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We inaugurate a fantastic new series by Derek Mainhart, who is setting out to write up an entire year’s curriculum for a comics class at the secondary level: middle school and high school. From what I’ve seen so far, it’s going to be entertaining, well-planned, and incredibly useful.

Our new textbook, Mastering Comics, releases officially on May 8 and to celebrate we will be giving away four copies, two here on the website and two in person at our table at the MoCCA Fest 2012!

After years of labor, we are happy to announce that we hold an actual, printed copy of Mastering Comics, our follow up to Drawing Words & Writing Pictures in our hands. Official release date is May 8!

Back in the fall, Matt and I ran a graphic novel book club at the Brooklyn Public Library. These were really great discussions, and we’re going to try to post complete transcripts.

Wondering what’s coming in our upcoming new textbook Mastering Comics? We’ve posted our table of contents in the Resources section, and will link items in it to posts here as we make them. Can’t wait to share this with you!

We are excited to announce that Mastering Comics will go on sale May 8th, 2012.

As a teacher, having confianza with my students has always been of the utmost importance. In fact, it’s always been my main priority: I just figured the content-learning would come if I could get my students to trust me. Teaching, I think, is about managing human relationships.

This week we are going to give away a set of about 10 comics and graphic novels that were featured in the Best American Comics 2010 List of Notable Comics! Just comment on this post between now and Tuesday December 13 at 5 pm, and you will be entered in a drawing to win the pile.

This Saturday, December 17, we’ll be hosting a final live book club meeting at the central branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. This time we’ll be discussing Asterios Polyp, by David Mazzucchelli.

This week we are going to give away a set of about 25 mincomics and self-published books that were featured in the Best American Comics 2011 List of Notable Comics! Just comment on this post between now and Friday December 9 at 5 pm, and you will be entered in a drawing to win the pile.

This Saturday, November 19, we’ll be hosting another live book club meeting at the Central branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. This time we’ll be discussing the recently translated French comic Lucille, by Ludovic Debeurme.

Our editor on Drawing Words & Writing Pictures is the multi-talented Mark Siegel. He’s the creator of Sailor Twain, and often posts interesting observations on art and craft. A few months back he posted a couple of times on the art of Chinese calligraphy, and as Matt and I were recently thinking about sumi ink Read More

At a recent conference at the University of Iowa, I drew a six-panel comic in front of six 25-minute sessions of middle- and high-school kids, one panel at a time. It was a chance to talk naturally about the order of work, the materials needed, and to show all the behind-the-scenes action.

Mari Ahokoivu is back with the much-anticipated third part of her visual essay on teaching comics. This time out: getting unstuck.

Next Saturday, October 29, we’ll be hosting our second live book club meeting. This time, we’ll be discussing Ice Haven, by Daniel Clowes.

Librarians and comics educators, here’s a great and simple tool for introducing the basics of comics! We’ve put together a Powerpoint/PDF presentation of Jessica’s 2002 strip, “What is a ‘Graphic Novel?'”, also available as a PDF poster or handout. Feel free to use it, whether for a book club or in a classroom, or in any way you think up.

This afternoon, we’ll be hosting a live book club meeting on Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel. Our plan is to talk a little bit and show some slides at the beginning and show and then open up the floor for all of you to share your thoughts, questions and observations about Fun Home and reading Read More

This Saturday we will be inaugurating our new book club at the Brooklyn Public Library, Panels, Pages & Balloons: The Graphic Novel Book Club. It’ll be a great forum for discussing comics, especially if you’re new to the medium.

Hoo boy. Social Media for Young Cartoonists. We kept it up for nine articles… and nine intense weeks of researching, experimenting, goal-setting, (goal-missing and goal-reaching), coding, uploading, updating, tweeting, commenting,and collaborating. Then what?

Like most websites, dw-wp.com is a perpetual work-in-progress and we are always fiddling around behind the scenes, adding and changing features, strategizing our content, and so on. However, over this past summer we have put in a whole mess of updates and are proud to announce what amounts to a relaunch of this site.

This Saturday, October 1, is 24-hour Comics Day, and Matt takes the opportunity to reminisce about the repercussions of his 24-hour comic experience, many moons ago.

Our September tweets, in one convenient post.

If you were starting a comics studio program from scratch (and with a decent budget!), what would be the optimal comics studio set-up for your students?

A round-up of our tweets about comics and education.

Incredibly action-packed 5-day comics workshop in the Twin Cities: a report and samples of student work.

JP presents his three-part strategy for developing a persona while Hilary tries on “wisecracker” for size. Plus: a cliffhanger!

Mari Ahokoivu takes us through part 2 of her development as a cartoonist and a teacher of comics.

Before you even start thinking of having any type of blog/web-comic, you should make sure you have at least 5-6 pieces ready to go before you launch.

Here’s an idea: What about creating a wiki where comics educators could create and update listings on what they have to offer? And of course, being a wiki, students and former students could add information on their experiences? If you’re experienced in creating wikis, and interested in comics education, we need your help!

JP: So last week I finally got around to uploading one of my comics online. A day went by, and I was curious to see how many people actually viewed my comic. 2,798 visits?! RESULTS! HUZZAH!