On Saturday, November 15th, Transy seniors and StripClubComics co-founders Alice Beatty and Sam Schultz put together a community-building, art showcasing event they call Lexington Confidential – or LexCon Zine Fest in Transy’s Pio Rooms.
The premier event housed members of the Transylvania community, such as The Rambler, The Transylvanian, alumni Morgan Hardigree and Nicole Herman, student band Maybe Next Year, professor panelists, and more, making appearances alongside other Lexington artists and students selling their goods. Between panels, musical guest Tiramisu, a local jazz-fusion band, performed jazz covers as patrons visited booths.
Starting the evening with their own panel, Sam and Alice did a presentation on their comic series Scully and Boone, an undead-detective tale set in Chicago. Over the summer, the comic-making duo received a travel grant from the University and were able to visit Chicago for research. Learning local ghost stories, architecture, and travel routes, the experience helped them world-build more accurately and come up with new characters and storylines for future development. For example, Alice came up with designs for a gargoyle creature based on architecture and lore they came across, which their characters, Scully and Boone, will battle on the Chicago “L” metro system.
The LexCon event itself was actually part of Sam and Alice’s grant. The Grant Allocation Committee asks that students who receive grants give a presentation on how they used the money or create something to show for their travels. Using the last of their budget, LexCon was a step further. “We wanted to have some fun event around it, something comic-themed,” Alice explained. “We decided to do a kind of ‘Comic Con’ thing, make it a whole community event, and bring a lot of other creatives in on it.”
The event featured three panels in total. After Sam and Alice’s Scully and Boone panel, which acted as their grant presentation, Animation professor David Gerhard – known for his work on shows such as Midnight Gospel, Invader Zim, Breadwinners, and much more – hosted “From Strip to Screen: Adapting Comics for Animation” with guest animators Greer Givens and Eric V-L. The three shared stories on their experiences with turning comic stories into animated series or films.
To end the event, Transylvania University faculty Anthony Mead – Director of the Morlan Gallery and Adjunct Instructor of Art – and Rebekah Gordon – Assistant Professor of Religion – hosted a “History of Zines” panel in which they explained where zines came from historically and how they find themselves in our modern society. They also lead a collaborative zine-making activity, where anyone can make their own zine. Afterward, the zines would be sent to Transylvania’s Special Collections of zines in the form of a booklet to memorialize the day and the products of our community.
Sam and Alice hope the event will bring more patrons to their comic series as well. StripClubComics is an indie comic collection, completely self-published and hand-drawn. Alice and Sam founded it with the intention of bringing together their friends and showcasing their talents; writers and artists working together to make something pun-filled, fun, and impressive.
The team, including a long list of Transy (and some non-Transy) student artists, produces many series within their editions, Scully and Boone being just one example. However, the killer noir series grew too big for the magazine editions and broke out into its own book with the help of the grant-funded trip to Chicago. Other series in the StripClubworld include Pulver-eyes – a superhero spoof, Los Animos PD – an animal buddy cop series, and more.
Alice and Sam have shown time and time again that their commitment to taking creativity to the next level is something worth paying attention to. From starting their own comic book series to creating their own “Comic Con” inspired event, they’re always working on something big and exciting.
Maybe LexCon will return, but for now, keep your eyes out for new StripClub editions and Hot Singles – a mini series of one-off comics, in the StripClubComics magazine boxes around Lexington, and find updates on their website!
