Fantagraphics Blog Kristy Valenti

(Click to enlarge) This "Handy Fantagraphics Map/Staff Field Guide" was created by Chi-Wen Lee and Andrew Davis to help future interns: it dates roughly back to the third week of October, where it originated over a bubble tea-fueled discussion about Lucky in Love, how awesome the Fantagraphics people are, the awesomeness of Seattle, the mysterious stairway that leads to the upstairs apartment, how hard it is to remember everyone's names, and Pinocchio with a gun. Yes, in that order. 

Summer 2010 interns Ian Burns, Melissa Gray, Jamie Hibdon, Kailyn Kent, Michael Litven and Christina Texeira put together a series of discussion questions about Tim Hensley's Wally Gropius for use in book clubs. As these questions are intended for those who have read the book, please be warned that contain spoilers [We've placed any spoilers behind the jump – Ed.].

How the Story is Told

Wally Gropius is broken up into a collection of small episodes that end with punch lines. How did this affect your reading experience, i.e. your engagement with the story and feelings for the characters?

What affect does solid color instead of detailed backgrounds have on the story? Did they affect the sense of "reality" in the comic?

Do all the visual and textual puns create their own narrative, or do they just exist for humor's sake? Do they add complexity to narrative?

Compare and contrast the punning in the sound effects of Wally Gropius with how other creators use onomatopoeia. How did you respond to that?

Interns Ian Burns and Jenna Allen en route to Stumptown Comics Fest:

One of the trickiest things about selecting interns is finding just the right balance of a person who will be helpful, but who will also gain something useful from the experience. I was put in mind of this when Claire Burrows, a graduate student and an awesome winter intern, just sent a lovely goodbye e-mail which included this line: "I feel like I achieved what I came for, plus had some excellent conversations (my next blog: talking cats who use sex as a weapon)." Ah, Claire, you've learned your lessons well. Thank you for your help and good luck with…

Though the office is in a state of mourning at losing our Scottish Connection (code name LAN Formatique), we can console ourselves with his music, which was inspired by the comics of Fletcher Hanks:

Written by Jessica Lona, Gavin L., and Brittany Kusa. After a long hard day of drinking tea in the underground Fantagraphics comics library, tapping away at our keyboards transcribing conversations between famous cartoonists, we interns needed to unwind. How better to do this than by drinking booze and testing our knowledge of geeky things? We (Brittany, Gavin, Jessica, and our fearless leader, Kristy) tromped downtown to a lovely little pub to attend the Geeks Who Drink trivia night. It was tough to settle on a team name, not for lack of ideas, but because there are so many juicy possible…

Eric Reynolds: I wouldn't want to be attacked by a werewolf.

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