Utilizing Death in Comics
with Lillie J. Harris
Course Overview
In the Utilizing Death in Comics course, we will explore the various ways that death can enrich our comics-making practice by better communicating personal, emotional, and folkloric ideas in our work.
Throughout this 4-week course, we will analyze how death is used in several indie comics across genres in order to create our own comics with awareness, depth, and compassion.
What’s Involved:
Starting July 7, 2026
Weekly 2-hour live sessions (on Zoom)!
Guided critiques and demonstrations
Exploration of how death can deepen personal, emotional, and symbolic storytelling
Exercises designed to build awareness, depth, and compassion in your comics-making practice
Calls will include live instruction, time to work on exercises, and feedback on work.
Class videos, audios, chats, and transcripts will be saved and archived for the duration of the course.
There is a small Mighty Networks component for this course. Sharing in the Mighty Networks, which is our host site for community interaction and sharing work, will be encouraged. However, most instructor feedback will be in the live classes.
Meeting Times
Tuesdays, July 7 - July 28, 2026
4 Live Online Classes, 2 hours per session
6 PM - 8 PM Eastern / 3 PM - 5 PM Pacific
July 7
July 14
July 21
July 28
About the Instructor
Lillie J. Harris
Lillie J. Harris is a cartoonist, writer, and death doula from Prince George’s County, Maryland. Tension and empathy are notable themes in both Lillie’s illustrations and sequential work. They are a graduate of The Center for Cartoon Studies and a past artist resident of The Studios at MASS MoCA.
They are the founder of Collaborative Catharsis, a service that supports those who are dying and their loved ones by expressing all aspects of their emotions through tactile, non-judgmental visual art making. Lillie also runs a bi-weekly virtual open studio for those seeking to process death and grief in parallel with others through drawing, writing, or crafting.