An Evening with Marjane Satrapi

Marjane Satrapi – author of Persepolis and several other fantastic “comic books” gave a lecture at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall Monday, April 7th, 2008 @ 7:30pm. Last night.

Through the awesome reminder of Savanna – I was able to secure tickets around 9:00am yesterday morning. Because I am cheap, and I didn’t figure on getting good seats anyways – we went with the $10.00 upper balcony seating.

My cellphone died around 10:00am, so Dan and I had to form a complicated series of emails to relay information about meeting locations, trading off lap-tops, and all sorts of tom foolery. It was quite exciting.

We met up around 6:30pm, when my Spanish class ended. Dan was fooling about in the Starbucks below the Broadway building, reading Fallen Angel #2 and #3 (we’ll talk more about that later!). He presented me with a free drink coupon (some crazy lady stole his drink), and we were off. To the nearest 7-11 to buy Tussin to alleviate the nasty cough that has sprung up in Dan the last few days, making sleep NEARLY impossible in the evenings (but only fair turn-about after my two week long head-cold hell).

We arrived at the Schnitzer, picked up our tickets from Will Call, and Dan hit up the bathroom. I took the opportunity to peruse the book table in the lobby, and pick up a copy of Persepolis 2 (which together with Persepolis, forms the entire story…). We trudged over to concessions, grabbed a soft pretzel and nuts, and then found seats in the Upper Balcony.

The house was nearly packed, so my hopes of spotting Savanna in the crowd dimmed until I was merely people watching. Hope springs eternal – BECAUSE I not only saw her, and chatted amiably about folks in the PSU Graduate language program, but I also saw my Aunt Lauren. The little girl with her didn’t look much like a Cousin of mine, but they were in the cheap seats with us as well, and I meant to wave or make convo – but totally forgot.

Satrapi was engrossing, witty and fiery. I loved every minute of her eloquent descriptions of what comics are, what attracted her to the art-form, and why she prefers it over “regular writing” and even “film.” I was pleased down to my toes when she ruefully condemned the term “graphic novel,” and insisted her work be called “comics.”

“That’s what I make. I make comics,” She explained. “I mix words and drawing, and there is something powerful in that. There is something universal, that I think everyone can connect to.”