Comics & Graphic Novels
Comics & Graphic Novels is an Intensive, meaning it happens in a short time span (1 day in NYC, or 2 days on Zoom). It’s open to writers of any level. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.
Comics and graphic novels marry words and images to tell a story that leaps off the page unlike any other art form.
These illustrated narratives range from strips like Calvin and Hobbes, to traditional comic series like Watchmen and Wonder Woman, to book-length novels and memoirs like Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, Mariko and Jillian Tamaki’s This One Summer, and John Lewis’s March. Yes, they embrace silliness and superheroes and serious literature—anything you can imagine is fair game.
Here you’ll explore how these stories work, focusing on the fundamentals of visual storytelling, as well as the way these images merge with words. Though you’ll be experimenting with illustration in class, no artistic background is required.
The course is a very informative and illustrative combination of understanding the structures and philosophies of graphic novels and comics, and learning about the nuts-and-bolts practicalities of the industry.
Kristina Boylan
Upcoming Classes
NYC classes are being scheduled. Please check back soon.
Price
Registration fee $25, paid once per term
2-Day
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Zoom
Real-time videoconference
Tuition: $185
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One-on-One
Tuition:
Mini - $450, Private - $885
Available on Zoom
Syllabus
This course gives an overview of the basics of writing/illustrating comics and graphic novels. Course components:
Brief lectures
Writing exercises
Topics:
Introduction to Comics and Graphic Novels
Visual Storytelling
Character
Pacing
Point of View
Breaking In
Note: Content may vary among individual classes.
Teachers
Teresa Wong
Teresa Wong is the author of the graphic memoirs All Our Ordinary Stories and Dear Scarlet: The Story of My Postpartum Depression, both of which were finalists for the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize and longlisted for CBC Canada Reads, (both Arsenal Pulp Press). Her comics and nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, The Believer, McSweeney's, the CBC, Buzzfeed, and Event Magazine, and she has taught comics workshops for The Believer and The Word on the Street Lethbridge. She holds a BA and a B.Ed from the University of Calgary and a Certificate in Creative Writing from Humber College.
Read moreis the author of the graphic memoirs All Our Ordinary Stories and Dear Scarlet: The Story of My Postpartum Depression, both of which were finalists for the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize and longlisted for CBC Canada Reads, (both Arsenal Pulp Press). Her comics and nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, The Believer, McSweeney's, the CBC, Buzzfeed, and Event Magazine, and she has taught comics workshops for The Believer and The Word on the Street Lethbridge. She holds a BA and a B.Ed from the University of Calgary and a Certificate in Creative Writing from Humber College.
Related Courses
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