Blind to Blue is still on the back burner as I finish up Bones with Melissa Broder. Above is a snippet from one of my earliest poetry comics because there is a lot of amazing news in the world of Poetry Comics.
First, I’m going to be participating in a panel discussion entitled ‘Poetry and Visual Arts Roundtable’ at New York University Friday, February 17th. The panel includes myself, Sommer Browning, Bianca Stone, Mark Leidner, Mahendra Singh and the conversation will be moderated by Matthea Harvey.
I suspect there will be much talk of poetry and comics as individual forms and combined. Therefore, if you are a fan of either or both, or make them yourself I hope you come by and join the discussion.
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Second, Dave Morice is back in a huge way!
In the late ‘70s, Dave Morice was the first person to seriously and consistently combine comics and poetry, and coined the term “poetry comics.” An author and poet himself, he adapted the works of his favorite poets including of Walt Whitman, Ezra Pound, Robert Browning and so many more. His work is collected in two easy to get anthologies.
As far as I could tell, Mr. Morice had moved on from poetry comics to tackle a number of other fascinating projects and forms. He’s the hero I didn’t know I had until recently. Almost any good idea I’ve had, he had first, better and 10 years before I was born.
Just a few months ago, I had been trying to figure out how to get a hold of him. I became discouraged when I didn’t know how to easily approach him. You may remember me muttering about him under a comic last November. Suddenly last night, I saw that he had made a facebook page (of course). More importantly, he’s back to making poetry comics, or perhaps never quit. Even better, he’s taking poem submissions to be drawn (by him) as comics in his new online version of his Poetry Comics series.
Go, read comics, submit. It’s like finding out Party Down is back.
I’m going to go be a nerd and email him now.
