Conversation is a part of life. Let's bring readers into the life of our comics. It comes up a lot where people think maybe they have too much dialogue, too many “talking heads". It can happen, but it doesn’t always happen.

The famous way out of this is Wally Wood’s “22 panels that always work when some dumb writer has a bunch of lame characters sitting around and talking for page after page…”

We read them instantly.

For Conversation:

Will Eisner, in his Comics and Sequential Art, makes the case that figures in a comic are like an alphabet that we "read."

Excerpted from
https://archive.org/details/Will_Eisner_Theory_of_Comics_and_Sequential_Art/page/n15/mode/2up

In this example below, he shows the example of a "worship symbol."

Do we create emotion symbols with our figures? What do you think? Share some examples or non examples in the comments!

This fall we're bringing you some new and returning online classes from now through until December including Bootleggers Guide to Story Jess Ruliffson, Build Your Own Labyrinth with Matt Madden, Story Structure Basics and How to Use Them with Beth Trembley, and more!

Taking the chance to celebrate SAW online Alum, Angeli Rafer! The middle grade book she drew, 'Ghosts Don’t Eat Potato Chips came out this week withScholastic! Woo! Don't forget to let us know about your comics wins in the big, bad world outside the network! We want to hear about it!

We're so excited to announce that our next in-person Visiting Artist Workshop will be lead by award-winning cartoonist, Tommi Parrish (@tommi_pg). Join Tommi in the SAW space October 16 to 20. The class will be a combination of book making, playing with different DIY printing techniques, and painting with gouache based on writing exercises. Each part will draw on Tommi's own creative practice.

This will be a virtual roundtable discussing the possibility of graphic literature from the frame work of The Field Guide to Graphic Literature: Artists and Writers on Creating Graphic Narratives, Poetry Comics, and Literary Collage, Edited by Kelcey Ervick & Tom Hart

THIS WEEK, we will feature 8 recent graduates from our year-long certificate program reading the final stories.

Intimate yet expansive, No Straight Lines chronicles the rise of five DIY comic artists who were part of an artistic movement that ushered LGBTQ art into the mainstream.

We had a great call with comics artist, health explorer, deep listener and community builder, Georgia Webber this past week! Webber guided us through what drew her to comics; her early work as an editor and designer (including a double zine bound on each side and held together); the process of DUMB, which was heavily thought out but then drawn directly in ink; and her collaboration in “Dancing After TEN,” in which she was tasked with illustrating the story of Vivian Chong's life with Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN) and how it eventually affected her vision.

“Make small things. Find friends to counter the “bad” voice.

Do "unimportant" things (like small things, fast things, like journal in the notebook things, single panels, just faces, etc.) - the critics tend to be quelled a little when they think what you are doing is unimportant…”

Come join us in our most affordable, online ongoing-community SAW FLOW + PUBLISH MEMBERSHIP GROUP (comes with a two-week free trial) to join in on MONTHLY PRO-CALLS!

Find SAW at table A:3 at Short Run Seattle this weekend, November 5th!

Our Assistant Executive Director, Emma Jensen, will be running SAW's table! Come by to learn more about SAW or to just say hello.

Had a great time seeing some familiar faces around the network this past weekend at the Massachusetts Indie Comics Expo! Thanks again to everyone who stopped by to say hello, and welcome to anyone and everyone new to SAW who signed up after learning more about us!

This October, we have TWO Pro-Calls and we're inviting everyone to this one.

SAW Pro-Call with Wendy Pini! | Monday October 17, 2022 @ 2PM EASTERN TIME

We’ve started a podcast! We're doing a soft launch of our Friday Night Comics Video Podcasts on Spotify. This is a new way to catch up, rewatch, or listen to archived Friday Night Comics Workshops.

This Weeklong Comics Retreat is designed to break you out of your regular routine and drop you into a room alongside other cartoonists and comics lovers. We will be prioritizing time in the studio drawing and workshopping projects in small groups.

Find us at SPX this weekend in Maryland! Table E14. We’re also sponsoring four workshops at SPX: 9/17 Making Diary Comics with Ellen O’Grady; Drawing Cuteness with Shauna J. Grant; Bodies, Birth and Death, a Comics Workshop With Tom Hart; and Make A Comics Love Letter to TV With Anna Sellheim.

Success from SAW Artist Resident Alumni, Mel Gillman (they/them)!

"Other Ever Afters" is a collection of QUEER FAIRY TALES and "Who Was a Daring Pioneer of the Skies?: Amelia Earhart" follows the story behind "aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart’s mysterious and fatal second trip around the world." Both published by Penguin Random House.

“Once, years ago, while walking her dogs in the woods, Elizabeth found a dead body. “ Library Journal review of Look Again, a recent Graphic Memoir by SAW Graphic Memoir Instructor, Elizabeth Trembley.

Let Ourselves Shine! We are organizing ourselves into communities, and sharing our selves, the best we can. See more from this topic in our free online community full of thoughts about making art, why we make art, and more.