KGB Bar

In the first event presented jointly by NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies and literary venue KGB Bar, a panel of comics writers and artists will discuss graphic novels and what AMERICAN SPLENDOR writer Harvey Pekar has called “graphic non-novels”—memoirs in the form of book-length comics. (Other examples include Art Spiegelman’s MAUS I and II and Marjane Satrapi’s PERSEPOLIS.)

What, precisely, is involved in writing and drawing autobiography, or autobiographically-influenced fiction, and how does that compare with writing/drawing stories that are entirely fictional? What are the special challenges of collaborating on work that straddles fiction and non-? How does one teach—and how can one learn—the art of the graphic non-novel?

Cartoonist and writer JESSICA ABEL is the author of a textbook, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, about making comics, written in collaboration with her husband, the cartoonist Matt Madden; and the graphic novel La Perdida (Pantheon Books). She’s also the co-writer of the graphic novel Life Sucks. Previously, she published Soundtrack and Mirror, Window (Fantagraphics Books), two collections that gather stories and drawings from her comic book Artbabe, which she published between 1992 and 1999. She collaborated with Ira Glass on Radio: An Illustrated Guide, a non-fiction comic about how the radio show This American Life is made. Abel won both the Harvey and Lulu awards for “Best New Talent” in 1997; La Perdida won the 2002 “Best New Series” Harvey Award. She teaches at New York’s School of Visual Arts, and Madden and Abel are also series editors for The Best American Comics. They live in Brooklyn with their daughter.

Native New Yorker DEAN HASPIEL, is the creator of Billy Dogma and the webcomix collective ACT-I-VATE.com. Dean has drawn for Marvel and DC Comics, including Pulitzer Prize winning Michael Chabon’s The Escapist, and is best known for his collaborations with Harvey Pekar on The Quitter and American Splendor. Recently, Dean drew The Alcoholic, an original graphic novel collaboration with author Jonathan Ames. Dean currently edits Next-Door Neighbor for SMITHmag.net, and produces Street Code, a semi-autobiographical webcomic for Zudacomics.com.

GABRIELLE BELL is known for the auto-biographical series Lucky and for her semi-autobiographical and fictional contributions to anthologies such as Mome and Kramers Ergot. Her newest book, Cecil and Jordan in New York, will be in stores some time this month. The title story was adapted for the triptych Tokyo! with Michel Gondry, which opens March 6 at the Sunshine Theater.