The planets must have aligned on April 16th. For some unknown reason, a number of comic convention and festivals were held across the country on that day. In The Bronx we had Kid’s Comic Con, attended by our own Carol Burrell, Colleen AF Venable and Yuko Ota. In Portland, Oregon was Stumptown Comics Fest, one of my favorites. Portland likes comics so much, they’ve made April Comics Month! AND, there were two new festivals in Massachusetts, the Paint and Pixel Festival and Graphic Women. I was invited to the later.

Graphic Women: Comics, Autobiography and Mapping Memory was a series of readings, talks and workshops held at Wellesley College. Special guests included Alison Bechdel, Lynda Barry and Hillary Chute. I was invited to give a cartooning workshop to a small group of Wellesley students.

Each student created a pages of comics, and to make it fun, I gave them a unique piece of writing to adapt: postcard correspondence. I have a collection of postcards (with real messages on them!) that I bought at an antique store. Below is one student’s comic page, and the postcard that inspired her.

I published their pages in a minicomic that was titled, of course, Wish You Were Here.

I had a really wonderful time at Wellesley College, with this smart and talented group of women. Wish I can visit again soon!