Pump Up The Comic Jam: All Are Welcome!

By A. Jaye Williams

On the last Wednesday for the past four months, local comic book fans have been gathering together in a familiar watering-hole, the Bacchus Lounge, in London, Ontario, Canada. It is there that their imaginations run wild and bizarre and creative illustrations burst forth from unfettered minds. London artists and husband and wife team Kathryn and Stuart Immonen are the brains behind the London Comic Jam (www.eccentrix.com/artist/lcj).

Kathryn says, "The comic jam idea is not a new one nor is it ours. Montreal's jam has just celebrated their tenth anniversary. So, here we are in London and we were quite sure that there were any number of people out there who liked to drink and draw. It's purely social and we're positive that it's a good idea to get people together in large groups and doing something creative. It's good for your brain and seems to be good for general morale." Anyone and everyone in freely invited to participate in an evening of socializing and brainstorming comic book ideas.

Once there, each person is given a blank comic book sheet. They then draw the first panel--anything goes, no guidelines, talent and skill are not a factor, just the limits of ones imagination. After the panel is finished, that sheet is passed onto someone else, who's job is to add in the next scene. This goes on until the page is filled with all kinds of varying and unique illustrations. At the end of the evening, which runs from 7 p. m. to 11 p. m., Kathryn and Stuart collect all the sheets.

At the next comic jam, a booklet containing copies of all the comic pages is handed out to each person that contributed to the overall anthology of comic book craziness. Some of the pages range from a stampeding robot carrying off a nagging female captive--until the nagging drives the robot to self-destruct--to a playmate model being sacrificed on a pentagram alter by a horde of carrot-wielding maniacal rabbits (I'm not even going to touch the imagery there!), to even Galactus getting his butt kicked in a boxing ring by a French Maid! For those that don't live in or near London, Ontario, there are Comic Jams also in Toronto - last Tuesday of each month at the Cameron House, located one block West of Spadina Avenue on Queen Street. and New York (http://www.houseoftwelve.com/jam/) and Montreal (http://www.grenadinerecords.com/jam/).

In London, Kathryn and Stuart have been very happy with the turnout of people: "We have, quite frankly, been amazed by the turnout. People must be entertained by the idea because they keep coming back. The jam is holding steady at about 25 people a month, which is incredible because London isn't necessarily a comics-creator megalopolis. Although! it's easy to sit back and moan that there's nothing going on but you get people together and start talking and it doesn't take long to find out that there is a lot of energy in the city, lots of people making books, zines, whatever. It's damned cool."

Besides some wonderful and wicked artwork, the comic jam serves as the perfect opportunity for comic book fans of all sorts to get together, socialize, have fun, and meet other people who have much in common and have some of the same interests.