Thoughts from Justine Andersen:

“So in an attempt to tone down the anxiety level regards the more advanced level of this class, let's look at a few more "cartoony" examples of "caves of wonder," and let's start with one of the very BEST! Maurice Noble's backgrounds for Ali Baba Bunny…

As a tribute to National Native American Heritage Month, and National Native American Heritage Day (which is observed the day after Thanksgiving), we want to shed light on some awesome comics and comic resources portraying Native American cartoonists’ experiences, heritage, and stories. Check it out!

The majority of the public's education and awareness about the transgender community has been informed by the media (films, books, art, etc). A lot of this media, however, overwhelmingly misrepresents and mischaracterizes who trans people really are and the attitude the public should have toward trans individuals.

For Transgender Awareness Week, I want to highlight some Transgender cartoonists who share their experiences, educate about pronouns, or are just openly Transgender cartoonists.

History alone is always evolving, since new things are constantly surfacing about our past, and Comics History in the Western world is no different.

SAW’s Western Comics History course is always evolving as we find new sources to cover about diversity and technique in comics while also reflecting on how far comics have travelled to be where they are in today’s Western world.

Perseverance. It’s hard! Not only with one’s art, but often with other things in life that pile up and may take one away from doing art, or much of anything at all. But is giving up even harder to do? We’d like to share what some of our students have said about this common concern many face.

Comics are all about drawing words and writing art (think about it), but not every comic needs lettering or bubbles. In fact, there are many amazing silent comics out there that tell a story without ever using a thought bubble! However, including lettering and balloons in comics are very common. These inclusions can sometimes even enhance your comics.

This week on the SAW Mighty Network we have recommendations for everything from Simon Hanselmann, to PBS episodes and MPR features, as well as works in progress.

You probably heard we’ve recently made a big move over to the Mighty Network, a group sharing platform where the SAW community can share, workshop and develop ideas.

You can learn lots and meet lots more in the SAW Mighty Network. Here’s a glimpse into what we did last week!

Every week we’ll round up the best from over at our Mighty Network for a glimpse of SAW’s growing online community.

Emily Flake is back at SAW to teach gag cartooning, launching May 20.

In fourth grade I announced (to everyone) that I was either going to be a comic book artist or a dolphin trainer. 
But there were some really big problems straight out of the gate.

Do you have your Narrative Image?

At the end of this sequence, hopefully we have a "Narrative Image." Just a single doodle or drawing from our doodling as we were gathering ideas.

What I learned from Lynda Barry about stories and flow and avoiding the inner critic!

I was extremely fortunate to take a week-long workshop in person with Lynda Barry back in 2001. A LOONG time ago now!

That workshop, "Writing the Unthinkable" was all about "seeing your story" and following behind it, "like water skiing."

I’ve been wanting to create comics without words. And, I found the answer in Tom Hart’s workshop.