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SWF 2007 - Weekend over
Dec. 2nd, 2007 08:57 amSpent a busy two days at the Singapore Writers Festival. I thought I'd be able to see at least some of the other events, but it turns out that ushering Kurt Busiek (and later on Gail Simone) around for their panels pretty much took up all my time... which was okay. I mean, being able to help and also hang out with real comic book writers, and good comic book writers which I both admire at that, was a treat. Luckily I was actually officially asked to do it, or else I'd have been a particularly creepy stalker.
There were plenty of people willing and able to show them around, of course. In the time here, Kurt and Gail have seen Fort Canning, sampled chilli crab, various bits of local cuisine like fish head curry, char kway teow, carrot cake, steamboat, roti prata... as Scott, Gail's husband mentioned, he doesn't think we emphasize enough about our food. Of course, the two of them — all of them, really, including Gail's husband and son — were lovely people (as if I was going to say otherwise... but no, they really are. Gracious, polite, and tolerant of all the rushing around and swarmed around by fans).
I think/hope they did enjoy themselves. The panels went well — both Gail and Kurt were pleasantly surprised to find that the questions from the audience were pretty much the same kinds of questions they get at San Diego. I was afraid going in at whether or not there would be enough comic fans and geeks around since the SWF weren't that good at publicizing the fact that the two of them were coming, especially not to the fan population, which kind of ignores anything arty-farty that the government comes up with, but it turned out all right. Being used to conventions helped me a bit, since I was able to organize and moderate a bit more effectively because of that. The organizers are a great bunch of people, very enthusiastic, very supporting, but what I've seen at the SWF, comic books are still a niche event and they don't know quite where to place us. But that's really nothing new. I'm hoping that if it happens again next year I can persuade the organizers or give a few ideas as to how to create a bigger presence for comic books, with more panels (time was at a premium, especially for the last panel on local graphic novels, which really needs more time and broader coverage) and more publicity.
I think there's potential in the local fan community, from what I've seen. Having been involved in fannish organizations here in Singapore and abroad, I'm not sure I want to really put in the work to get it sorted out... it's a lot of work, and you wind up dealing with so much political stuff in the end it stops being fun... but there's potential. We're years away from being able to do something approximating a con, of course. There's a glimmer of a foundation that can be worked on, I think, and I met a couple of people who seemed to share the same feeling. There's a lot of artists here, of course, and also people interested in writing for comics. The real question is what Singapore really has to contribute to the international comics industry, and that's something we have to think long and hard about to be able to distinguish ourselves from the herd, or wind up just a one-note cultural cliché. But that's another discussion.
In the end, it was fun, it was great meeting Kurt and Gail and family, and I'm hoping they'll go back and tell Mark Waid what he missed and sing Singapore's praises to other writers and artists so they'll be eager to brave the 24-hour journey down here.
( So here's a photograph of two geniuses and a geek. )
There were plenty of people willing and able to show them around, of course. In the time here, Kurt and Gail have seen Fort Canning, sampled chilli crab, various bits of local cuisine like fish head curry, char kway teow, carrot cake, steamboat, roti prata... as Scott, Gail's husband mentioned, he doesn't think we emphasize enough about our food. Of course, the two of them — all of them, really, including Gail's husband and son — were lovely people (as if I was going to say otherwise... but no, they really are. Gracious, polite, and tolerant of all the rushing around and swarmed around by fans).
I think/hope they did enjoy themselves. The panels went well — both Gail and Kurt were pleasantly surprised to find that the questions from the audience were pretty much the same kinds of questions they get at San Diego. I was afraid going in at whether or not there would be enough comic fans and geeks around since the SWF weren't that good at publicizing the fact that the two of them were coming, especially not to the fan population, which kind of ignores anything arty-farty that the government comes up with, but it turned out all right. Being used to conventions helped me a bit, since I was able to organize and moderate a bit more effectively because of that. The organizers are a great bunch of people, very enthusiastic, very supporting, but what I've seen at the SWF, comic books are still a niche event and they don't know quite where to place us. But that's really nothing new. I'm hoping that if it happens again next year I can persuade the organizers or give a few ideas as to how to create a bigger presence for comic books, with more panels (time was at a premium, especially for the last panel on local graphic novels, which really needs more time and broader coverage) and more publicity.
I think there's potential in the local fan community, from what I've seen. Having been involved in fannish organizations here in Singapore and abroad, I'm not sure I want to really put in the work to get it sorted out... it's a lot of work, and you wind up dealing with so much political stuff in the end it stops being fun... but there's potential. We're years away from being able to do something approximating a con, of course. There's a glimmer of a foundation that can be worked on, I think, and I met a couple of people who seemed to share the same feeling. There's a lot of artists here, of course, and also people interested in writing for comics. The real question is what Singapore really has to contribute to the international comics industry, and that's something we have to think long and hard about to be able to distinguish ourselves from the herd, or wind up just a one-note cultural cliché. But that's another discussion.
In the end, it was fun, it was great meeting Kurt and Gail and family, and I'm hoping they'll go back and tell Mark Waid what he missed and sing Singapore's praises to other writers and artists so they'll be eager to brave the 24-hour journey down here.
( So here's a photograph of two geniuses and a geek. )
