Comixtravaganza

Garfield punting Odie out of his favorite sleeping spot? Hilarious (or at least harmless). Gail leading her gang of hookers in a massacre of crooked cops in the back alleys of Old Town? Horrifying. The chubby lasagna-loving tabby and the citizens of Frank Miller’s hell-on-earth Sin City have almost nothing in common except the way their stories are told. Illustrations, not heavy dialogue or overwrought description, define the comic, a genre that’s skittered from political subversion to youthful entertainment to shocking representations of our guiltiest, guiltiest secrets and fantasies. The Seattle Public Library devoted January to comics and wraps it all up today with Comixtravaganza. It starts this afternoon with David Lasky, co-creator of the Seattle-Zeitgeist-capturing Urban Hipster, helping you create your own comic. That’s followed by a discussion of why the medium is so darn awesome, with Ellen Forney—illustrator of Sherman Alexie’s Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian—chatting about the life of a cartoonist. You’ve always been able to get in touch with your inner dork at the library, but today you can really revel in it. Seattle Public Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., 386-4636, www.spl.org. Free. 2 p.m. LAURA ONSTOT

Sat., Jan. 26, 2008