I have been doing some writing for NaPoWriMo, but due to a conference, the posts are a bit behind. It was a tough decision to go this year for several personal reasons and I didn’t get to stay for the whole conference, but I had to go for as much as I could. This year’s New Orleans location didn’t hurt – love me some beignets!

The Popular Culture Association held its first annual conference in 1971 and has met each year since. My first PCA meeting was in San Diego in 1999. I had seen a call for papers from the Science Fiction/Fantasy area and was presenting a paper on anti-utopias in comics. At the conference, I quickly discovered that there was, in fact, a whole area for comics. And that was that.

I’ve been every year since. I got to be area chair for comics for nine years, and after a couple years off (during which time I self-styled myself as the “dowager chair”), I have returned to co-chair the area. (It’s simply gotten so large that splitting the work load is helpful.)

I love PCA for several reasons. First, it’s a very welcoming conference. I think grad students who are new to presenting can have a good experience here. And the audience is certainly nicer than some other conferences (where the ostensibly “constructive” criticism just feels like “rip her to shreds and teach that upstart a lesson for daring to have that idea” criticism).  A grad student can present on a panel with the person who wrote the book he’s citing – and that person is happy to share ideas. There’s very little mocking going on – it’s an inclusive community of comics scholars.

Second, it’s a labor of love. Many of us are academics, but we don’t actually get to teach courses on these topics – if we’re lucky, we can teach a few comics or a “comics and ___” course. (Most academics I know have a list of courses they would love to teach eventually if they can get approval and funding and convince someone that the course “fits” in a certain discipline.) So we might be working on these projects just because we happen to be really interested. We’re doing it because we love it (much like teaching), not for some idea of prestige.

Lastly, these are wonderful people. This is also the major drawback about PCA – I meet interesting, intelligent, witty people. These are the exact people – if we lived in the same city – I would be calling, saying, “want to have lunch?” or “let’s get a group together to see Avengers” or “want to play in the new game I’m running?”. But they’re scattered across the country – friends I only get to see once a year. People who don’t look at me like I’m crazy just because I can name all the kinds of kryptonite (orange and periwinkle are my current favorites) or because I remember the Dolph Lundgren Punisher film. I wish I could just hang out with them once a month and geek out.

At any rate, PCA ran me ragged for a few days, as did catching up with grading once I got home. So my poetry posts will have to catch up, but it was worth it. And for today, a PCA haiku.

Comics at Huck Finn’s

old friends and some new

crowded table, falling night

inspiration rises