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December 19, 2005
On the Demise of the CCN
I believe that, with time, the bad things that caused the end of the Kansas City Comics Creators Network will largely be forgotten. Once the bad feelings have really passed, we'll be able to objectively look at exactly how those two or so years of the CCN's existance really altered the terrain of the KC comix scene.
I think what we'll find is that even though there's no real center anymore, there's still a large community of people here locally who are actively creating comix. It may have splintered off, but I believe that over time this will be viewed as a natural and good evolution. With more diverse voices, there's more room for new creators to find the 'right' group of people to gravitate towards.
There will still be that cross-polination, too, which will make everyone continue to grow in ways that they wouldn't have if they were strictly on their own. There will be more people collaborating that wouldn't have before, which is always exciting. Whether it's in a 'traditional' way such as one person writing, another drawing, or people banding together in an anthology, it will create the sense of an orchestra rather than a solo pianist.
Already for 2006 I'm planning on releasing a graphic novel done all by myself, an anthology with five folks very different from myself in their approach to the craft, and writing scripts for two artists that have different approaches to their art than I do. All of these people are locals, who I met through this community.
There's been a lot of negative talk about the 'CCN Stigma' (a phrase that I unfortunately coined, but is very apt), and I think that it's time that we move on to the next stage. Now that the discussion is open that, yes, the CCN is gone, we can move on to where we go now. That's much more exciting and energizing to me, personally.
We really have a much more rich comix community here in KC than most other metropolitan areas, and I believe that it's time we admit that, and be proud of it.
Posted by Schamberger at December 19, 2005 09:01 AM