Club produces second annual workday comic
Issue date: 4/14/08 Section: News
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"The Comic Book Club is a club for people who enjoy comic books and manga of any genre and era," said Nick Langley, junior digital art major and president of the Comic Book Club. "Those with a deeper interest in this field of work also have the opportunity to join in on events like the Workday Comic or trips to San Francisco's WonderCon or San Diego's Comic-Con International."
Some of the highlights from last year's comics were "Arbeit Macht Frei" about Nazis and vampires. It was a collaboration between writer Justin Poole and artist Mark Head. Even Nick Langley's own apocalyptic comedy "Cat Hair Sausage;" Nicole Smith's manga-style "Show and Tell;" Thomas Sepe's "Tabellae Volaticus" about a sheet of paper that wants to become a bird and fly; and probably the most popular piece in The Workday Comic, volume one, was Alex Langley's "Rocket Llama."
This semester, 11 students and their advisers went to San Francisco to attend WonderCon, a science fiction and comic book convention. There, they got to interview professionals and make presentations about their research on fan behavior and about the Workday Comic. "Last year's volume turned out very well and is about to go into its second printing, so we should have copies of both volumes to distribute when 17 of us attend International Comic-Con in July," said Langley.
Comic-Con is the world's largest comic book convention that happens every year. A few students attended last year. "This year we'll have a much larger group to conduct our fan research and to present our research and the Workday Comic before a much larger audience," said Langley.
The Workday Comic also turned out to be very successful this year. "It worked out extremely well." said Langley. "Last year we had six stories contributed, working out to be 48 pages. This year, we have 10 stories for over 70 pages of material."
Returning creators learned a few things that helped them become better, and they helped newcomers along the way. "Even when working individually on our own pieces, we still influence each other because we're all working on our stories together in one room." said Langley. "Two people who failed to complete any story last year both completed stories this year. In fact, to make up for failing to complete an eight page story in eight hours last year, one of them produced two stories in four hours this year."
So what's next for the Henderson Comic Book Club and its Workday Comic Volume 2? "Volume 2 of The Workday Comic will be split into two issues with around 35 pages each. The two covers of these issues will fit together to show one, much larger image, making them a collectible set." said Langley.
Anyone interested will have to wait a couple of weeks before Volume 2 goes online," Langley said. "Anyone wanting it in print will have to wait longer. We should have it in print in a few months, after we sell ads that will go in the back of each issue."
This weekend the Comic Book Club presented analyses of comic book characters at the Arkansas Undergraduate Research Conference for the Comics and Psychology Class. They'll also be presenting these analyses when they go to San Diego for Comic-Con in July.
Photos of the workday and last year's issue can be found online at http://fac.hsu.edu/langlet/workdaycomic.
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