One of the problems facing the videogame world is similar to the one faced by Hollywood studios: creative risk taking and real R&D gets left behind when so much money is at stake. The graphic novel on the other hand, is exploding with personal vision and creative exploration.

I asked some of the panelists to tell me what they took away from this conference. Marc Weidenbaum, from VIZ’s SHONEN JUMP reported back:

“I could comment that it was interesting to sit at dinner between one person explaining the surprising difficulty in reducing from 20,000 square feet to 17,000 the size of the home she’s building, and someone else discussing how instant ramen had helped extend the life of a book advance. But why go there?

Instead, I’d reiterate something on which I hadn’t really focused until we sat up on that stage, which is how exciting it is to be working in comics at a moment when the graphic novel, rather than the 20-page pamphlet or mini-comic, or a collection thereof, defines the size of the terrarium in which creators’ imaginations are taking root.”

And from noted science fiction author Syne Mitchell

“For me, what was most interesting is that no matter the technology, how whifty the art or graphics, what attracts and holds an audience’s attention is a compelling story. Since the dawn of time, story is how humans encode and pass on information; this is as true today as when early man sat around a camp fire.”

TO BE CONTINUED…