Monday, February 8, 2010

JAVILAND Episode 33: "Teaching the Art of Comics"

We ended up recording this episode on Monday evening, as the Super Bowl and other events prevented us from recording on our usual Sunday night time slot. 

"Teaching the Art of Comics" was our topic. My callers and I have all had experience in teaching comic book classes and workshops. We talk about how we structure our classes (course outlines), issues one confronts when teaching a room full of young students, and how the storytelling aspect of comics seems to be the primary thrust of our instruction as opposed to perfect drawing skills. We also share some tips on proposing a comics class to your local libraries or other interested organizations and businesses.

Joining me on the call for the first time on JAVILAND was Kiyoshi Nakazawa. I've known Kiyoshi over the years, often running into him at numerous conventions and events in the Southern California area. Kiyoshi is a multi-talented artist whose long-running zine, DRUNKEN MASTER, features coverage on local bands and people, comics created by Kiyoshi, and lots of his trademark wit, all told with a DIY, punk rock sensibility. His art has been displayed in galleries in Australia, Japan, New York, Portland and other states.

He's taught comic book classes at a local art store here in Los Angeles, BLUE ROOSTER ART SUPPLIES, and in fact has an upcoming 5-week class starting Feb/ 28th. Click here for info.

Joining us again on JAVILAND as well is Tyler James, creator of the web comics OVER and TEARS OF THE DRAGON. Tyler is currently teaching a comics class for younger students, and shares his recent experiences in the classroom. Tyler also writes a column called "Creating Comics:The Art & Craft" over at the COMICS RELATED website.

I myself will be conducting my seminar "DIY COMICS:The Secrets of Self-Publishing" at GEEKS Comics in Whittier. It's a free to attend, and it starts at 2pm, Saturday, Feb. 13. And at the seminar I'll be announcing about the upcoming comic classes I'll be teaching at GEEKS, too.



To listen to the Episode 33, use the player located on the right or just click here to go to my page at Talkshoe. Don't forget that you can subscribe to the JAVILAND podcast via iTunes on my Talkshoe page, so you can take these episodes with you on your morning jog to the donut shop!

These are some of the books about making comics that we mentioned during our discussion:



 










Thanks to Kiyoshi and Tyler for joining me on this episode, and of course to all the people who listen to the show!