Writing on the fly a bit today as my wife and I get ready for a trip to Paris tomorrow. We’ve never been and, no, neither of us speak a lick of French. So some of this past week has been spent struggling through Rosetta Stone software and iPhone apps intended to bolster up the idea that we’re at least trying to understand the language.

In looking for a subject for this week’s blog post about comix, Michael suggested something on the process I use for adapting Joyce’s novel into the comic; what do I look for when reading the text and so forth. Well, given all this French homework I’m doing just now, that’s a pretty easy thing to talk about. (more…)

BALTIMORE COMIC CON and the BLOODY nerve

Spent most of the day yesterday down in Baltimore for the Comic Con. Truthfully, I don’t like comicbook conventions very much because I get really cranky in large crowds, but this is a particularly good show for young and new comic fans alike.

Unlike some of the bigger media exhibits and cross-over marketing arenas like we see in NY or San Diego, the attention here is on genuine comicbook fandom; the joy and love of the medium and the object without all the summer blockbuster hoopla. Due to the attention focused on comix and toys through big media the rising cost of floor space at some of those other conventions has made it hard for retail comicshops that make their living out of collectables to have much of a presence. Baltimore is much more like an old-fashioned comic con.

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So tomorrow we bring back the comic (finally!) in regularly updated installments. There’s been a lot of work done on the mechanics of both the comic and its website since we premiered it on Bloomsday back in June. Probably the most time-consuming, and maybe the most important, change since then is our decision to switch to hand-lettering. Josh and I (though mostly Josh, thank god) will be drawing all the text on the original art rather than adding it using a computer font. Yes, it’s a crazy, old-school way of doing things that I’m absolutely certain is worth every bit of the trouble. (more…)

So all of these earliest posts bring us back up to speed with how the project has changed since its inception and premier at Bloomsday ’08. Mostly what you, as new readers, should know that we’re doing are best here to set up for the long-haul of a project that could not exist if not for the interactive possibilities of the internet. We’re learning a lot of new stuff to do this and, like in ULYSSES, the learning curve for this stuff is pretty high. We hope that this new format of the site and new presentation of its content makes connect with fans  (and experts) of the novel that much easier for us while allowing each of you add advice, criticism, hand-launched rotten vegetables or faint praise whenever necessary. The site, and the comic itself, cannot happen without that kind of  input from readers.

Joyce’s ULYSSES is a very hard read and comics, god love them, is a very peculiar, very new way of looking at making it more accessible without “dumbing it all down.” I hope that each of you interested enough in this weird notion to have dug this deep into the site will help us make Joyce a bit easier to enjoy and comics a bit easier to take seriously by helping me to do this thing right.

Thanks again for your support and attention in following this to the next level.

-Rob

Hello. This is Mike Barsanti, yr humble interlocutor & sometime Joyce scholar, the Father Cowley of Joyce Scholars, defrocked and voluble. I come to this project dishonestly, having been, at the time it was introduced to me, the Associate Director and “resident Joycean” of theRosenbach Museum & Library. I am now no longer there, working for a Very Large Philanthropic Organization that will not be named. Yet.

I came to Joyce dishonestly too, not out of any dignified need to experience great art, but rather because I have a competitive streak and I heard it was the hardest book to read in the English language and that my father had started it and never finished. And it was written by an Irishman, and I was much more interested in my Irish heritage (Momma was an O’Rourke) than in my Italian or (Heaven Forfend!) my English heritage. I would later realize that the blend of Irish, Italian, and English was actually an excellent combination to bring to the Joycean altar… but save that for later.

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