Comics in the Digital Age Panel

I was honored to join Swarthmore Libraries for Comics in the Digital Age. Here is the event description: Esteemed comics experts Dr. Margaret Galvan and Dr. Josh Kopin conversed with local comics creators Bryn Ziegler and Salvatore Marrone, addressing the changing relationship between the analog and digital in both creating and studying comics. The event was open to community members. Planning committee members included Amanda Licastro, Maria Aghazarian, Emily Higgs Kopin, Rex Hughes, and Rebecca Michelson.

Teaching with Primary Sources

Over the past summer (July 2023), I had the opportunity to be a guest instructor for Teaching with Primary Sources class “Igniting Inquiry: Discovering the Stories Primary Sources Tell,” a grant-funded program offering professional development opportunities to K-12 teachers. I taught two half-day workshops, first introducing an accordion album book and then doing a speed-run of ten different simple zine and book structures. Then, the students took what they learned from the rest of the week, including visiting the Free Library of Philadelphia, participating a tea ceremony, to make the books their own!

I can offer credit to Michele Kishita and Jodi for inviting me to participate, Carolina Blatt for the koi book, and Matthew Stemler for the book with the horizonal tears. I’d love to put a name to each of them— I collected permission to take each of these images but next time I’ll make a note to record everyone’s name as well!

Choose-Your-Own-Path Bookbinding Workshop at the Free Library of Philadelphia

The long-anticipated Don’t Look Into The Abyss companion bookbinding workshop! This workshop had three goals: to increase the visibility of the UArts Book Arts and Printmaking program, to share DLITA with the greater Philadelphia community, and to be a free, fun event.

Don’t Look Into The Abyss is a choose-your-own-path game—it’s an interactive book that needs to be read! I designed it to be as accessibly priced as possible while still being the uniquely-printed, hand-bound object I envisioned. But it doesn’t matter how accessibly priced something is if it’s not out there for the community to see. That sentiment motivated the exhibition, book launch, and workshop event series at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

I designed this workshop to mirror the choose-your-path format. I chose three simple (but creative) minimal-adhesive book structures that could be made with the same base materials, brought in two amazing guest instructors from the UArts Book & Print program, and worked with Alina Josan at the Free Library Art Department to open registration to 30 people. We set up three stations and spent the first hour constructing some amazing books (with donated DLITA setup sheet covers). Then, we switched gears and set up the stations for tinfoil monotypes, pochoir printing, and drawing!

As a teacher, knowing every attendee had fun is my ultimate goal. I think we achieved that here!

Thank you to Alina for taking photos, letting me commandeer 11 tables (and bring paint into the library), setting up a very creative photo station, and believing in this unconventional workshop. Thank you to my co-instructors Jessie Solberg and Xue’er Gao— check out their bios in the image gallery! Finally, thank you to the UArts DEIA Fellowship and the UArts School of Art Dean’s Office for making this event possible.

Don’t Look Into The Abyss Book Launch, June 15 2023

Don’t Look Into The Abyss has officially launched! 🚀

Thank you to everyone who showed up to ask questions, read Don’t Look Into The Abyss, and listen to the fun conversation between myself and Joshua Abraham Kopin. I loved talking about the unique nature of comics, the conceptual meaning I see in the offset print process, and, of course, why I gave Don’t Look Into The Abyss so many bummer endings! My absolute favorite moment was when all conversations stopped… because everyone was reading a copy of the book.

This event would not have been possible without Joshua Kopin, Alina Josan and the Free Library Art Department team, the UArts DEIA fellowship, and the UArts School of Art Dean’s office.

If you’d like to play through the book yourself, you can find a copy of DLITA (as long as there are copies left) in my online store or at local Philadelphia comics shop Partners & Son.

Curating an Exhibition at the Free Library of Philadelphia & Interview with Sequential Philly

I recently had the opportunity to curate an exhibition at the Free Library of Philadelphia Parkway Central Art Department! The show runs from May 31st to July 31st of 2023, and was planned alongside the DLITA book launch event on June 15th and related community bookbinding workshop on June 29th. It features work from local artists in the Philadelphia Comics Collection, a few historical examples of sequential art found in the Art Department, and a copy of the Don’t Look Into The Abyss Deluxe Edition. Special thanks to Joshua Kopin, who helped select the comics (particularly the historical examples) and Alina Josan, who made this exhibition happen, collaborated with me on both events, and coordinated this Free Library blog post about the show: https://libwww.freelibrary.org/blog/post/5109

This exhibition would not have been possible without the support of the UArts DEIA Fellowship and the support of the UArts School of Art Dean’s Office.

This exhibition also led to a great interview about DLITA with Rick over at Sequential Philly! https://sequentialphilly.substack.com/p/q-and-a-with-bryn-zeigler

DLITA is joining the Free Library of Philadelphia Map Collection

Exciting news— A Deluxe Edition of Don’t Look Into The Abyss, two DLITA original painted pages, and an assortment of ephemera from the project will be joining the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Map Collection at the Parkway Central branch. I hope these materials will inspire researchers who are curious about the offset lithography process, want to investigate the connection between the artistic process and mapping, or just plain love artist books!

Here are a few photos of the Free Library’s Deluxe Edition and the various ephemera.

UArts Special Collections and Swarthmore Special Collections will also hold Deluxe Edition copies of Don’t Look Into The Abyss.