For the third time, New York Times best-selling comic book artist and writer Nate Powell will have a table set up at the MSU Comics Forum, but this time he will be making an extra stop.
From 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Powell, 35, will be at Hollow Mountain Comics for a comic book signing.
Powell is best known for his books like “Any Empire,” “Swallow Me Whole,” and “The Silence of Our Friends.”
He will also be a part of the MSU Comics Forum’s Artists Alley that will be set up in Snyder-Phillips Hall on Saturday. The event will feature an abundance of comic book artists who will sign, sell and talk about their work with enthusiastic fans.
“This gives people an opportunity to meet the creators of the books face-to-face,” Powell said. “They might be cheaper on Amazon, but now you actually get to talk with the creator.”
Powell’s ties to the city stretch farther than its devotion to comic books — he lived in East Lansing in 2001 while playing with his best friend’s band.
Later in 2011, Hollow Mountain co-owner Gabe Cooper reached out to Powell for an MSU student production he was working on.
Powell ended up creating illustrations for the original play.
That same year was the first time he was a part of the forum, which he later returned to in 2013.
Comic books have been a dominant force in Powell’s life since he was three years old, when he first started reading and drawing them.
He first self-published his own comic books using a copy machine when he was 14, when he sold them out of his backpack through a handful of stores.
“Strictly speaking, I’m a graphic novelist,” he said. “I write and draw intuitive, dark and dreamy stories about people who have specific, subjective ways of seeing the world.”
He said one of his best pieces is his comic book, “Swallow Me Whole,” the story of two step-siblings, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder and family breakdowns.
“Swallow Me Whole”ch has earned a number of awards since its release, including the 2009 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Novel and the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Artist and Outstanding Debut.
His current project is drawing for the “March” trilogy, which is an autobiographical graphic novel of civil rights legend John Lewis. The first book was released in August 2013 and its sequel is currently in the works.
Powell had advice for aspiring comic book artists.
“Once you have an idea, even a quick one-page idea or a big idea, run with it,” he said. “This is a very accessible medium — you only need something to draw with, something to draw on and a copy machine.”
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