down the words. We’d be paralyzed with not only what to write but how to write it.    Introspection is one of our great strengths.

So too is the opposite: empathy.

Sometimes our characters don’t represent our own world view, but being empathetic is crucial to their creation and execution. We need to honestly “feel” them. If we can’t treat those with whom we disagree with the weight they deserve, then how can we treat our characters as living potent beings… And we must!  Characters are as real as we let them be and believe me when I say that the more crystal a character is in your mind the more potency it emerges onto the page with.

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In Ramblings of a Fanboy, regular contributors and guest writers alike take a look at modern fandom through the lens of their own behavior and obsessions.  This week, Matt. Murray, SAC’s Chairman and President, talks about the amp up to next week’s San Diego Comic Con.

So, this is my first year going to San Diego Comic Con.  The Big Dance.  The Nexus of the Entertainment World.  And yes, I must say that I’m rather excited.  My bank account, however, isn’t.   As of the publishing of this piece,  SDCC is less than a week a way, and by the time I get there I’ll probably be broke from all of the pre-orders and advance solicitations for merchandise that I get bombarded with from various exhibitors that I’ll be seeing out there at the “Nerd Prom.”

This past weekend dropped $31.00 pre-ordering, Comic-Con: 40 Years of Artists, Writers, Fans and Friends, the 40th Anniversary commemorative book that they’re hawking at the official Comic-Con International website.  I figured that I was going to pick it up at the show anyway, so I might as well save myself the additional $9 (+ CA sales tax!!!) that I would have to hand over at the show itself.

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