Hi!

I am coordinator of youth services at an urban library in Massachusetts and I'm writing a grant for a comic book author/artist symposium. I would like to invite local (New England) artists/authors to come and talk to our young adults (middle school/high school) about the creative process and also the practicalities of working in the industry. I'm trying to find out who these local writers/artists are as well as how much they would charge to come to our library for this day long event. I've contacted different industry mags. (Wizard, etc.)for help and it was recommended that I post on message boards. I've tried to contact the Words & Pictures Museum (which is in MA) but have been unable to reach them. Can anyone out there help me out with my questions? I would appreciate any assistance.

Thank you!
Molly

Hi. I am a Boston area comic creator, and I can point you to some more. Words and Pictures is now web-only. Their URL is http://www.wordsandpictures.org

The Washington Street Arts Center in Somerville has good connections, as they are running a "comix week" event (in September, I think). They can put you in touch with other local folks. They are at http://www.kickball.com/wsac/main.html

I can give you email for some folks if you drop me a line at gareth@thecomic.com, but WSAC can give you a superset of the contact info I can give you, so you might just want to talk to them. Plus, you might want to coordinate something with their event. Are you in town, suburbs, or western MA? I know creators in NY and VT too, but of course it'll be a lot harder to get them to come out.

Gareth Hinds www.thecomic.com