Her presentation at the National Book Festival on Sept. 22 was hilarious and insightful and it’s really hard to do it justice by writing about it (I think video should be up on the National Book Festival website eventually). Her points where made mostly through anecdotes which were all entertaining. The 45 minutes she was allotted weren’t nearly enough (sadly, there was too much glare on the screen so she abandoned using her slideshow).

She started her talk by saying this was the sort of thing she would’ve made up when she was in the second grade — she gets invited by the Library of Congress to talk to a bunch of people! — and her delight at being in front of this crowd was always clear. She said art was a form of “transportation.” Basically, since she had drawn a picture, she got to be here. And while that’s a really simple way of looking at it, when Barry says it, it’s absolutely true. Art can and does take us places.

She talked a bit about her family life (making jokes about her amazing Filipino grandmother and her Norwegian heritage) before asking the audience to remember their first phone number and say it out loud (I, sadly, do not remember mine). In our minds, our phone numbers are images. This introduced the recurring theme throughout her talk — that we are attracted to and attached to images.

She told a few funny stories about the objects children get attached to, including one friends’ daughter had named Mr. Banana. She joked that when you ask kids if their favorite stuffed toy is “alive,” they know you’re a grownup messing with them. But when you ask if their favorite stuffed toy is dead, it completely changes. Objects have meaning beyond their physical reality.

She then joked about how she never had an imaginary friend as a kid and tried to make one up — an imaginary imaginary friend, but that didn’t quite work. She knew she’d never succeed because she had a friend who had an imaginary friend named Sprinkles that she could only talk to through a fan. Nothing about that was rational, which made it both satisfying and real.

Because of that kind of thing, Barry said she always likes talking to kids. They’re honest and intense in their play. And play is essential to who we are. She basically said adults are crazy because we don’t play enough (that’s something I absolutely agree with).

Probably the most powerful story she told was about research into mirror therapy. People who have phantom pain after having a limb removed often feel better after they see the opposite limb relax in a mirror. The only way to resolve pain is to see it reflected, she said. And that’s what art does. We can hear a song or read a book or see a painting and suddenly feel like we’re understood. It lessens our pain because it’s reflected back at us.

Consuming art is fine, she said, but making art is better. That’s what makes life worth living. It’s not about if it’s “good” or “bad” — it’s about doing it, about expressing something. It’s a good lesson for everyone.

And that reminds me: I’ve done some abstract paintings off and on in the past year. I said to someone that “Oh, they’re not good but I don’t really care.” This person told me “They’re good because you made them.” That seems to be Barry’s point, ultimately. All art is good if you’ve made it. So just go make it.

I really only have a couple of things for this week (I won’t collect every single link about Small Press Expo, after all) but I thought I’d take this space to talk a little bit about Small Press Expo 2013.

It was, as always, exhausting and amazing. I really didn’t get to spend as much time walking the floor as I would’ve liked nor did I get to see so many people I wanted to see. But I’m kind of resigned to the fact that this is how the show goes for me now. I was already pretty wiped out on Saturday (but astonishingly, actually managed to eat three meals, mostly because Greg Bennett made sure of that. I am incredibly grateful for that).

The entire process of the Ignatz was pretty intense this year. I don’t think a lot of people submitted until after table registrations happened. But then the books just kept coming. And coming. And coming. I know none of us expected to get so many books. I know I didn’t.

But I think the strength of the nominees really showed the depth of the titles we got. There were many a few usual suspects but I know the jurors were extremely thoughtful in their choices. So many of the categories were tough choices for me.

And yes, I was clearly delighted when all the Outstanding Graphic Novel nominees were women. That just happened organically and all of those books absolutely deserved to be there.

And speaking of that, I was so thrilled Liza Donnelly agreed to host this year. She’s spoken at the United Nations! When she said she was thinking about having all the presenters be women, I basically said “I would love that.” While we both worked to pick a good list of presenters, she definitely gets all the credit.

The whole ceremony and experience meant a lot to me. In my earliest days of reading and writing about comics, I never thought I’d get to do something like this. I’ve had a rough couple of years and so it felt satisfyingly wonderful to be able to be a part of something so amazing.

(I was so happy Ulli Lust won! Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life is amazing and I loved it so much. And I am so jealous of my friend who got to hang out with her quite a bit. When he said “You two are on the same page about so many things,” that really didn’t help.)

Onto your regularly scheduled and short D.C. Area Scene.

News/reviews/interviews: 

• Author Of American Born Chinese Talks To Fans In Bethesda, Jenny Chen, Asian Fortune
• SPX 2013: Liza Donnelly’s Ignatz Awards make some history ‘to celebrate’ women cartoonists, Michael Cavna, Comic Riffs/Washington Post (the only SPX-related link I’ll post, probably)

Kickstarter:

• Mechanaflux #2 – All-Ages Fantasy Comic Book by Shawn Padraic Murphy

Events:

• Now through Nov. 3: Comics Making Studio with Members of the DC Conspiracy, Artisphere, Arlington, Va. Residencies every Thursday. Meet and greet on Sept. 21.
• Now through Nov. 10: Awake in the Dream World: The Art of Audrey Niffenegger, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.
• Sept. 17: Gene Luen Yang signing, 7 p.m., Cleveland Park Neighborhood Library. Sponsored by Politics & Prose. (You could still make it!)
• Sept. 21-22: National Book Festival, Washington, D.C. With Lynda Barry, Jaime Hernandez, Gilbert Hernandez, Fred Chao and Jonathan Hennessey (Book Festival is two days, but graphic novel/comics programming is on Sept. 22.)
• Oct. 10: Paul Pope, 7:30 p.m., Takoma Park Library, Takoma Park, Md. Sponsored by Politics & Prose.

Have comic news or events related to the D.C. area to share? Email me by 4 p.m. Tuesday. More information is here.

• Small Press Expo Announces the DC Public Library as the 2013 Recipient of the SPX Graphic Novel Gift Program
• Vienna High School Student Wins Virginia Historical Society Award, Jessie Biele, Vienna Patch
• Lewis: Graphic novel ‘makes the words become music’, James Arkin, Click: People Watching in Washington, Politico
• A new take on the story of green businesses: Honest Tea co-founders tell story in comic book format, Kevin James Shay, Gazette.net

New releases:

• Magic Bullet #7

Events:

• Now through Nov. 3: Comics Making Studio with Members of the DC Conspiracy, Artisphere, Arlington, Va. Residencies every Thursday. Meet and greet on Sept. 21.
• Now through Nov. 10: Awake in the Dream World: The Art of Audrey Niffenegger, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.
• Sept. 5: Neal Adams, 4 to 7 p.m., Beyond Comics, Frederick, Md.
• Sept. 7-8: Baltimore Comic-Con, Baltimore, Md.
• Sept. 8: Rep. John Lewis signing, 4 p.m., Politics & Prose, Washington, D.C.
• Sept. 12: Jeff Smith signing, 7 p.m., Wilson High School Media Center, Washington, D.C. Hosted by Politics and Prose.
• Sept. 14-15: Small Press Expo, North Bethesda, Md.
• Sept. 16: The Art and Style of Graphic Novels: Panel Discussion with Laura Lee Gulledge, Rutu Modan, Matt Phelan, and Gene Luen Yang, 7 p.m., Politics & Prose, Washington, D.C.
• Sept. 17: Gene Luen Yang signing, 7 p.m., Cleveland Park Neighborhood Library. Sponsored by Politics & Prose.
• Sept. 21-22: National Book Festival, Washington, D.C. With Lynda Barry, Jaime Hernandez, Gilbert Hernandez, Fred Chao and Jonathan Hennessey (Book Festival is two days, but graphic novel/comics programming is on Sept. 22.)
• Oct. 10: Paul Pope, 7:30 p.m., Takoma Park Library, Takoma Park, Md. Sponsored by Politics & Prose.

Have comic news or events related to the D.C. area to share? Email me by 4 p.m. Tuesday. More information is here.

Graphic Women
Buy at Amazon.com

Hilary Chute’s Graphic Women (2010, Columbia University Press) isn’t necessarily the sort of book you read for fun (unless you are the sort who reads these sorts of books for fun) It’s dense and academic and intended for that audience.

But it’s amazingly in-depth, smart, engaging and important. It’s not light reading but it’s far from boring.

Chute devotes a chapter each to Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Phoebe Gloeckner, Lynda Barry, Marjane Satrapi and Alison Bechdel. These five creators cover a fairly broad range in terms of style, certainly, but Chute’s focus is more what they have in common — all tend to interpret the trauma of their lives in a graphic narrative format (not that I’d expect anything less, but I do applaud Chute for not referring to these books as “graphic novels” because they’re not).

While Satrapi and Bechdel are fairly well-known, even outside of comics, I think Gloeckner and Barry are two important creators and I love their inclusion here. Kominsky-Crumb’s work isn’t exactly to my tastes, but her influence is obvious.

If you’re familiar with these creators’ works, much of this book may be obvious to you, but Chute’s insights and interpretations are always smart. She never over-explains her subject matter and mostly she lets the work speak for itself (many images from these creator’s comics are included) and just adds context.

Still, if you’re picking it up for a pleasure read like I did, it can be slow going. The more interesting chapters for me where on the creators I was less familiar with because I felt like I got more out of them. I already felt like I knew about Satrapi and Persepolis so I admit to skimming portions of that chapter. I don’t think that’s a reflection on Chute’s writing or research — both of which are excellent — but more that the nature of this book not quite being suited to leisure-time reading.

I guess my feelings about this book comes down to these things: Is Graphic Women a great book to read on a Sunday afternoon? Maybe not, but that depends on what you do on your Sunday afternoons. Is it incredibly cool that this book exists? Yes. Am I happy that I read it? Absolutely. I hope it makes its way onto all kinds of bookshelves — even if it’s more suited ones in a university library rather than at home.

Review copy provided through NetGalley.

I’m currently on a documentary kick and Netflix does have a few streaming that focus on comics or comic book culture. I figured this would be good for a laugh. Or at least a way to waste a few hours.

Comic Book Confidential
Even though this documentary was made in 1988, it still feels very relevant now. The primary focus is on alternative comics — works and creators outside the superhero genre, although those are definitely acknowledged — and I think that’s a side of comics that rarely gets enough attention historically. Yes, we all know about the rise of DC and Marvel, the stories of superheroes, all of that, but these underground creators contributed more than I think most people realize to the look and feel of comics today.

I was delighted to see how many of them are still working today — creators like Lynda Barry and Charles Burns are featured here, along with Jaime Hernandez and Art Spielgman. I also think the sight of an awesomely long-haired Frank Miller at the end being all self-important is quite incredible.

But really, if you want to know the history of comics and side of that history that doesn’t get nearly enough attention, this is a good place to start. I have no idea why more people haven’t told me to watch this documentary before. Nor do I have any idea why I haven’t watched it until now.

Starz Inside: Comic Books Unbound
This is from 2008, and already seems a bit dated (in contrast to Comic Book Confidential, which doesn’t), especially since it was made before the economy tanked and Spider-Man got rebooted and the manga market took a downturn. And it definitely shies away from any criticism of the movies covered here, even when it’s probably deserved.

But it’s actually a pretty decent overview of the history of comic book movies. While there’s plenty of typical studio talking heads, it does feature interesting creators like Paul Pope and Mike Mignola as well as director Richard Donner. The overall tone here is completely flattering, even when they touch on some of the goofy live-action projects Marvel did in the ’80s and ’90s (but no mention of the TV movies for Nick Fury or Generation X, even though the Spider-Man and The Hulk series got passing mentions. I think some things are better off forgotten). But case in point: There was no acknowledgment that Marvel is still making bad movies (Daredevil? Elektra? I somewhat like Elektra, but I’m not going to tell you it’s good).

Still, I like that they do pay some attention to non-superhero comic book movies like The Road to Perdition and A History of Violence as well as American Splendor. And although the “looking into the future” predictions aren’t quite accurate now, I still think it’s clear that comic book movies are big business. I was surprised by this. I wasn’t expecting too much from it, but underneath the breathless tone of “these movies are awesome!” there is something of substance here.

Confessions of a Superhero
This 2007 documentary isn’t so much about comic books, except in the most abstract of ways. Rather, it’s about four people who dress up as superheros (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and The Hulk) and let tourists take photos of them for tips.

Christopher Dennis loves Superman a little too much — he has an overcrowded apartment full of merchandise and memorabilia and rarely takes the costume off. Maxwell Allen has inflated claims of his past as a supposed mob enforcer (as well as his resemblance to George Clooney) and seems to take being Batman a little too personally.

On the other hand, Jennifer Wenger, who dresses as Wonder Woman, and Joe McQueen, who dresses as The Hulk, both seem to understand this is just a way to make money in between acting jobs.

Wenger comes across the best of all four — she’s the most down-to-earth and genuinely sweet. McQueen also seems to understand his limitations and has overcome hardship (he was homeless for a while).

The other two? They both have obvious problems. Dennis claims to be the son of Sandy Dennis, but her family says he’s not. His obsession with Superman comes across as a compulsion (and his apartment is nearly something out of Hoarders). Allen is charming enough, until his outlandish stories begin to pile up (he claims to be great at various martial arts, but one scene in a martial arts studio would say otherwise. Perhaps not surprisingly, both seem to think dressing up as superheroes will provide them with their big breaks.

It’s a little painful in parts and it’s more about these four lives than any deeper message. But there’s still something sad and fascinating about how people are delighted and happy to pay money to get their photos taken with someone — anyone — dressed as their favorite heroes. There’s some power there.

Maybe this time next year, I’ll have the Comic-Con documentary that Joss Whedon, Harry Knowles and Morgan Spurlock are making this year. I suppose we’ll see how that turns out.