9/3/08 Session

I'm expecting a number of new students at Sunnyside, so I'll be restarting the lesson order from the beginning for this new series of sessions. As with 7/22, this session will focus on panels.

Templates used:

Annie
Chugworth Academy
Coffee Achievers
Coolcat Studio
Cosmobear
College Roomies From Hell
Daisy is Dead
Diesel Sweeties
Dinosaur Comics
Ghost Hunters
Girl Genius
Goats
Ice
Kastle Comics
Krakow
Little Dee
Mac Hall
Marilith
My Stupid Life
Narbonic
No Pink Ponies
Nothing Nice to Say
Penny & Aggie
Phineus
Piled Higher and Deeper
Planet Karen
Questionable Content
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Seasons of Constancy
Shortpacked
Sketchies
Skin Horse
Sorcerers and Secretaries
Tea Club
Templar, AZ
Unshelved
Venus Envy
Weirdlings
You'll Have That

One tactic I'm starting to use is tallying how many times I've used certain comics. Some, like SMBC or QC, get used a lot because they're a main source of a certain layout type (such as single panel). Others get passed over because I keep forgetting to use them. So by knowing which comics I've been neglecting the use of, I can remember to hand them out to the students. The idea is that this will ensure greater diversity in the material.

7/22/08 Pictures

The pictures from the 7/22 Session have been added to the Session Gallery. Since I'm expecting a lot of pictures from these sessions, I've split them into their own sub-gallery. Pictures from the other sessions will be added soon.

Gallery Updated

The Misc. Gallery has been updated with pictures from Otakon 2008! They include some photos I didn't post here in the blog. In the future, I'll put convention photos there. If I go to a lot of conventions, I may give them their own page in the future.

September Sessions

The dates for the September sessions at Sunnyside Elementary have been confirmed: 9/3, 9/10, and 9/24. They'll be 45 minutes long from 4:30 - 5:15 PM. Not as long as my usual hour, but better than just 30 minutes like I had in the summer. I should have ~18 kids or more of various ages.

Garth Graham Joins!

Another webcomic from Otakon has joined: Garth Graham's Comedity and the upcoming Finder's Keepers. I met Graham at Otakon and he really liked the idea of using his comics with kids. He just wanted me to send him a "official request" letter before committing to the project. He got back to me recently and everything is a go. While his comic isn't entirely kid friendly, I'm sure I can find some strips to use. His art style is fairly polished, so it'll work well.

New Comics Join!

Three new comics have joined the comic project! These were three I'd seen at Otakon but didn't get a chance to talk with. The first is Geeks Next Door with art by Jessi Bavolack. I met the writer, Matt Pascal, and he was kind enough to pass on my request to her.

The other two stem from the Women in Webcomics panel. Robin Edwards has given me permission to use Cardboard Angels and her other comics (Ganbare! Shimura-san and TV Circuit) for the project, making her the second artist from Strawberry Comics to join. Also joining in is Brooke "Otter" Spangler of A Girl & Her Fed, who's not only giving me her comic archives but is also working on an original template just for the CCP! Now that's going the extra mile.

Links Page Update

The Links page has been updated. All the comics from Otakon and a few others have been added - the list is getting pretty long! I couldn't find banners for some, so they're just text links for now. If I find banners I'll add them up later.

8/12/08 Sessions Stats

Here are the final numbers for the 8/12 sessions:

Overall:

Attendance: 56
Comics collected: 276
Student efficiency: 4.93

10-12 year olds:

Attendance: 20
Comics collected: 89
Student efficiency: 4.45
Max possible produced: 180
Lesson efficiency: 0.49

7-9 year olds:

Attendance: 22
Comics collected: 138
Student efficiency: 6.27

5-6 year olds:

Attendance: 14
Comics collected: 49
Student efficiency: 3.5

Lesson efficiency wasn't applicable to the 7-9 or 5-6 year olds (or overall) due to the kind of lesson they had with the Round Robin activities.

The low efficiency with 10-12 year olds was due to how I was only able to collect the warm-up from each student. The activity part - multi-page stories - was left in their possession when we ran out of time.

8/5/08 Sessions Stats

Here are the final numbers for the 8/5 sessions:

Overall:

Attendance: 51
Comics collected: 295
Student efficiency: 5.78
Max possible produced: 315
Lesson efficiency: 0.94

10-12 year old:

Attendance: 21
Comics collected: 142
Student efficiency: 6.76
Max possible produced: 147
Lesson efficiency: 0.97

7-9 year olds:

Attendance: 16
Comics collected: 106
Student efficiency: 6.63
Max possible produced: 112
Lesson efficiency: 0.95

5-6 year olds:

Attendance: 14
Comics collected: 47
Student efficiency: 3.36
Max possible produced: 56
Lesson efficiency: 0.84

The 5-6 year olds had a normal lesson by teaching them about symbolia, which is easier for them to do instead of sentences.

7/24/08 Pictures

The Workshop Gallery has been updated. The pictures from the 7/24 workshop at the B&G Club are now in there.

New Artist Joins the CCP

Witch Girl Pilar on DeviantArt has generously contributed her artwork to the comic project. This includes a couple comics she's drawn and several one-shot pieces.

8/12/08 Videos

There were only 3 videos recorded for the 8/12 session. The first one with 10-12 year olds wasn't taped at all due to timing issues. The other two sessions kept me busy handing out templates because of their "round robin" style.

8/12 Session 1



8/12 Session 2



8/12 Session 3



These are the last of the videos for a little bit until the Sunnyside After-school sessions begin sometime in September.

Webcomics at Otakon Part 2: Meeting Old Friends

I've mentioned the new comic creators I met at Otakon 2008, but I also met several creators who had long ago granted permission for their art to be used in the Create a Comic Project.

One of the first creative pairs I met were Dave Cheung and Jamal Joseph of Chugworth Academy, who let me use their comic when I was still in New Haven.
Another "old timer" was Krazy Krow, the guy behind Krakow and Marilith. I've been using his comics since New Haven, as well.
Krow was kind enough to draw me a quick little sketch: myself as a cowboy with cat ears!
Hawk and Ananth of Applegeeks were also there. I didn't start using their comic until recently, but it's already become a favorite of the kids. They were also kind enough to do a quick sketch of Eve for me (pictured above).
I got a shot of Jennie Breeden of Devil's Panties, who even went through the trouble of posing! I'd been meaning to ask her to join the project for a while, so it was great that Otakon finally gave me the opportunity.
Dirk Tiede of Paradigm Shift and Shawn Handyside of Staccato drew sketches for me, though I forgot to get pictures of them. Dirk drew me as a character from Bleach.
Shawn paired me with my very own Companion Cube!
One artist and friend who I got to spend a lot of time with: Erin Ptah of And Shine Heaven Now! She's an incredibly prolific artist, the #1 Hellsing fan on the Internet, and a lot of fun to hang around with. She's also very humble, which leaves me to point out how awesome she is.


I'll be posting these pics and some others in the gallery later. Unfortunately, I didn't get a shot of Brion Foulke from Flipside, since I kept missing him at his booth.

Overall, Otakon 2008 gave me a great chance to meet the faces behind the comics I've been using. All of them are great people, dedicated to their craft and willing to help the next generation as best they can. As I've said several times, one reason I prefer webcomics over syndicated comics is the strong sense of community. This trip provides strong evidence to support it.

With luck, I may be able to go to Otakon 2009!

Webcomics at Otakon Part 1: Meeting New Faces

While Otakon 2008 is not known as a webcomic convention, it does have many webcomic artists in attendance at the artist alley. I took advantage of this by going around and asking them if they wanted to allow me to us their comics in the Create a Comic Project. Everyone I asked said yes! In fact, the only reason a couple comics didn't sign up was that their artists weren't there.

The first people I approached were Jennie Breeden of The Devil's Panties and Gina Biggs of Red String and Erstwhile. I'd seen them at the Women in Webcomics panel and wanted to get their advice about teaching comics to girls. Both of them recommended I keep doing what I'm doing: using comics with both male and female protagonists. Both were pleased I was using Girl Genius and Narbonic, as they considered them fine examples of webcomics with female leads.

Next up was Dirk Tiede of Paradigm Shift, who was kind enough to also sketch me as an anime character. Siting near him was Jennifer Brazas of Mystic Revolution, who also signed on. It helped they were both next to Brion Foulke of Flipside, already a CCP member.

I got another sketch from Shawn Handyside, who drew me hugging a lovely companion cube. He does a number of comics, including Staccato and Fork You. Circling around, I got to meet Dave Lister of Paradox Lost, plus two of the guys behind Anime USA! They tossed me a free t-shirt and invited me to host a community service workshop at the con.

Standing at a corner handing out slips of paper to advertise his comic was James Hatton of In His Likeness, who I'd seen earlier at the Collaborating a Webcomic panel. I don't have any surreal/symbolic comics and his fills the slot nicely. Nearby was Matt Herms, who's currently the official artist for Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic book. He's given me permission to use all his old Sonic fan comics (though obviously not the Archie pages since he doesn't own them), which will be nice for the kids.

I then got to meet Dave from Snafu Comics. I've been a fan of Dave's work on Tin and was happy to get permission to use it. Even better, Dave was also able to speak for Bleedman and give me permission to use the PPG Doujin, Grim Tales from Down Below, and Sugar Bits! The kids are really going to love Bleedman's polished style.

Walking through led me to meet another big name in webcomics: Mookie of Dominic Deegan! I only have a handful of fantasy comics, so it's nice to have another on board. And Mookie really is as nice a guy as everyone says he is. I barely had to say more than, "I help teach kids how to make comics" and he was volunteering Deegan for use.

I had a chance to talk to two of the comic creators at Bohemian Trash: James Riot of The Path and J.E. Seames of Dis, Hamlet, and Project C. Their art styles are very different from what I've been using in the CCP so far. They questioned whether I could find anything suitable for kids, but since I use the comics on a page by page basis, it shouldn't be a problem.

Close by was Brian Wilson of Hookie Dookie Panik and his new series Geist Panik. I knew him mainly through the "review" by John Solomon, but found it amusing that Wilson had used the review to produce a t-shirt - a good way to turn criticism into profit. Chris Malone of Blue and Blond was also on hand, having survived Wilson's Connecticon prank.

One of the last webcomic people I talked to was also one of the biggest names: Bill Holbrook of Kevin & Kell. He's been doing webcomics longer than pretty much everyone and it's a great honor to have his comic on board!

So a list of all the comics that have joined the comic project as a result of Otakon:

Blue and Blond
Devil's Panties
Dis
Dominic Deegan
Erstwhile
Fork You
Geist Panik
Grim Tales From Down Below
Hamlet
Hookie Dookie Panic
In His Likeness
Kevin & Kell
Mystic Revolution
Paradigm Shift
Paradox Lost
The Path
PPG Doujin
Project C
Red String
Snafu Comics
Staccato
Sugar Bits
Tin

This is the single largest group of comics to join the project in such a short amount of time. And I should also mention there are a number of comics whose contact info I was able to get who I need to email for final approval, so this number will increase. Clearly, cons are a great way to get to meet other comic creators, even if the con doesn't specifically cater to them.

Coming up in Part 2: I'm going to post photos of familiar faces who I got to meet in person!

8/12/08 Sessions

The 8/12 sessions, the last of the summer, were split into three groups like the 8/5 sessions: 10-12, 7-9, and 5-6. There were 20 kids in the first, 22 in the second, and 14 in the third. Exact template numbers will come later.

Each of the three were different lessons. The first, 10-12, covered multi-page comics. The second and third were group comic efforts, with the second using pre-drawn and the third using blanks. The second session was competitive between two teams for an added element of motivation.

The group comic efforts were simple: a child would write/draw in one panel, then pass it to the right. When the comic was finished, they got a new one. Multiple comics were put into circulation so the kids would have a minimum of down time between panels. The intent was to simulate the "jam comics" done by many artists.

10-12 templates used:

And Shine Heaven Now
Applegeeks
Fans
Freshmen 15
Ghost Hunters
Girl Genius
Jellaby
Kastle Comics
Little Dee
Lovarian Adventures
Mac Hall
Marilith
My Stupid Life
Phineus
Planet Karen
Questionable Content
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Saturnalia
Seasons of Constancy
Shortpacked
Skin Horse
Templar AZ
xkcd
You'll Have That

7-9 templates used:

For this session, I chose templates that were one away from retirement. As a result, this event retired more templates in a single go than any other I've run so far.

8-Bit Theater
And Shine Heaven Now
Applegeeks
Chaos Punks
Chugworth Academy
Coffee Achievers
Copper
Diesel Sweeties
Dr. McNinja
Faking Life
Fans
Flipside
Freshman 15
Goats
Kastle Comics
Krakow
Lil' Formers
Lil' Mell
Mac Hall
Marilith
Narbonic
No Pink Ponies
Nothing Nice to Say
Okashina Okashi
Phoenix
Piled Higher and Deeper
Planet Karen
Punks and Nerds
Questionable Content
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Saturnalia
Scary Go Round
Shortpacked
Sketchies
Skin Horse
Something Like Life
Stubble
Templar AZ
Tsunami Channel
Unshelved
Venus Envy
Weirdlings
World of Orenda
You'll Have That
Zombies Calling

The 5-6 year olds only used blank templates. Pictures and video of the sessions will be posted soon.

8/5/08 Session Videos

There were five videos from the 8/5 session. Three from the first one with 10-12 year olds and one each from the 5-6 and 7-9 year old sessions.

8/5 Session 1



8/5 Session 2



8/5 Session 3



8/5 Session 4



8/5 Session 5

Create a Comic Project at Otakon 2008

I'll be attending Otakon 2008! If there's anyone going who wants to meet me, the official CCP meetup will be Saturday 12:30 - 1:30 PM at the front lobby.

Also there will be Erin Ptah of And Shine Heaven Now, who's the main artist for the Create a Comic Project #2 and a few other comics.

For obvious reasons, updates to this blog will be sparse from August 6 through August 11.

8/5/08 Sessions

The 8/5 YMCA sessions were actually the 8/4 sessions, but delayed a day. The lesson theme was symbolia: the use of symbols in place of words.

There were three sessions; I'd been told there'd be four, but they changed it at the last minute. As a result my list of templates used is a bit off. The first session was 10-12 year olds and had 21 kids, the second had 5-6 year olds and had 14 kids, and the third session was with 7-9 year olds and had 16 kids. Exact numbers of comics will come later.

10-12 Session templates used:

And Shine Heaven Now
Copper
Dreamland Chronicles
Dr. McNinja
Fans
Goats
Hate Song
Kastle Comics
Lil' Formers
Lil' Mell
Mac Hall
Narbonic
My Stupid Life
Nothing Nice to Say
Phineus
Phoenix
Questionable Content
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Seasons of Constancy
Skin Horse
Tea Club
Unshelved
You'll Have That

5-6 Session templates used:

Awkward Zombie
Ice
Krakow
Lil' Formers
Little Dee
Okashina Okashi
Penny & Aggie
Planet Karen
Questionable Content
Shortpacked
Tracy and Tristan
Weirdlings

7-9 Session templates used:

8-Bit Theater
Applegeeks
Chugworth Academy
Coolcat Studio
Daisy is Dead
Demonology 101
Dicebox
Flipside
Freshman 15
Ghost Hunters
Girl Genius
I Come From Mars
Jellaby
Kastle Comics
Lil' Formers
Lil' Mell
No Rest for the Wicked
Nothing Nice to Say
Okashina Okashi
Penny Arcade
Punks & Nerds
Rob and Elliot
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Saturnalia
Seasons of Constancy
Sketchies
Sluggy Freelance
Something Like Life
Sorcerers & Secretaries
Stubble
Venus Envy
Zombies Calling

Videos and pictures will be posted later.

8/4/08 Session Canceled

The 8/4 sessions were canceled due to personal reasons. The 8/5 sessions are still planned for tomorrow. As a result, I'll push back the planned lesson for 8/4 onto 8/5.

Site Updates

The About page has been updated. It now has links to a recent Daisy is Dead CCP guest comic that was posted and a three page guest comic posted to the Scienteers.

The other update is to the main page. The CCP now has a Twitter account. The flash widget for it is now below the blog window. I'm still figuring out what I'll use it for - most likely little project updates not worth a blog post or to post summaries before explaining them in full in the blog.

From the Classroom to Print: Create a Comic Project #1

The Create a Comic Project has taken its first foray into publishing teaching material with Create a Comic Project #1, aimed at both children and educators. The 26-page comic is written by John Baird, the Create a Comic Project’s founder, and illustrated by a bevy of comic artists, including Ryan Estrada, Emily Snodgrass, and Erin Ptah. It’s published not-for-profit through Lulu.com.

The first issue is written as an introduction to the series, touching on a range of topics, such as captions, bubble types, and symbolia. These subjects will be developed deeper in later issues. As an added bonus, textless versions of every page are included along with bonus textless art pages. An instructor can use these pages to run their own comic making activity.

“The Create a Comic Project is a superlative children's activity, combining youth literacy education with fun visual elements that delight the students,” said Xia Feng, Coordinator of Children and Youth Services at the New Haven Public Library, the Create a Comic Project’s first home.

Create a Comic Project #1 is the first of many planned comics that will serve a dual role: to equip educators with materials they can use in the classroom or after school programs; and, to make comics children would find interesting to read.

The comics seek to fill a gap in current how-to comic literature, which mainly targets teens and adults, by attracting 8-12 year olds to the craft. As the percentage of kids who are Internet savvy increases and computer literacy spreads to more diverse populations, youth oriented comic education could help train the next generation of online comic makers.

The comic is available for purchase at the Create a Comic Project Lulu storefront.

7/28/08 Session Report

For 7/28, the two sessions gave mixed results. Both ran into some problems with timing.

The lesson part for the first session with 9-12 year olds ran over time. After going over the different word bubble types, I had them try drawing their own. This took longer than I expected, so the kids couldn't finish the activity portion, though they did get through the main lecture.

With the 7-8 year olds, they arrived late, so they only had time to finish the warm-up with no time for the lecture component.

These delays, plus lower attendance, caused the 7/28 sessions to have fewer comics. The overall numbers:

Attendance: 36
Comics collected: 231
Student efficiency: 6.42
Maximum possible produced: 305
Lesson efficiency: 0.76

For the sake of simplicity, I'm only going to break them down into separate sessions when there's a significant difference in their content. For example, 5-6 year olds are taught different things from the older kids, so they would be counted separate.

Based on the timing issues here, I realized I needed to shorten the warm-up period for the 7-8 year olds. For the 9-12 year olds, I'm going to skip having them do practice drawing runs and instead go straight from warm-up to lecture to activity. These modifications will help with time management.