1. Never listen to someone giving you absolute advice. There is no ONE WAY. Pick the people you trust and listen to them. But do not lose a sense of yourself. It is always your decision. Ignore blow-hards and people who don’t know what they are talking about.

2. When writing a story, do not worry about how long it is going to be. No one cares. (Unless this plays into number 3.)

3. When overwhelmed by page-making decisions, set up boundaries. This can be a grid to work within, page-size, tool choice, number of pages

4. Serialization is not bad. It teaches.

5. You don’t have to make a “Graphic Novel.”

6. Stop thinking/worrying about your style and/or what it is. It will come eventually if you keep at it. (Ivan Brunetti said this to me)

7. Dead-ends are not a waste of time. They are very valuable. It’s okay to give up.

8. Write for yourself. Be selfish. Bury outside expectations in the ground in the backyard. Examples of this: your perceived expectations of readers, a publisher, a market, parents, etc.

9. People will respond to the work you have the most fun doing.

10. Be mindful of your health.

The Thesis Advisor display in the Schulz Library (photo courtesy of CCS, all rights reserved)

It happened while we were devouring a box of windmill cookies. We were a good-sized pack of students from the Center for Cartoon Studies, standing in the back room of the new Schulz Library. Some of us were waiting for the water to boil for our Swiss Miss hot chocolate packets (pulled, like the cookies, from a tea-trolley kept in the library’s new digs). Others were chatting about the Visiting Artist lecture we had just enjoyed (in the brand new classroom, just next door). I was leafing through the books featured on the “Second-Year Advisors” wall (where books from the almost 20 comics-professionals who are paired with students in the final year of our program are proudly displayed).

Right about then, CCS-co-founder Michelle Ollie came in, snagged a cookie, and expressed her delight that we had filtered into the library after class and started an impromptu tea-party. This, she said, was what she had always dreamed of. And that’s when it hit me…The power of a place like the Schulz Library, and the success that this new space really achieves, is that it can function as much like a community center as an archive of books.

When I was a little kid, the local library was the gathering place for creative minds. I’m a country bumpkin, so the library I grew up in was literally a single room, divided into children’s and adult’s sections by a grand, new-deal-era checkout counter. This was the place where I first discovered Tintin, where I learned the about the genres of mystery, science-fiction, and fantasy, where I read back-issues of Highlights magazine (which was filled with comics) and where I made friends with other kids who did the same. To foster its young community, the library organized staged readings by local actors, threw Halloween Parties, and hosted pot-lucks.

The library is where I grew up. It’s where I learned to love beautiful books that I could hold, read, and talk about. It’s where I realized that I, too, could create stories. And most of all, it’s where I learned that creativity can be a social activity, enriching a community, or a circle of friends.

These things, in turn, have made me love comics. The cartoonists who study at CCS come from very different backgrounds—superheroes, literary academics, scientific illustration, journalism, even theatre and performance art. But we all share these same three passions: books, storytelling, and creative exchange.

Today, the new Schulz Library is cultivating the same environment that made at least this cartoonist love these things as a little kid. With a children’s reading room, weekend community events, red leather reading-chairs, and (sometimes) a smooth jazz playlist playing in the background, this library is certainly much much more than a collection of books (although the collection of books is inspiring). It is a space for play, discussion, and snacks. It is a space for community…a community that makes stories together.

–Sasha Steinberg, guest writer.

Page from “City of Light, City of Dark” by Avi and Brian Floca

Student: Romey Bensen ’13

Book: “City of Light, City of Dark” written by Avi, illustrated by Brian Floca (Scholastic, 1993)

What’s the book about?:

“In an alternate universe, Manhattan is controlled by dark forces who control day and night. Their power is contained inside a small token, which falls into the hands of a few young kids. It’s up to them to restore order and light to the city. It’s a kids book, but it lays out a pretty grim and dangerous world.”

What’s most memorable about this book?:

“It was really, really beautiful..the writing and the artwork fit together really well… [In particular] I really liked the way that Underton (the villain) wants to light up all these neon signs to fuel his own grandeur. It tells me so much about him as a villain. I pity him. He’s so pitiable because but he just wants people to know how great he is, but at the same time he’s really narcissistic and vain…he wants his name in bright lights. More generally I thought the lettering was really beautiful. I love that it’s really loose too. It looks like he used a brush for all the bold words. I really like that. He made it all work together.”

Detail from “Red Colored Elegy” by Seiichi Hayashi

Student: April Malig ’13

Book: “Red Colored Elegy” by Seiichi Hayashi (Drawn and Quarterly, 2008)

What’s the book about?:

“A couple has a fight and then the moon cries. They fight again, stay in bed a lot, cry in bed a lot, and are all twisted together, bemoaning their fates. Sachiko and Ichiro are both animators, dealing with their various hopes, dreams, and doubts. Did I mention that they cry a lot? And throw around paper? That’s basically the plot…but in a way, that’s only half the story.”

What’s most memorable about this book?:

“It’s an important comic for me because it was one of the first comics I read that seemed to be written in a purely visceral way, no real connections between events, just glimpses of action tethered to high emotions, punctuated by abstract metaphor. Sure, it’s melodramatic, but it captures the way you are when you are young and in love, with the feeling that those two things might kill you. Most memorable image?…The moon crying.”

Detail from “Chris Ware” by Daniel Raeburn

Student: Dan Rinylo ’13

Book: “Chris Ware” by Daniel Raeburn (Yale University Press, 2004)

What’s the book about?:

“It’s a scholarly analysis of Ware’s work, based on lots of interviews. It talks a lot about Jimmy Corrigan [Ware’s most widely acclaimed novel], but also describes some of the weirder, experimental art pieces that Ware has worked on that most of us don’t know about.”

What’s most memorable about this book?:

“The things I remember best from this book are this one image of a mechanical cat head in a box that sings when the hand is cranked…The other thing I remember is when the author compared Chris Ware to a pack of lions. I was like…what?”

–Sasha Steinberg, guest writer.

In his 350-page collection, Heller reprints pages from the sketchbooks of over 80 cartoonists, illustrators, and designers. Included in this venerable line-up are alumni, former fellows, and faculty from the Center for Cartoon Studies, notably Julie Delporte, Joe Lambert, David Libens, Max de Radigues, Robert Sikoryak, and CCS co-founder James Sturm.

For each of the artists, selections from a recent sketchbook are featured alongside a brief statement about their work. Heller has also been careful to include a quote from each artist, detailing his or her (although, unfortunately in this book, overwhelmingly “his”) attitude toward the act of sketching. These attitudes were diverse and engaging, and proved to be my favorite part of the book.

Joe Lambert writes, for example, that “there’s a freshness which comes with sketching that I haven’t figured out how to express in my finished work.” This is a sentiment echoed by many of the artists in this book. James Sturm largely agrees, but adds that “sketchbooks also allow me to put down a wide variety of images that have colonized my brain and look for connections.” I particularly enjoyed how artists like Lilli Carre pointed to the quotidian nature of artist’s sketchbooks. “I don’t treat my books as tidy art spaces,” she writes. “I’ll…draw from life, and write down notes, thoughts, and ideas that I want to work into my stories. Also: Grocery lists, work schedules, recipes, films I want to track down, and so on.”

This book, just one of the recent acquisitions to the Schulz Library’s “artists sketchbook” section, is both visually impressive and intellectually stimulating. For fans of comics, it’s a fascinating insight into the minds of successful creators. For other artists, and students like myself, it can also be a profound source of inspiration and a reminder that there is no one “right way” to create comics and comic art.

–Sasha Steinberg, guest writer.

Sketchbook Drawing by Joe Lambert

Sketchbook Drawing by James Sturm

Sketchbook Drawing by Julie Delporte

As Sean Howe writes in his entertaining new book, Marvel Comics, The Untold Story, “Shortly before Christmas in 1949, a speaker system was installed in the artists’ rooms. The artists called it the ‘bitch box.’ Every so often you’d hear Stan Lee yell ‘so-and-so come into my office’ and you knew ‘so-and-so’ was being fired…”

One of those cartoonists fired was Al Jaffee. Over the next several years, Al started putting together multiple pitches for the comic syndicates hoping to sell a strip or gag feature. This work is fascinating for many reasons starting with getting to see Al still trying to figure out the style that he’d some day lock into. I was also amazed by Al’s range. In some pitches he’s drawing like Jack Kent, in others I wouldn’t be surprised if he was looking at his friend Will Elder and a just-getting-started Charles Schulz. Al told me that he was looking at what was selling and just trying to come up with something similar.

This work will be seen for the first time this Friday in White River Junction and be up through December 6. Gallery hours will be posted to the CCS homepage soon. Al himself will be in WRJ next Thursday. Since many of you won’t be able to make it to Vermont, I’ll be sure to post some more strips and images in the coming weeks.

Our students, faculty, and staff are looking forward to tomorrow evening when author/illustrator/editor Mark Siegel will visit the school to discuss his just-released graphic novel, Sailor Twain– a “supernatural romance” set in late nineteenth-century New York.

Or, the Mermaid in the Hudson

Sailor Twain just got a nice write-up in USA Today yesterday, and novelist John Irving has sung its praises, so we’re keen to hear the inside scoop from Siegel on his creation process.

In addition to his own comics work, Siegel is the editorial director of First Second Books, which has been responsible for publishing such funnybook gems as American Born Chinese, Drawing Words and Writing Pictures,  The Photographer, and The Color of Earth. It was recently revealed that the latter, by Kim Dong Hwa, was one of the most challenged books of 2011, so I am curious to hear about that experience from the publishing side.

The event begins at 7pm, and is free and open to the public. Books will be available for sale by Norwich Bookstore. Join us!

–Katie Moody, Schulz Librarian

Laura just did a slew of lovely illustrations for the most Slate Book Review. This on the heels of her Xeric Award-winning book Overboard. The scary thing about Laura—she is only now putting it all together. Can’t wait to see what the next year brings.

“I get most excited when making things that are vague and sparse, which I guess is just a matter of preference. Some people hate that, but I love that it’s perfectly doable in comics. I still haven’t really figured out the balance between story and non-story, but it’s fun trying to figure it out. “

Dane’s comics are truly spellbinding— that doesn’t surprise me. I wasn’t however aware of how articulate Dane is in talking about his work. Great interview with him here.

Welcome to Stately Schulz Manor, Gentle Reader.

The Center for Cartoon Studies and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund are pleased to announce the permanent addition of a “Banned Comics” section to the school’s Schulz Library. The move is both in recognition of the library’s first Banned Books Week in its new location and the first anniversary of the CBLDF acquiring the Comics Code Authority’s infamous “seal of approval.”

The new section will highlight the long history of censorship in comics and raise patrons’ awareness of enduring First Amendment struggles by grouping popular yet oft-challenged landmarks, such as Maus, Watchmen, Bone, Blankets, The Sandman, Fun Home, and Stuck Rubber Baby; displaying an oversized reproduction of the now-defunct CCA seal alongside the works it abolished; and promoting the CBLDF with official signage and brochures.

It’s almost impossible to overstate the impact the Code had on American comics, so it was a symbolic triumph when the CBLDF obtained its seal last year. We’re excited to celebrate this anniversary with our friends at the Fund and inform the Cartoon Studies community about the ongoing defense of our freedom of expression.

Imagery (c) 2011, 2012 the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

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The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, founded in 1986, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection of the First Amendment rights of the comics art form and its community of retailers, creators, publishers, librarians, and readers. For more information on the Fund, banned-comics resources, and how you can help, visit cbldf.org.

Banned Books Week is an annual celebration of the freedom to read, sponsored by the American Library Association. The 2012 proceedings run from Sept. 30th through Oct. 6th and mark the Week’s 30^th anniversary. For further details, a list of frequently targeted titles, and digital swag, visit bannedbooksweek.org.

The Schulz Library—named after Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz—is an inspirational resource for the Center for Cartoon Studies students and faculty in White River Junction, Vermont. Newly housed in a beautiful WPA-era post office, it is packed with graphic novels, cartoon collections, zines, and related ephemera. Both institutions were founded in 2004. For more information, visit cartoonstudies.org.

The Comics Code Authority was a self-regulatory body of the comics-publishing industry and arose out of the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency hearings in 1954. In addition to forbidding most trappings of crime and horror comics, it prohibited questioning authority and is largely blamed for the sustained domestic belief that visual narratives are for children. Though once ubiquitous, the Code’s Seal of Approval slowly slid into irrelevance and was abandoned entirely in 2011. This book is one of many fine comics histories on the subject.

Happy reading, everybody!