Month: April 2010

British Women in Manga who live near London and like cheese…

We’d like to say a massive thank you to Sci-fi London for putting on the excellent LGGD British Women in Manga evening yesterday….

Sci-fi London runs until 3rd May and there are still some tickets left – plus if you tell them you’re a LGGD member you get a fabulous 10% discount! Check out the progamme here!

We also need to say another huge thank you to our panel – our British Women in Manga, for presenting their work and for the hugely passionate panel discussion afterwards. There were so many questions that we could have kept the Q&A open for another 2 hours and still not have finished!

There were a few themes to the evening, with the panel discussing the use of technology within the comic creation process, and the different ways in which the 3 artists work.

Also of interest were the differences between British & European, North American and Asian styles of illustrating, storytelling and portraying emotion.

Getting on to the differences between Shojo and Shounen, the panel were also asked whether it’s more difficult for women to break into the comic industry, to which the conclusion was it’s just difficult; (whether you’re male or female)!

There was also a debate as to our habit of putting everything into boxes; hence the title of this post, a quote from Emma Vieceli, who it’s fair to say, doesn’t like to over categorize things; and we have to say we agree – let’s celebrate having a diverse comic industry and spread the word!

On that note, please check out our panel’s websites:

Emma Vieceli
From Manga Shakespeare to Dragon Heir webcomics… check out Emma’s site at: http://www.emmavieceli.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Emmavieceli

Kate Brown
See why Kate won the 2010 Arts Foundation Fellowship Graphic Novels award, and follow her work on the forthcoming Fish & Chocolate at: http://www.danse-macabre.nu/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/autojoy

Karen Rubins
Currently working on an intruiging new project, having just finished a residency at the V& A museum, Karen’s  (self coded) website is at: http://www.karenrubins.com

And also worth checking out; her V&A blog at:
http://www.vam.ac.uk/things-to-do/blogs/karen-rubins-comics-artist-residency/home

London Expo

Plus for anyone interested in all things cartoon/manga/illustration; you might like to check out London Expo; at the Excel Centre; 29th and 30th May 2010.

GGD: May 12th

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We’re excited to announce our May Girl Geek Dinner at Turley’s Restaurant in Boulder.

Full Details

  • When: May 12th 2010, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
  • Where: Turley’s Restaurant, 2805 Pearl Street, Boulder, CO 80301, (303) 442-2800 (map)
  • Hosted by: CO Front Range Girl Geek Dinners
  • Food & Drink: Casual healthier dining, buy your own
  • Format: Lightning Talks and conversation
  • Attendees: Boy geeks are welcome to attend if accompanied by a girl geek
  • RSVP: [email protected] or Facebook Event Page

Based on feedback from members, you really want to get to know each other.  Lightning talks are a great opportunity for casual talks on a variety of subjects.  We would love to hear what you are passionate about or anything you’d like to teach us!  Since we’ll be in a restaurant, there won’t be normal presentation supplies available, so please no slide decks.  If you would like to a Lightning Talk (I hope you do, it’s a great way to introduce yourself and impart knowledge!) or have any questions please email me, [email protected].

Stay tuned for a post about Lightning Talks and why you should submit one for this dinner!

Announcements!

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We had a lovely Girl Geek Dinner in April at BJ’s Restaurant. We had a wide range of attendees: industry, students, education. There were some great conversations!

Wendie and I have decided, based on the feedback from the dinner in February, to have monthly Girl Geek Dinners.  We’ve decided to host Girl Geek Dinners of the second Wednesday of every month.  Mark you calendars from 6-9 pm for the rest of the year!

  • May 12th
  • June 9th
  • July 14th
  • August 11th
  • September 8th
  • October 13th
  • November 10th
  • December 8th

The locations (except for May and June) have yet to be determined.

From my Facebook and Twitter poll, Boulder was the preferred choice for the May Girl Geek Dinner.  If you’re in Denver, don’t worry!  I’m planning on having the June Girl Geek Dinner at the Denver Tech Center.  If you have any thoughts on where we can have it in the DTC, please email me at [email protected].  The May GGD would be a great chance to get know a fellow Girl Geek and carpool to Boulder.

Here are all the details for the May Girl Geek Dinner (I’ll do a dedicated blog post for the May GGD as well).

  • When: May 12th 2010, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
  • Where: Turley’s Restaurant, 2805 Pearl Street, Boulder, CO 80301, (303) 442-2800 (map)
  • Hosted by: CO Front Range Girl Geek Dinners
  • Food & Drink: Casual healthier dining, buy your own
  • Format: Lightning Talks and conversation
  • Attendees: Boy geeks are welcome to attend if accompanied by a girl geek
  • RSVP: [email protected] or Facebook Event Page

Based on feedback from members, you really want to get to know each other.  Lightning talks are a great opportunity for casual talks on a variety of subjects.  We would love to hear what you are passionate about or anything you’d like to teach us!  Since we’ll be in a restaurant, there won’t be normal presentation supplies available, so please no slide decks.  If you would like to a Lightning Talk (I hope you do, it’s a great way to introduce yourself and impart knowledge!) or have any questions please email me, [email protected].

Girl Geek Dinners: British women of Manga panel

London Girl Geek Dinners are proud to announce another cosmic event in conjunction with Sci-fi London 2010….

Although there have been notable and successful female comic book creators on both sides of the Atlantic over the last half century, it is the translation of Japanese Manga in the West that has seen considerably more female comics creators join the medium in recent years. This is possibly a combination of Manga having a greater female appeal than traditional Western comics and original Japanese Manga being already created by women in Japan.

To discuss these issues we have a trio of up and coming UK Manga creators:

Kate Brown illustrated the Manga Shakespeare adaptation A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Emma Vieceli is contributing to the comic strip adaptations of the songs of Tori Amos Comic Book Tattoo and continues to draw an online Manga story, Dragon Heir.

Karen Rubins found early acclaim for her self published graphic novel The Dark.

Chair: Helen McCarthy one of the UK s leading experts on Manga and Anime.

Full Details:

  • Date & Time: Thursday, 29th April 2010, 6.30pm
  • Venue: Apollo West End Theatre, 19 Lower Regent Street, SW1 4LR; nearest tube is Piccadilly Circus, Directions here
  • Hosted by: Girl Geek Dinners and SCI-FI-LONDON
  • Food & Drink: Drinks and nibbles in the bar, from 6.30pm
  • Attendees: As usual, men allowed as a guest of a LGGD member.

Tickets: Available from Wednesday 14th April at: http://scifi-london.eventbrite.com/

Thank You and Dates for May

Thank you to those who came along on Thursday, despite the weather and the traffic! It was lovely to see you all at the April Reading Girl Geek Dinner.

Special thanks to our speaker Rachel Cooper and, of course, our sponsors Microsoft UK – without whom this event would not have been possible.

The next event will take place on Thursday 20th May and the registration page will be up very soon.

If you are interested in speaking at any of our upcoming events, or know of someone who is, please let us know. If you wish to support Reading GGD in any other way (including sponsoring one or several dinners), please do get in touch.

Have a lovely Easter!

The Reading GGD Team

Next dinner: 29th April – Computing for Roller-coasters!

I am delighted to announce the third edition of Bristol Girl Geek Dinners.

Many thanks to the e-Office for offering us to use their meeting room :). The first 20 people to register will be offered a £50 voucher for eOffice. There will also be some little Google goodies for all!

Our speaker this month is  Dr. Julie Greensmith from Nottingham University.

Men are welcome to the event. They just need to be invited by one of our female participants.
The event will take place at the e-Office in Bristol city centre.