Symposium in Luzern

DRAWING AS LANGUAGE AND HOW COMIC ARTISTS TEACH IT On Friday, 22 april a lot of great cartoonists will be hanging arround in Luzern. The Fumetto Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary and invited some of their favorite guests of the pervious festivals. Pierre Thomé from the artschool took the occasion and organized a Symposium, which has a fantastic line up: Joe Sacco, Jost Swarte, Ben Katchor, Yvan Alagbé, Gabrielle Bell and more ...

Ben Katchor about his Lecture "Teaching Comics in a U.S. Art School" "On the realities of teaching comics and other text-image work on a university-level in the United States. Although text-image work pervades the culture, there are difficulties involved in situating courses in this antique form of multi-media within the disciplinary framework that still exists in the academic world. Coupled with this problem is the shrinking support for the humanities in higher education in the U.S. and the reluctance of students to experiment with new forms of text-image expression when they’re concerned about making “commercial” work to pay off the loans that covered the cost of their luxury education. As the advertising basis for comics in newspapers, magazines and online has disappeared, the students’ concerns with making work that appeals to the market are largely imaginary."