On the scene: The Center for Cartoon Studies

The Beat is going to be hung up for the next day or so with Industry Day here at the CEnter for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, VT.

We arrived late last night, missing out on the pizza party, but still charmed by this quirky town and the Hotel Coolidge. It was too dark to see anything when we arrived but there are still a few patches of snow on the ground, mute reminders of the long grueling winter of ’13.

The journey with Carol Burrell, Robyn Chapman and Jesse Reklaw, was uneventful save for the start, when the idea of loading a few boxes of books into an SUV become a tense caper worthy of Danny Ocean or Guy Ritchie. It eventually took the efforts of five people to pull off the gig, despite the best efforts of a cranky security guard, a stubborn FedEx truck and a cast of thousands of idling NYC vehicles.

Since we left at a time when dinner on the road was required, we decided to stop at a Friendly’s, where Robyn was attacked by a variety of orange food stuffs.

I myself was charmed by the idea of the fishamajig or the clamroll, but after envisioning being stuck in a car after eating dubious clam strips, thought better of it. Still, I feel I must return some day for a glorious meal of clams and a Fribble, maybe with an ice cream pizza to follow up.

In the car was much stimulating talk — of kickstarter and comics and state troopers at speed traps. Robyn is well into publishing again with her Paperrocket imprint. She’s already put out Ariel Bordeaux’s Deep Girl, and will be debuting a new book by Reklaw at MoCCA. The micro publishing movement is going strong.

I’ll be deep in reading comics and talking to students over the next day but will report back when I have a chance.