I just posted a whole bunch of weird and excellent comics done by School of Visual Arts cartooning majors over the last few years in a class of mine where I present them with a series of assignments based on creative rules or constraints.
I proposed a comics workshop to my university. I intend to teach students how to make comics and self-publish them, going from script to art to folding, stapling and selling their own comics. The only problem is, I’ve never done this before.
Hothouse student Lisa Anchin worked intensely this summer toward mastering the language of comics and visual clarity. The first run through of her thumbs felt slow and confusing, but Lisa showed total commitment to revision, as tough as it can be, and remade her story until it’s clear, compelling, downright exciting ride. I can’t wait to see what happens next!
Hilary is an undergrad at SVA in cartooning, entering her third year. She’s incredibly energetic and involved in her learning process any time of the year, but something clicked in her brain this summer, and Hilary committed herself to her work with an intensity I rarely see.
I just finished co-teaching a three-week class at the School of Visual Arts. It’s a pre-college intensive summer course in cartooning: 25 students, 4 teachers, one assistant, 250+ pages of comics produced!
The “pictureless comic” activity, originally from Chapter 7 of DWWP, is one that we use constantly, in formal classes, in intensive workshops, and in casual talks and improvised situations. We once did it in a lecture hall at a comic convention with 200 people! It has so many advantages: at its core, it’s a study of how comics work, the elements of comics and how they work together to create meaning, even without pictorial images. It’s also a great way to learn layout and lettering skills, and to concentrate on those technical skills, again, without distraction. Finally, it’s an activity that anyone can do. Drawing skills are unnecessary (though a design sensibility is certainly a help!).
Over the last two years, Tom Hart and I have been offering an advanced comics seminar that I believe is a new and fruitful addition to comics education. A description and some reflections.
