Leonard Rifas visits GRCC

On November 7th, GRCC hosted an event titled "Just a comic book?" as part of our One Book program.

The speaker for the event was Leonard Rifas, who currently teaches a course on graphic novels and sequential art at Seattle Central Community College. He is a comics scholar who has been published in The International Journal of Comic Art, the Comics Journal, ImageText, and other publications. He is the Founder of EduComics, an educational comic book company and creator of Corporate CRIME Comics, All-Atomic Comics, Energy Comics, Food Comics, Tobacco Comics, AIDS News, The Big Picture: visualizing the global economy, and other titles.

The goal of the event was to further our awareness and understanding of graphic works and see how Persepolis fits in with its "peers." Rifas pointed out that Satrapi's work is unique in that it is the only graphic work addressing the Iran-Iraq war. He also discussed Satrapi's simple drawing style, similar to the depiction of the mice in Spiegelman's Maus, is a technique that helps us identify with the characters.

Rifas discussed many works and authors in his talk, so if you'd like to learn more on the topic, come by the campus library and check them out! Here are a few:
Barefoot Gen: a cartoon story of Hiroshima / Keiji Nakazawa
Epileptic / David B.
Maus I: a survivor's tale / Art Spiegelman
Persepolis: the story of a childhood / Marjane Satrapi
Persepolis 2: the story of a return / Marjane Satrapi
Understanding comics: the invisible art / Scott McCloud

One Book photos on flickr

The library and Communications and Program Marketing used the beautiful Fall Fling day to promote One Book. We took some fun photos of students, staff, and faculty. Check them out here. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/30946992@N05/)

Art 109 uses Persepolis for inspiration

This summer GRCC's Art 109, Beginning Design class used Persepolis as an course text. The final project for the class asked students to read the text and use excerpts from the chapters “The Veil,” “Persepolis,” and “The Heroes” as inspiration to create a series of 4 postcards and 2 posters to convey an emotion depicted in these chapters.

Many thanks to Marilee Veneigas, the Art 109 instructor, for taking the plunge and being the first instructor to use One Book!!

Marilee also set up a beautiful display of all her students' work in the HSC building. Please go by and check it out!

(Student work appearing in this blog by GRCC student Joe Heithe.)

thank you Student Services!

On Monday, September 15 the folks in GRCC Student Services organized the first official event related to One Book: a viewing of the film Persepolis, based on the graphic novels (Parts I and II).

I attended the event (which included a potluck full of delicious and tasty treats) and viewed the film for the first time. I loved it as a complement to the books, but wondered how much I would connect to it if I hadn't already read the books. I'd love to hear others' thoughts on that.

The campus library holds two copies of the film, so feel free to come by and check them out. There are also many fascinating clips on YouTube in which Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud (the film's co-creators) discuss the making of the film. Here's the first (the clip is slow to start, but images will appear after about 20 seconds):

The ruins of Persepolis

This morning on KUOW's "The Conversation," I heard Rick Steves, travel writer, talking about a recent trip to Iran and to the ancient capital of Persepolis. You can read about Rick's fascinating trip to Iran and Persepolis on his blog.

It is interesting to reflect on why Satrapi chose Persepolis as the title of her book. Persepolis, the ruins of the ancient capital, still stand as a reminder of Iran's magnificent Achaemenian dynasty and its Persian roots, which of course pre-date the introduction of Islam.

So, why do you think Satrapi chose this title? And why is it important?

You can read more about the ruins of Persepolis at this amazing site published by the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute.

Welcome to the One Book blog!

The One Book selection committee is pleased to announce our choice for the 2008-2009 community reading program:

Persepolis:
The Story of a Childhood
by Marjane Satrapi

What is One Book?
A One Book program encourages a community to read one book together at the same time.

The Green River Community College is partnering with Auburn Mountainview High School and the King County Library System Auburn branch for the 2008-2009 academic year program.

One Book reading, events, and activities will take place throughout the year.