Cartoon and Comic Club for Middle Schoolers

Tuesdays 4:30-5:45

3 sessions, 5 weeks each session

Overview:

The Cartoon and Comic Club creates an opportunity for young artists to explore new ideas and skills, experience the creative process of professional cartoonists, and contribute to a visual narrative designed to uplift, educate, and inspire readers, in our community and beyond.

The Cartoon and Comic Club will introduce how to create imaginative concepts, characters and stories through the form of comics at an introductory level.

The Cartoon and Comic Club consist of 3 five-week-long sessions that run for 75 minutes each class. Each session is $150 per student.

Each class consists of the following elements:

Overview - a discussion of objectives for each class.

Breaking Down Comics: - an exploration and study of professional comic art.

Brainstorm Sketching - a 6-minute sketching activity based on prompts generated by the club.

Tutorial - a skill building routine based on key terms and session-by-session objectives.

Open Studio - a dedicated time for members to prioritize tasks and work autonomously towards common goals.

Share - an opportunity for critique and self reflection.

THREE PATHS

Club members have the freedom to choose a range of content to create based around a central storyline developed by the club. All content creation involves drawing designs and providing written descriptions and lore.

Path 1: character design

Members can choose to create a cast of characters. Each character must have a biography, serve a role or function within the community identified within the central storyline, and be loosely inspired by a real person or profession.

Path 2: world building

Members can choose to create a wide range of items, objects, vehicles, cities, and or worlds for characters to engage with. Each developed idea must have a written explanation of how it functions and relates to the central story.

Path 3: storytelling

Members can choose to focus on drawing comics strips dedicated to their original characters, or other content created within the club

Curriculum

Week 1

We will get acquainted with the flow of the club, the three available art paths, and complete an exercise to create a main character.

Week 2

We will begin to develop our main characters by writing their character’s origin story. Members will also begin to branch out into their desired path as concept artists and cartoonists.

Week 3

Members will work together like a writing room for a production to brainstorm the central story for the club. Members will continue to develop their characters and world-building content, and begin to align it with the central story.

Week 4

Members will be given feedback by the instructor and by their fellow creators, and will spend the week refining their concepts and content.

Week 5

Members will use the remaining class to finalize any artwork or writing for the central story and participate in closing reflections.