Jeff Smith, Creator of Bone, public events at Hampshire College and UMass Amherst
Jeff Smith, the bestselling graphic novelist in America, the creator of Bone and Rasl, will appear at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to talk about America’s first graphic novelist in a lecture entitled “The Legacy of Will Eisner and The Contract with God.” Time Magazine named Bone “one of the ten greatest graphic novels of all time,” and Rasl has been called “absolutely wonderful…high-speed adventure” (Boingboing), “packed with challenging visuals” (National Public Radio).
Public Lecture Friday, October 18th AT 2 PM
BARTLETT HALL AUDITORIUM ROOM 65
University of Massachusetts Amherst
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Q&A on Comics & Creativity, Friday, October 18th, 10AM,
Hampshire College, Bill Brand Screening Room,
Jerome Liebling Center for Film, Photography, and Video.
BOOK SIGNINGS FOLLOWING TALKS
These events, sponsored by the Dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts; the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures; the Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies; the Department of Art, Architecture, and Art History; the Department of English; Organization of Graduate Students in Comparative Literature; the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies; and the University Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of Massachusetts Amherst; the Humanities and Cultural Studies Program, and the School of Cognitive Science at Hampshire College; and the Department of English at Mount Holyoke College, is free, open to the public, and wheelchair accessible. For more information, email judaic@judnea.umass.edu or call 413-545-2550.
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PRESS RELEASE: October 10, 2013 TK@hfa.umass.edu, 413-577-4423
Graphic Novelist Jeff Smith (Bone, Rasl) to Speak at UMass Amherst and Hampshire College on Anniversary of the First Graphic Novel
AMHERST, Mass – Jeff Smith, the bestselling graphic novelist in America, the creator of Bone and Rasl, will appear at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to talk about America’s first graphic novelist in a lecture entitled “The Legacy of Will Eisner and The Contract with God.” Smith will speak in Bartlett Hall Auditorium Room 65 at 2:00 PM on Friday, October 18th, 2013. Time Magazine named Bone one of the “ten greatest graphic novels of all times,” and Rasl has been called “absolutely wonderful…high-speed adventure” (Boingboing), “packed with challenging visuals” (National Public Radio). Smith’s talk marks thirty-fifth anniversary of the publication of A Contract with God, widely recognized as the first great American graphic novel. Smith will also appear at Hampshire College in an informal conversation for students on comics, visual narrative and creativity in the Bill Brand Screening Room, Jerome Liebling Center for Film, Photography, and Video at 10:00 AM, also on Friday, October 18th, 2013.
Jeff Smith’s Bone is the best-known and one of the most admired graphic novel series in America, due both to its extraordinary quality and to its publication and distribution by Scholastic Books, which launched its award-winning graphic novel imprint with Bone, selling millions of copies through bookstores and Scholastic book clubs. Bone incorporates the ideals with which Eisner imbued the American graphic novel: aesthetic integrity, complex storytelling, respect for the medium and its history combined with originality and innovation, and independence of artistic vision. Bone might best be described as the Harry Potter of graphic novels. Like Harry Potter, Jeff Smith’s Bone is published by Scholastic, is an internationally bestselling fantasy series, and is read and admired by audiences of all ages.
Like Eisner, Jeff Smith has also been a leader in advocating for comic art as a medium deserving of respect and critical attention, and for the rights of artists and writers in the works they create. Smith was a pioneering entrepreneur in the independent graphic novel publishing field, establishing Cartoon Books to publish his own work. His work and career have been an inspiration to younger artists, who have followed independent paths in creating and publishing, and he has also been a notable supporter of independent comics retailers and other publishers, efforts in which he follows the path blazed by Eisner.
Today graphic novels are among the fastest-growing segments of the American book market, the object of critical study and teaching in colleges and universities around the world, and a major focus of aesthetic and narrative innovation. Smith’s tribute to Eisner at the location of the past celebrations of Eisner’s work will help illuminate the rise of graphic novels in the United States and the importance of the anniversary of the publication of A Contract with God, which not only marks the beginning of the American graphic novel tradition, but is also the first Jewish graphic novel, and a landmark in American publishing. Smith’s visit also marks the fifteenth anniversary of a major international conference held at UMass Amherst in Will Eisner’s honor in 1998, the twentieth anniversary of the publication of A Contract with God. Attended by over 300 people, this was the first major international academic graphic novel conference held in the United States, and received feature coverage in the New York Times in a major article on the front page of the Times’ art section. (Links to the New York Times articles on Will Eisner’s visits to UMass are here: http://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/02/books/meeting-of-comic-minds-but-no-bam-splat-zap.html
Smith’s appearance at 2:00 PM on Friday, October 18th, 2013, in Bartlett Hall Auditorium Room 65 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst will be followed by a book signing of the collected color edition of Rasl and Smith’s other books. Smith will be introduced by Will Eisner’s longtime friend and publisher Denis Kitchen, who is a cartoonist, comic art historian, and editor of Kitchen Sink Books.
These events, sponsored by the Dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts; the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures; the Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies; the Department of Art, Architecture, and Art History; the Department of English; Organization of Graduate Students in Comparative Literature; the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies; and the University Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of Massachusetts Amherst; the Humanities and Cultural Studies Program, and the School of Cognitive Science at Hampshire College; and the Department of English at Mount Holyoke College, is free, open to the public, and wheelchair accessible. For more information, email judaic@judnea.umass.edu or call 413-545-2550.
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