PCA&D to participate in International 24-hour Comics Day with panel discussion and 1-day creation of comic book

What started as a dare among some of the comic industry’s best-known artists is now a global phenomena. In 2015, the global event will occur on October 3, with PCA&D students from all departments, faculty, alumni and visiting artists will accept the challenge to create full-length comic book in 24 hours, from front cover to “The End,” finishing at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Just before the main event on Saturday October 3, PCA&D will have a panel discussion from 12 – 1:00 p.m.  This event is open to the public during Art Walk weekend in Lancaster. The panel will be discussing the changing role of, and attitude towards, comics in our society. The panel will consist of guest artists Christine Larsen, Brad Guigar and Robert Pruitt, and PCA&D faculty members and industry artists Bob McLeod and Mike Hawthorne. The panel moderator will be Illustration and Digital Media Department Chairman, Bob Hochgertel.

PCA&D is the only regional venue for this year’s Comics Day, and its participation is sponsored by PCA&D’s Illustration Department and PCA&D’s  Society of Illustrators Student Group Chapter.

24-hour Comics Day began over twenty years ago as a dare waged by artist Scott McCloud among his fellow comic artists. Since then, thousands of artists from across the globe participate in creating – from scratch – a completed 24-page graphic novel or comic book from beginning to end, all within twenty-four hours.  Participants over the years include well-known artists such as Kevin Eastman, creator of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” A brief history of how and why this 24-hour “dare” began is on www.24hourcomicsday.com

According to  Hochgertel, PCA&D puts its own special spin on the event – during the 24-hour period: PCAD students and faculty  Skype with students and artists from across the globe who are also taking the challenge. In past years, students have Skyped with artists in Boston, Denver, San Francisco, Singapore, Thailand and New Zealand. “Last year we added a new wrinkle to the event as our art students Skyped with the creative writing students at the University of Pennsylvania. The UPenn students provided text addressing the issue of the growing number of homeless youth in America and PCA&D students created a 64 page Graphic Novel based on their text to bring attention to the problem.”

About our artists during the 24-hour Comics Day.

• Robert Pruitt is an artist living and working in Houston, TX. He makes drawings and sculptures about the complexity of black identity by combining contrasting signs and imagery of disparate Black influences and aesthetics. He layers Science Fiction, Hip Hop, comic books, and black political and social struggles into layered portraits of his friends and community. Pruitt has exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The Studio Museum Harlem, the 2006 Whitney Biennial and various other museums and artists spaces. He is also a founding member of the artist collective Otabenga Jones & Associates. Pruitt is one of the two artists participating in this year’s The Mosaic Project, PCA&D’s annual multicultural exhibition and educational program for students and families in Lancaster County, and his artwork is currently on exhibition in PCA&D’s main. An Artist Talk  will be presented by Robert Pruitt October 2 at 10 a.m. in the Atrium at PCA&D and a  Reception and Book Signing  with Robert Pruitt and Shadra Strickland, the other Mosaic Project atrtist, will be held on First Friday October 2, gallery open 5 – 9 p.m.
• Brad Guigar has been creating a daily comic strip for over 15 years – “Evil Inc.” runs Monday-through-Saturday on the Web, and it also appears in front of nearly 100,000 newspaper readers every weekday. Guigar is considered by many to be a webcomics pioneer, having self-published his daily strips and other comics on the Web since February 2000. He has been nominated for the highest honor in comics — the Eisner award — for “Phables,” a year-and-a-half-long weekly series of comics about life in Philadelphia. He has published over two dozen collections of his comics, and he is the author of three books on the subject of cartooning: “The Everything Cartooning Book,” “How To Make Webcomics,” and “The Webcomics Handbook.” He operates a daily tutorial-and-advice site, Webcomics.com, and he teaches Arts Entrepreneurship and Sequential Art (Comics) at Hussian School of Art. He also co-hosts a podcast about making a living as a creative professional. His second podcast, “Hey Comics — Kids!“ is recorded with his two sons, Alex (12) and Max (9), during their drive to school. www. http://guigar.com
• Christine Larsen is originally from the Pine Barrens of central New Jersey. She is a cartoonist and illustrator by trade, creating art for comics, book covers, stories, posters and websites. She has worked with clients such as Dark Horse, IDW, BOOM Studios, DC Online, Saatchi & Saatchi, Simon & Scheuster, Thrillbent and Cartoon Network. She is also a part time instructor at The University of the Arts, where she teaches courses in foundation illustration and comics. Larsen resides with her two cats, her husband and a sawed off shotgun in a heavily fortified North Philadelphia row home where she awaits the zombie apocalypse. http://christinelarsenillustration.tumblr.com
• Bob McLeod is a comic book artist for Marvel and DC, and a children’s book author and illustrator. His picture book “Superhero ABC” was published by HarperCollins. Bob is also an adjunct faculty member in the illustration department at Pennsylvania College of Art & Design.  www.bobmcleod.com
• Michael Hawthorne is an comic book artist for Marvel, DC and Dark horse Comics. He is the creator of the comic book series Hysteria and has provided the artwork for various other comics, including Deadpool,The Un-men, Fear Agent, Umbra, G.I. JOE: Origins, Whiskey Dickel, Three Days in Europe, one story arc of Queen & Country, and Conan: Road of Kings. He also writes and draws a webcomic titled “Raising Crazy” about his experiences raising his son. Mike is also an adjunct faculty member in the illustration department at Pennsylvania College of Art & Design. http://www.mikehawthorneart.com/