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This weekend was the Brooklyn Book Festival! As half of our staff lives in Brooklyn, we like to support the borough. Also, two of our authors — Derek Kirk Kim (Tune) and Mark Siegel (Sailor Twain) were featured in the programming. So off we went!
Here’s the program guide! And it even had a map. I approve of program guides having maps.
Here’s where the festival was held — at Brooklyn Borough Hall. It is lovely! The weather was delightful; if only the entirety of Brooklyn fall could be like this.
Everyone at the Brooklyn Book Festival liked comics! The picture above was of the Forbidden Planet booth — peopled by individuals of all shapes and sizes and ages.
D&Q came! That meant we got to see them two weeks in a row! (I’m not sure how they did this while also not falling over of multiple-convention-exhaustion.)
So did Picturebox! I got a copy of the new Sammy Harkham book, which I am very excited about. (Dan’s lack of exhaustion is easier to explain because he lives in New York.)
Brooklyn Book Festival6
Mark and Derek (and Charise Mericle Harper) did a draw-off together. The audience voted on what they should draw, and them crazy things happened.
Calvin Reid from PW moderated.
Here is a small child making a suggestion for the artists to draw. If I am remembering properly, her suggestion included ostriches and ducks contained in bubbles.
At the end, everyone wanted one of the drawings!
Derek’s signing one of his giant drawings for a fan.
And here Mark’s signing one of his picture books, Moving House.
Derek’s showing a bit of his upcoming graphic novel, Tune.
And then he and Mark sang the Totoro song together.
Mark: “It’s kind of convenient for sailors, right? She’s a mermaid — what are you going to do?”
Moderator Ellen Kushner’s next question: “Derek, you’re a great champion of neo-realistic comics and now you’re down here in the genre gutter with us. Do you think of it that way?”
Derek: “Yes.”
Audience Question: “My question is for Mr. Kim and Mr. Siegel. I don’t know if you’re aware of the comics artist Scott McCloud?”
(Mark: is Scott McCloud’s editor.)
(Derek: knows Scott well enough to convince him to act in his Mythomania show)
Obvious Response: Pray tell, who is this ‘Scott McCloud’ that you speak of?
Mark signs an early copy of Sailor Twain for the delightful moderator — with white ink!
And then we went home! It’s so nice to have a local book festival.
