The New York Comics and Picture-Story Symposium is a weekly public forum for creators of text/image works (i.e., comics, animations, illustrated stories, etc.) to present content, discuss the past, present, and future of the artform, and to explore distribution models outside of the conventional publishing industry. The Symposium was created as an extension of a course initially formed by illustrator Ben Katchor for the Occupy University curriculum, itself a creation of the Occupy Wall Street movement in the fall of 2011.

The first organizational meeting of the Symposium occurred on May 7, 2012, at Parsons School of Design at The New School, where Katchor has been on the illustration faculty since 2008. The sessions were initially offered weekly on a year-round basis (except for holidays and the academic spring and winter breaks), but starting in 2015, summer sessions were eliminated and the sessions were held during the fall and spring semesters only. On March 24, 2020, the sessions began convening online due to the coronavirus pandemic, and they continue to be held online as of 2022. The meetings are facilitated by a rotating group of moderators, which initially included Katchor and other Parsons faculty members, such as Bill Kartalopoulos, Robert Sikoryak, and Nick Sousanis, but also other notable artists in the field, such as Karen Green, Kriota Willberg, and Connie Sun. In the early years of the Symposium, it was associated with the BFA Illustration program of Parsons School of Design; since 2021, it has been an independent series which is funded in part by the Will & Ann Eisner Family Foundation.

Ben Katchor, primary organizer and facilitator of the Symposium, is an associate professor of illustration at Parsons School of Design. He is the creator of published weekly strips such as Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer; The Jew of New York; and The Cardboard Valise as well as music theater works such as The Slugbearers of Kayrol Island and The Rosenbach Company with composer Mark Mulcahy. Katchor was the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2000.

References

“Ben Katchor.” The New School, Parsons: Faculty. Accessed July 26, 2022. https://www.newschool.edu/parsons/faculty/ben-katchor/.

“New York Comics & Picture-Story Symposium.” New York Comics & Picture-Story Symposium. Last modified July 13, 2022. Accessed July 26, 2022. https://nycomicssymposium.wordpress.com.

Mattimoe, Jane. “Ben Katchor on the New York Comics & Picture-story Symposium.” A Case for Pencils, January 20, 2021. Accessed July 26, 2022. https://afinecaseforpencils.com/post/654525689995853824/ben-katchor-on-the-new-york-comics-picture-story.

Backer, David Isaac. “Occupy University (Project).” DavidBacker.com: Classes. Accessed July 26, 2022. https://davidbacker.com/classes/wcu-classes/early-classes/occupy-university-project/.