I finally made it to a Laydeez do Comics meeting! I wrote it several times in various diaries and calendars and with my 2 years of locations of Leeds knowledge I now know where it is held. Laydeez do Comics describes themselves as a combination between a book club and a TED talk. These events are held in various locations around the UK and US where artists, writers and general fans of comics can meet up every two months to listen to guest speakers, talk about their own work and also the chance to network.
The first guest speaker at this evenings Laydeez Do Comics was Neil Gibson, unlike the second speaker tonight, I have already met Neil and heard his presentation: How comics can help you work and study - reasons why you should use them. Even so I still was excited to hear this as the last time I stumbled upon the talk at Leeds Thought Bubble last year, I was in full costume and no means of taking notes. Tonight I am prepared with an audio recorder and a notebook.
About Neil Gibson (taken from his website)
Neil is the founder and lead writer at TPub. He is currently writing all of the titles at TPub, but is looking forward to the day when other writers are hired he can take credit for their work. He used to be a management consultant, before realising in his 30s that he loved good comics and wanted to make a career out of them. He believes that the comic book medium is one of the most efficient mediums for communicating stories. If you want to annoy him, just mention how you think comics are for kids. His reaction is a common source of amusement. He has given talks in universities and clubs about comics and will gladly talk anywhere he is invited to about comics and how underutilised they really are.
The talk was to a room full of comic book creatives, artists, writers and fans alike, the first part of the presentation was a business like approach to comics. It centred around this idea of how you can use images to communicate information and also how this can fit into a study environment in the way that information attached to the accompanying illustrations can allow you to remember more. However the talk this time round, seemed more like a business presentation aimed at investors, companies and schools rather than the audience that sat before Neil this evening. To give Neil credit he did explain the target audience for this presentation and giving an example of what he would usually be presenting to the right audience. It did give an insight into other peoples thoughts and idea into how comics and graphic novels are portrayed by the general public and the key uses that people would benefit from, if they could look past this wrong idea of comics being for children and there is no place for an adult audience.
I did enjoy this talk more the first time round and that might be for the main reason that the information given to me was something new and an angle i'd never thought about before. I have always read and continue to read comics/graphic novels even as I get older, but seeing how others may view it and also the benefits of the illustrations meeting the content, it is definitely a talk to attend for that little bit more information.
The second part of the talk was something new i've not heard before that gave Neil Gibson the opportunity to talk about his love of comics and how he became a writer and founder of TPub. This gave an insight into how his love of reading graphic novels fuelled him to write a one of his own that was originally for his mother, but ended up getting published. He spoke about the processes and journey of this experience that then lead to his own publishing company. Which overall became an interesting insight to how graphic novels make it into comic store around the UK and where all the money goes between publishers, distributors and stores.
For more information of Neil Gibson and TPub follow the link below:
http://www.neilgibsoncomics.com
