ICON Conference: Garbage with a Few Gems?

Just got back from ICON 5 in everybody's favorite Gotham City. I love New York and got to spend some time with my daughter. All very nice. But ICON itself was a staggering (is that too hyperbolic?) disappointment to me.

One example:"What do Children's Book Editors Want?" breakout session. Apparently, the answer is nothing. The speaker was a fine speaker and gave a very earnest presentation: a visual survey of children's illustration over the last decade. That's fine and dandy, but the expectation was the session would focus more on the mechanics of submitting work for publication and getting work within the area of children's book publishing. Unfortunately, I don't think the speaker was informed of this. He WAS available for a book signing. (Humor me and imagine that as irony and not cynicism)

Many of the workshops I was anticipating as valuable and/or fun ended up as boring and/or useless (hang on -- I've got some good things to say.) The James Jean workshop was fine if you are a 22 year old fanboy, but the lack of real world interaction (we sat and watched him manipulate the layers in one of his images) contradicted the ICON promotional materials that promised hands-on work, with our own image, under Jean's direction. For some reason this didn't happen. Mr. Jean seemed like a fine young man and I am a huge admirer of his work. I don't need his autograph, however.

Those aren't all of the things that were lacking, but the conference did have highlights for me. "Graphic Novels Workshop: A Closer Look with James Sturm" was well worth the time. I am an admirer of Mr. Sturm's work and the demonstration of his working process and some anecdotes of his experiences were enlightening and entertaining. His presentation was not some form of self-promotion as many of the others were. I suggest that learning more about The Center for Cartoon Studies (www.cartoonstudies.org) is worth the time. And his book on Satchel Paige is an example of a smart and entertaining graphic novel.

"Tall Tales & Simple Stories: Great Storytelling" with Ronnie Del Carmen and Enrico Casarosa was terrific and inspiring. The use of group participation demonstrated the simple human need and instinct for storytelling -- and how we all have stories to tell. Note to other presenters--the audience loves to play--get them involved.

"Making Fire, Inspirational Teaching" with Marshall Arisman and Rudy Gutierrez was downright spiritual. Both a performance art and a lesson in teaching and learning, these two gentlemen provided me with one of the single real practical pieces of advice that I managed to squeeze out of the conference. My revelation is a bit ephemeral, but long story short, I interpreted their approach to teaching as a journey where both instructor and the student learn who they are and apply it to the work in a collaborative dance. This was a direct challenge to my previous teaching experience that focussed on technique and little else. Art with a personal component is poetry. Art as technique is merely marks on paper. The preponderance of teaching out there is about marks on paper.

I have some other criticisms (surprised?) but I'll keep them to myself at this point.

By the way, it appears that they sold quite a few books and the bookstore was by far the best organized aspect of the conference.

I can suggest (as many have) that July 4 is a ridiculous date for the conference (and I know full well that the organizers knew this and made the decision based on information I didn't have) but that doesn't make the decision any better.

Luckily, ICON only comes around periodically. It would take a couple of years for the pain of this year to pass.

My suggestion is to attend San Diego Comic Con. I think it's more relevant, informative and fun. And the toys are better.