COMICS CURATOR

Yeah, the Cartoon College documentary is finally out to watch streaming/VOD on iTunes or you can order a DVD. It’s $9.99 but believe you me, my experience was PRICELESS. Cartoon College follows a group of grad school students at a very small comic book school, The Center for Cartoon Studies, in rural Vermont, over 2009-2011. I am one of those students. There are also several of your favorite cartoonists like Lynda Barry, Chris Ware, Charles Burns, Art Spiegelman and R. Sikoryak dropping hot knowledge but this film is a little inside baseball. Michelle Ollie, James Sturm, Steve Bissette, Jason Lutes, Bill Scavone and Alec Longstreth will always a warm place in my heart as professors and friends as will the hundreds (okay, hundred) of children I, in turn, taught comics to at schools in Vermont and New Hampshire the four years I lived there. One girl even dyed her hair pink too and came to every workshop her mom would drive to! Speaking of hair, bless the class of 2011 who dyed their bangs pink to match mine on graduation day. Top to bottom: Lena Chandhok, Nomi Kane, Carl Antonowicz (it was in his facial hair!), Lawrence Derks III, Carol Thompson and then Betsey Swardlick, me and Beth Hetland. 

Comics writer Jonathan Baylis already reviewed it for On Demand’s blog WITH COMICS so get with it. Please enjoy this tale featuring my friends three years ago and know that we are kicking ass and making comics to this day.

What a week for comics! The newest and coolest anthology is now available for pre-orders. Cartozia Tales is an all-ages fantasy series based on the swell map above we built together (drawn by Sarah Becan) with an extremely talented group of cartoonists. The core Cartozians are editor Isaac Cates, Mike Wenthe, Lucy Bellwood (my new best friend), Tom Motley, Sarah Becan, Lupi McGinty, Shawn Cheng and me. Our first two guests are Dylan Horrocks (of Hicksville) and Jon Lewis (of True Swamp, published by Uncivilized Books).

Without going into ALL the details, each issue we roll the dice to get our map assignment! You never know what’s going to happen in this kid-safe and adult-cool world. Collaboration and some game-play at its best.

Check out the Cartozia site for more details, how to order Issue #1 for $5 dollars or get a subscription!

(panel from my Cartozia comic…)