With the Miami Book Fair fast approaching, we’re getting ever closer to the School of Comics, part of which is being sponsored by GNR. It’s all part of the MBF’s Comix Galaxy, a wide-reaching program that gives readers much to celebrate at the fair. We talked to Lissette Mendez, the fair’s program coordinator, to get all the details.
 
You’ve been involved in the Comix Galaxy at the Miami Book Fair since its inception. How did that come about?
Well, it wasn’t just me, by a long shot. John Shableski from Diamond came to Mitchell Kaplan, our Book Fair chairman, who is very involved with our programming, with the idea for what became the School of Comics and Graphic Novels for librarians and educators. Mitchell pulled me in to work on it on the Book Fair end, and slowly it grew with the support of Book Fair leadership—my director, Alina Interian—and the rest of the staff into the multifaceted program we debuted last year. So it was definitely a team effort. John is still involved and connects me with people in the industry all the time. He introduced me to Alex Simmons, who is producing his Kids’ Comic Con at the Fair this year. And to Carol Fitzgerald, GraphicNovelReporter.com’s publisher, who is the sponsor of School of Comics this year. I am sure this program will evolve as it grows.
 
How would you describe the Comix Galaxy and what does it accomplish at the fair?
It’s a program that celebrates comics and graphic novels, acknowledging what many have known always—that good comics and graphic novels have value, that great stories are told in this format, just like great stories are told in prose and poetry and in film and in theater. We take pride, at the Fair, in saying that we have a book for every reader—from history to popular novels and everything in between. Well, comics and graphic novels fit in there too. People want to read them and we want to offer them the opportunity to meet the authors and artists, to hear them discuss the works…and to discover new books. It continues to broaden the scope of what we are all about.
 
Does this programming bring a whole new audience to the fair?
I think in part it does. We don’t do scientific surveys, but I would say a great percentage, the majority, of comics fans also read other kinds of books. And chances are that these readers already attend the Fair. For them, this is a bonus. Especially since we don’t have any big cons in Miami. But there is definitely a percentage of people who come out because of the GN programming…and we welcome them. It’s cool that we have this program for them and that they will enjoy the whole Fair as a result of coming out for the comics.
Miami Book Fair is a very big event—250,000 people over eight days—the vast majority coming over the weekend Street Fair, when most authors present (more than 400 authors this year!). We have done surveys in the past, but the Comix Galaxy debuted just last year…so maybe in the future, if we do another survey, we will ask some Galaxy–related questions.
I tell you what, though, anecdotally—one of the panels last year was on superheroes, their everlasting appeal, their history, etc., and not only was it standing-room-only, but it was the most age-diverse crowd I’d ever seen. From grandpas to 8-year-olds.
 
This year, graphic novels are playing a major role in the weekend, with many events going on. Is this a surprising aspect of the growth of the Miami Book Fair?
No. Last year, our first year, we had two full days of programming on Saturday and Sunday. I work on the entire author program, not just graphic novels, but every other kind of literature, so it was a natural to me when the School of Comics idea came up that we would continue the programming over the weekend for the general public. School of Comics and Graphic Novels is for educators to learn how they can use GNs in the classroom, so it is essentially an instructional program for a small group of people. It’s free, but it’s by registration. So much of Book Fair is for the public, for everyone to enjoy, that it was really important to me since the beginning that we position the GN program in the same way—for the public, for any of the 250,000 people who come to the Fair.
 
How has the role of comics grown and changed at the fair over the years?
Well, this is only the second year we’ve done it in a “packaged” way. That sounds a little weird…but what I mean is that it is only the second year in which we think of it as a “program” and give it a name, etc. In the past, we have had graphic novels at the Fair. I saw the venerable Will Eisner at the Fair a year or so before I started working here, and the first year I was here, Chip Kidd designed our poster and curated a show of artwork by GN and comics artists and writers, including Alex Ross, Art Speigelman, Chris Ware, and other greats. That year Art Spiegelman was here with In the Shadow of No Towers.He was one of our Evenings With speakers—those are our keynote presentations. So I guess that’s the answer, that though the Fair has always presented graphic-novel and comics creators, last year we built an entire program with many facets—the School, the public presentations, the exhibitors during Street Fair, the show in the gallery…
 
I have to also say that the Florida Center for the Literary Arts—the Fair’s parent organization for which I create programming all year long—has created GN programming for years. Our One Book, One Community program promoted Persepolis as a communitywide read some years back. I’ve also had comics and graphic-novel authors work with the college students at Miami Dade College, where we are housed. A number of professors have taught different books over the years and I’ve brought the writers in. Brad Meltzer was one of the visiting authors one year.
 
What are some of your favorites comics?
I’ve read Fables monthly for years, even while I’ve lost interest in other series. Fables I still love. I read Ruse before they shut down. Y: The Last Man. Ghostworld. I loved Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, anything by Joann Sfar, American Born Chinese by Gene Yang. Loved Kampung Boy and Town Boy. Those three are First Second Books—I think they are publishing kick-a** books. Aya and Aya of Yop City I read recently and really liked. Jeff Lemire, Brian Fies, who is at the Fair this year. The classics—Maus, A Contract with God, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Sandman, Batman: The Dark Night Returns and The Long Halloween, anything done by Tim Sale and Jeph Loeb, Watchmen…
 
I have read a lot over the years! But I have to say I read a lot less of anything since I became a mom! I just don’t have the time to stay on top of all the great books that constantly come out.
 
Do you remember your first comic?
I came from Cuba on a boat when I was a child, and in the refugee center in which we stayed for a time in Key West, somebody gave me a comic of the Bible story of Exodus. It was in English, and I did not speak English at the time, but I had the pictures…so I had the story. To this day, I remember reading that comic over and over and over to pass the time. Once I learned English, I was an Archie girl all the way. And I had read some Asterix in Cuba. Those had belonged to my dad, I think.
 
Why was it important to bring Comix Galaxy to the fair?
Because there are some great books published in this format and I want people to discover them, or for those that already know these books, this format, I want them to have a place where they can meet the authors, buy new books, enjoy them in the company of others.
 
Do you have future plans or goals for the fair?

To continue improving the program. Fixing what doesn’t work. Growing what does. Bridging the gap between the comics industry and the book industry—things are done a bit differently, expectations are sometimes different. We are also a very small staff, but we are dedicated. I love what I do.