VISUAL STORYTELLING was the title of this summit at the San-Francisco Academy of Art. Two panels were held, one with some of us from the graphic novel world, and one with major players of the videogame world, for a roundtable discussion and meeting between these two rapidly growing media.

THE GRAPHIC NOVEL PANEL was made up of literary agent Bob Mecoy, Jessica Abel, Matt Madden, Derek Kirk Kim (all of whom have excellent projects forthcoming with FIRST SECOND), Marc Weidenbaum, Editor from VIZ for their magazine SHONEN JUMP , and Anjali Singh, Senior Editor from Pantheon Books.

We were faced off with another panel of major writers and developers from the videogame world; among them creators and contributors on everything from DEMONSTONE, to ODDWORLD , to HALF-LIFE2 and lots and lots more.

Among them were talented novelists and screenwriters such as Eric Nylund, Greg Bear, and Hal Barwood of Finite Arts – whose contributions to film include choosing the location of Devil’s Tower for CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, and thereby one of my favorite movie sequences of all time, beginning with the mashed potatoes.

So what did we find out? Was it any use? Do game and comics creators have anything for one another?

Well, it was a fertile discussion, and some interesting things came of it. So I’d like to share some of these here, over the next few blog entries.

Graphic novels may be the fastest growing category in publishing, and games may be the fastest growing category in electronic media, but the comparison stops when we talk business and sales figures.

TO BE CONTINUED…