My SCSU Memory Book

I returned from New Haven this weekend with many fond memories of the comics panels and camaraderie at "Encountering the Text," Saturday’s all-day Graduate English Conference at Southern Connecticut State University.

I even developed a certain admiration for the mind-stretching title of the day’s comics component, "Subcultures, Semiotics, Sexualities, and Superheroes: Textual/Pictorial Methodologies in Graphic Narrative Media," which falls trippingly off the tongue for academics but for others of us may be the most daunting assemblage of tricky words since Dr. Seuss wrote Fox In Socks.

And for once I not only remembered to bring a camera, I also remembered to take pictures with it!

Above: Ace comics historian Dr. William Foster and I have become full-fledged comics conference buddies after having crossed paths at three such events in recent years. Bill, a Professor of English at Naugatuck Valley Community-Technical College, is the author of Looking For a Face Like Mine.

Above: Panelist Tim Fish is the creator of, editor of, and contributor to the Young Bottoms in Love webcomic series (and subsequent print anthology) as well as the author and illustrator of Cavalcade of Boys.

Above: Shannon Wheeler, creator of Too Much Coffee Man and Postage Stamp Funnies, and New Haven Advocate journalist Christopher Arnott try to concentrate on conversation while being distracted by me and my camera.

Above: Panelist Gabrielle Bell, author of When I’m Old And Other Stories and Lucky, gamely submits to a video interview.

At Left: Graphic Novelist Abby Denson (who in the hands of a more accomplished photographer is not blurry in the least) shares scenes from Tough Love: High School Confidential and her soon-to-be-published book Dolltopia.

At Left: Cartoonist and grad student Michael (sometimes called Mykl) Sivak is the man who pulled together the graphic narrative portion of SCSU’s conference and served as moderator for two of the day’s three comics panels as well as a presenter in the third.

Above: The aforementioned Shannon Wheeler observes comics panel moderators Corinne Blackmer and the aforementioned Michael Sivak conferring about whatever conference panel moderators confer about between sessions.

Above: In a closing orgy of gustatory delight before hitting the road, we comics panelists gathered with assorted friends, family members, and fellow presenters to gorge ourselves at the fabulous Miya’s Sushi on Howe Street.

At Left: At Miya’s we were greeted by Bun Lai, the restaurant’s gracious, skilled, and (if I may be forgiven for noting) hunky proprietor and chef.

Below: The three effervescent canine bedmates who shared an expansive fold-out couch with me during my overnight stay at the home of SCSU Professor Corinne Blackmer and Pilar Stewart. Many thanks for your hospitality, Corinne and Pilar.

At left: Lulu, fortunately, is not the jealous type.

(And besides, what happens in New Haven stays in New Haven—right?)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 12:48 pm and is filed under Family & Friends, Life & Art, Me, Me, Me!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “My SCSU Memory Book”

1. abbycomix » Blog Archive » SCSU event recap by Howard Cruse! says:

   April 23, 2009 at 12:11 pm

   [...] Last Saturday’s comics event at SCSU was amazing! It was great to hang out with friends like Howard and Tim Fish, getting to know Gabrielle Bell better, and meeting Shannon Wheeler for the first time, among all the other great folks there! Howard Cruse posted a way more detailed reminiscence on it with photos. Check it out! [...]
2. Martha Thomases says:

   April 23, 2009 at 1:53 pm

   It looks like a conference with a lot of cute boys. And that’s the best kind of conference.
3. Here We Go Again! « Loose Cruse: The Blog says:

   December 12, 2009 at 11:43 am

   [...] to present my slideshows have tended to be extended of late by educational institutions (Southern Connecticut State University and Ocean County College hosted me most recently, you may recall), so my slideshows have taken the [...]
4. From Headrack to Clawboy « Loose Cruse: The Blog says:

   December 17, 2009 at 7:23 am

   [...] to present my slideshows have tended to be extended of late by educational institutions (Southern Connecticut State University and Ocean County College hosted me most recently, you may recall), so my slideshows have taken the [...]