Posts Tagged Cartooning
So, there I was, minding my own business, when I’m invited by my kid’s CLUE teacher from a couple of years back to come to the school where she’s teaching now.
And… get this… talk to the CLUE class about Cartooning.
Mind you, these are the smart kids, so heaven only knows why they’d want to know about expressing themselves through illustration…
So, I went, and handed out some handy, if slightly dated, handouts about how many different kinds of cartoonists there are… you can tell the age of the handout because it says something dumb like “CD/DVD covers” instead of “Podcast graphics”
And after I filled the kids with all the cartooning knowledge they could ever need (assuming they’ll ever need any) I left. Which gave Ms. Coates the opportunity to force the poor youngsters to draw EDITORIAL CARTOONS! Yes, the most despised kind of cartooning in repressive societies everywhere. The kinds of cartoons that regularly get Egyptian and Syrian cartoonists jailed and their families threatened.
Can you believe what freedom-loving hooey they let teachers pass on to our treasured offspring? Man, we better hope there’s no reactionary, ego-driven, heavy-handed regime takes root here or those kids are in for it.
Anyhow, here’s some photos!
So I went back to Kenosha this year for the Kenosha Festival Of Cartooning!
I won’t try to write up all the excellent coolness that goes on in Kenosha during that fest. I will, instead, send you off to Mike Peterson’s ‘Comic Strip Of The Day’ blog (CLICK HERE), so you can get a complete sense of the whole thing. Mike does a man’s work on his blog, and Hubris has been on there- you guys remember?
Kenosha (the Fest, of course, and the town as well) is wonderful. And things like it should happen in a lot of cities around the country (and the world) If you’re lucky enough to have such a thing in your city (Not many do. There’s TOONFEST of course… and… well…), you have my admiration and envy. If not, try to make it next year, willya?
I think I’ve mentioned Career Day here before. A school invites you to come and talk about what you do. You put together some handouts, some examples of what you do, and some kind of display. You go talk to a lot of kids for a few hours. Fun. And, as with anything, it’s the stuff that surprises you that’s worth repeating. What’s the #1 question I get from schoolkids? Take a moment to guess.
Here it is: “Did you draw all of this?” while indicating a table full of books, comics, ads, comic strips, etc. My usual answer is, “Yes. Cartooning is my career. I wouldn’t bring anyone else’s artwork to show you.” They usually turn to the kid next to them and say, “He drew ALL that!” I don’t know why.
Here’s my #1 question for the kids: “How many jobs within the field of cartooning can you name?” That usually gets them engaged. Most people assume that cartoonists do one job- the one that pops into that person’s mind when he or she is asked to name more than one. For elementary school kids, that usually means animation of some kind- movies or TV. For older kids, it might be comic books or videogame design or animation. What’s funniest is when the Career Fair is set up in a library and NO ONE can think to say, “Children’s Book Illustrator.”
My handouts are actually sort of a cheat sheet. There’s a long list of cartooning jobs/careers listed. Some kids will stand there with the handouts, never thinking to look at the words on it to answer my question. Sadly, there are occasionally kids who DO read the list, the light STILL doesn’t come on, and they still don’t have an answer. For those kids’ (and my) sake, I’m glad someone’s making them go to school where they can get a decent breakfast and lunch- and meet some people who can expand their worlds with them. Maybe something will click someday and their lives will be something they’re aware of, and that they have some control over.
Most kids, though, are fantastic to talk to. Did you ever explain… really explain… something to a kid who’s surprised that there’s information to be had? You learn as much about what you already thought you knew as the kid learns from you saying it. Always worth the effort, for everyone involved. Try it, if you can. Need a quick example that tried and true? Sit down and write complete instructions on how to tie your shoe. You know, instructions that are clear and to the point, that a kid can follow. I guarantee you’ll learn something about how you tie your shoes, and how you communicate… or don’t.
There should have been fanfare. I had planned to say something and maybe do a little doodle to celebrate the 300th Hubris strip posting on the site. I missed it.
I was scrambling to get ready for the Kenosha Festival of Cartoon Art, and buying a laptop, and writing my talk (and rewriting the talk) and figuring out Powerpoint (not bad. Powerpoint is made for slow learners like me, I guess).
And 300 went by, like five or six strips ago. The archive reads 313, but there are 7 or 8 things that I don’t quite count as strips that have been posted under ‘comic’ since we started, so really, the count should be 306, I think.
Ah, well. We’ll have to make a big deal out of it when we get to 400 or 500, I guess.