BY JEN VAUGHN – For anyone who has ever performed any improv, there is a simple rule: ‘Say Yes.’ Say yes to a situation when presented to you because your fellow troupe member has a story line. You can add even more “yes and…” The same rule applies to a game called Fiasco, which calls itself the ‘make your own Coen brothers film’ game. You create a story without props with high stakes, characters with high ambition and low impulse control AND with a traditional story structure. The first time I played was with Comics Journal editor and gaming partner Kristy Valenti and the heat was oppressive, adding to our Western setting. Center for Cartoon Studies professor and cartoonist (most notably for BERLIN), Jason Lutes, has taken the narrative he created with five CCS graduates and turned it into a 72 page full-color comic book called BINGO BABY.
The creators include five CCS graduates Donna Almendrala, Bill Bedard, Joseph Lambert, Amelia Onorato, and Denis St. John and Jason Lutes is their whip-cracking editor. It’ll be interesting to see this story that was created rather on the fly by creative storytellers and then coaxed into comic book page submission. Each of these young cartoonists are drawn to rich stories, no matter what genre or style. Based on the video, they draw a lot from the quiet mountain town of White River Junction, full of its share of characters from the meth addicts to the Vietnam War veterans to the bougie retirees to the dueling bingo venues crammed with hardcore players. You can do the ol’ Kickstarter pre-order now for only $10.
Lutes is known at the school for his board game nights. Wish there was a reward that included Lutes coming to YOUR board game night and teaching you a thing or two about wheat or stone trades. Rewards include the book itself, a shirt, hell—some original Lutes artwork!
—
Jen Vaughn is a Seattle-based cartoonist and marketing manager at Fantagraphics. CAVEAT: she’s played board games with all these creators and they are magnificent bastards.