We started our second day at Drake with a trip to a local high school. A teacher had seen the press release about our talk and contacted Drake to see if we’d be willing to come teach his honors literature class.
We were willing.
After checking in at the front office and securing our extremely official looking visitor’s passes, we spent 80 minutes with a really bright and energetic group of sophomores who were in the midst of studying graphic novels. Robbi gave them a good overview of the many ways in which text and image can work together in graphic narrative.
After that, we headed back to Drake and met with a few more classes. In one of them, a young woman asked Robbi why in the world she draws her female characters with strange pointy boobs. It is a legitimate question, which launched a lengthy and fascinating conversation about personal style. The conclusion: Robbi draws strange boobs because that’s what she does. If you choose draw boobs you can draw them however you damn well please.
Eventually, it was time to get ready for our talk. The good people of Drake even made a sign to help people find the venue. It was a “this way to Idiots” sort of thing.
The venue was a beautiful room at the Wesley House, just across the street from the Drake Campus. A student named Stephanie Werning curated an amazing exhibition of Robbi’s illustrations.
In addition to curating gallery shows, Stephanie is a graphic designer (she designed the poster we were holding two images above) and an accomplished print maker. Look at this gorgeous lithograph.
And look how nicely she hung the show.
Robbi, for one, was very pleased.
It was so fun to look around the room and see images from so many of our books.
Hey Baby, Here’s What to Expect
And John Swanson. Yes, my dad and my stepmom Judy drove up from Kansas City to see us do our thing. Because our “thing” almost always happens on the east coast, this was a rare opportunity.
A few hours before the talk was scheduled to start, we set up our projector and Robbi took a little nap against the wall. Talking to bright, interested, curious, students all day long is exhausting.
At 7:00, people started flooding into the gallery. They seemed to be pleased to be there.
They looked at the art.
They asked us questions.
It was incredibly gratifying to get out of the barn and into a room full of people so interested in words and pictures in collision.
And then, suddenly, it was time for us to go on. We did a few warm-up exercises.
Eventually, Robbi decided enough was enough. And so, the wonderful Amy Letter came up to introduce us.
The things she said were too kind and embarrassing to repeat here. But we were humbled and grateful as we took the stage.
And extremely excited to be doing our new talk for the first time. It’s called:
We spoke for about 50 minutes. Miraculously, people listened and laughed and did not walk out in the middle. We consider it a huge success.
Afterward, Amy and student/writer/journal editor Kelsey Lepperd picked names out of a bottle as every piece of artwork was raffled off. Alas, I was not eligible to win.
Afterward, we talked to students and signed a lot of books.
Our trip to Drake was amazing, as was our time in Des Moines. We have seldom felt so warmly welcomed, so deeply appreciated, and so very well fed. Thanks especially to our host and new friend Amy Letter. We’re already looking forward to the AWP conference in January so that we can see her again.
This photo was taken at the Des Moines airport at 5:38 this morning. Have you ever seen a person look so cheerful at 5:38am?
That’s Amy Letter for you. That’s Drake University. Thanks to all of you for being such wonderful hosts. We had an amazing time.
Thanks to you too. :) You’ve been the talk of the U! And I should add that your talk wasn’t just inspiring to the younguns — it got us elderfolk thinking too!