MoCCA’s Spring Comics and Cartoon Classes Start February 28th!

NEW YORK (February 6, 2011) – The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art – MoCCA – is proud to announce the spring offerings from its Adult Education Department, organized and headed by Senior Vice-President of Education, Danny Fingeroth:


The classes:

OBSTACLE COURSE: MAKE COMICS USING CREATIVE CONSTRAINTS
with MATT MADDEN

and

MINICOMICS WORKSHOP
with ROBYN CHAPMAN

and

HOW TO WRITE COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS
with DANNY FINGEROTH

and

OUTSIDE THE BOX: EXPANDING YOUR COMICS VISION
with PETER KUPER

and

MASTER CLASS SERIES with top comics and animation professionals:

• LARRY HAMA (March1)
• DAVID STEVEN COHEN (March 28)
• J.M. DeMATTEIS (May 17)

About the classes:

OBSTACLE COURSE: MAKE COMICS USING CREATIVE CONSTRAINTS
Instructor: MATT MADDEN
4 sessions
MONDAYS Feb 28; March 7, 14, 21
6:30-9:00 pm
$245 tuition/$225 for MoCCA members

Do you think you could make a comic where each panel could only show an extreme close-up of a hand? Or where each panel zooms in closer to a single object? A comic that you can read in more than one direction? Many great works of art begin from these kinds of rules or constraints—and often willfully perverse ones. In the Obstacle Course, prominent cartoonist and teacher, MATT MADDEN, will challenge students with a series of such oddball rules and in wrestling with them you will find that they will take your work—as well as your ideas about creativity—n new directions.

We'll do a bunch of short assignments and then choose a constraint as the basis of a final comic. Along the way we'll discuss examples of creative constraint in film, literature, fine art, and music.

This class assumes you have a working knowledge of making comics and have at least a few pages of comics under your belt, whether published or not. Please bring copy paper, pencils, and pens (any kind) to the first class.

You can see examples of the kind of work we will be doing here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47953102@N04/sets/72157625288273661/
http://mattmadden.blogspot.com/2010/12/roygbiv-one-page-comic-challenge.html
http://mattmadden.blogspot.com/2010/12/tic-tac-toe-jam-new-jam-comic.html
http://www.tomhart.net/oubapo/


MATT MADDEN (NYC 1968) lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife, Jessica Abel, and their two children. He is a cartoonist who also teaches comics and drawing at the School of Visual Arts. His recent work includes 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style (Penguin), a collection of his comics adaptation of Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style, a translation from the French of Aristophane's The Zabîme Sisters (First Second), and Drawing Words & Writing Pictures (First Second), a comics textbook written in collaboration with his wife. The couple is also series editors for The Best American Comics from Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt. You'll find recent news at www.mattmadden.com.


MINICOMICS WORKSHOP
Instructor: ROBYN CHAPMAN
4 sessions
TUESDAYS March 8, 15, 22, 29
6:30-9:00 pm
$245 tuition/$225 for MoCCA members


***HAVE YOUR MINICOMIC READY FOR MoCCAFEST!*** [MoCCAfest is April 9th & 10th in NYC.]

Minicomics (self-published, hand-made comics) are a great way to get your work seen. In the Minicomics Workshop, cutting-edge cartoonist and editor ROBYN CHAPMAN will demystify the self-publishing process and give an overview of cartooning principals and materials. Topics such as page composition, layout, book craft, print technologies and computer applications will be covered. Students will be given the choice to workshop their own minicomic project, or participate in a class anthology. Cartoonists of all skill levels and experience are welcome.

Each session will offer a studio period devoted to student work. Homework will be assigned.


Independent Projects
Students who wish to workshop a minicomic project are encouraged to come to the first session with a project in mind. The instructor will work with students one-on-one to insure the projects are attainable and publishable. Independent projects will be brought to a dummy book or master sheet stage by the last day of class.


Group Anthology Project
Students may choose to participate in a class anthology. This is anthology will be titled Wish You Were Here, and it will consist of comic pages inspired by actual postcard correspondence. The anthology will be published on the last day of class.


Required Supplies and Expenses:

• $10 (minimum) copy budget for final production.
• A notebook (or sketchbook, or binder) for note taking. Pens or pencils for writing.

· Art supplies necessary to produce pages of black and white comics. (Feel free to use supplies you are most comfortable with. Options will be discussed in class.)

ROBYN CHAPMAN is an adjunct faculty member at The Center for Cartoon Studies, one of America’s premiere cartooning colleges. She specializes in the history, design, and production of minicomics and zines. As an editor, her self-published titles include Hey, 4-Eyes! and Make: Comics About an Intimate Act. Her solo titles include Sourpuss and Theater of the Meek (a Xeric Grant winner). Robyn’s comics have been featured in several anthologies and publications, including Scheherazade, Stuck in the Middle, and the NY Metro. In addition to MoCCA, she has taught cartooning at the 92nd Street Y and The New School.



HOW TO WRITE COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS
Instructor: DANNY FINGEROTH
4 sessions, MONDAYS May 2, 9, 16, 23
6:30-9:00 pm
$245 tuition | $225 for MoCCA members

DANNY FINGEROTH will lead a hands-on workshop in writing comics and graphic novels, suitable for novices as well as experienced writers. Combining lectures, assignments in class and at home, and roundtable critiquing, the class will cover writing for all kinds of comics, including autobiographical, historical, “indy” and superheroes.

Note: Please come to the first session with three “springboards” (short ideas for stories). We will choose one to be your project for the course.

DANNY FINGEROTH was the longtime group editor of Marvel's Spider-Man line and the writer of comics including Darkhawk and Deadly Foes of Spider-Man. He has taught comics writing at NYU, The New School, and Media Bistro. Danny created and edited Write Now magazine, the only how-to publication dedicated to comics writing and writers. He is the author of The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels and co-author (with artist Mike Manley) of How to Create Comics from Script to Print. He's also written the books Superman on the Couch and Disguised as Clark Kent. His book, The Stan Lee Universe, co-edited with Roy Thomas, will be on sale in the summer of 2011. Danny serves on MoCCA's board of advisors and on the board of directors of the Institute for Comics Studies.



OUTSIDE THE BOX: EXPANDING YOUR COMICS VISION
Instructor: PETER KUPER
3 sessions: TUESDAYS May 3, 10, 24 [no class May 17]
6:30-9:00 pm
$185 tuition / $165 for MoCCA members

Join visionary comics artist PETER KUPER and explore the medium of sequential art and learn how to find outlets for publishing your own self-generated comics and illustration projects. There will be weekly assignments with in-class crit sessions along with visual presentations and demonstrations by the instructor that will expand your familiarity with the history and vast potential of sequential art. Students should have some experience creating comics and should bring one example of their comics work to the first class. [No art supplies will be necessary in class.]


PETER KUPER is the co-founder of World War 3 Illustrated and has remained on its editorial board for over 30 years. His illustrations and comics have appeared in Time, The New York Times and MAD, where he has written and illustrated SPY vs. SPY every month since 1997. He has produced over twenty books and graphic novels including The System, Sticks and Stones, Speechless and Stop Forgetting To Remember. Peter has also adapted Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and many of Franz Kafka's works into comics. His adaptation of The Metamorphosis has been translated around the world and is in high school and college curriculums nation-wide. He won the 2010 Society of Illustrators gold medal for sequential art and appears in 2010’s Best American Comics anthology. Peter lived in Oaxaca, Mexico from 2006-2008 during a major teachers’ strike and his work about that time can be seen in his latest book, Diario de Oaxaca. More of his work can be ound at www.peterkuper.com



MoCCA MASTER CLASS SERIES:
These extraordinarily accomplished creators each brings a distinct and strong point of view to the work they do. This is a rare opportunity to hear these top names in their respective fields speak about what makes for great work.

Individual sessions: $40 | $35 for MoCCA members
Pay for all three in advance: $100 | $90 for MoCCA members

MASTER CLASS: PRINCIPLES OF GRAPHIC STORYTELLNG FOR COMICS
Instructor: LARRY HAMA
Tuesday March 1
7:00-9:00 PM
Admission $40 | $35 for MoCCA Members


Explores the process of getting the narrative onto the page clearly in a self-evident sequence of pictures. Main visual points of reference will be “Wally Wood’s 22 Panels” and GI Joe: A Real American Hero #21, “Silent Interlude.” There will be a frame-by-frame deconstruction and analysis of “Silent Interlude,” an exploration of techniques, and a Q & A.

"Graphic Narrative/Comic Book Storytelling is much more than a series of pictures. With a career as writer, artist, and editor in every storytelling medium, there is none better qualified to provide both the novice and the professional with the successful basics and applications of both the art and the craft than Larry Hama.”—Michael Golden.

LARRY HAMA is a writer/cartoonist/illustrator/actor/musician who has worked in comics, TV, and film. He is best known as the writer of Marvel’s GI Joe comics in the ‘80s, and as the writer of Marvel’s Wolverine in the ‘90s. He is currently writing Barack the Barbarian for Devil’s Due Comics and GI Joe: Origins for IDW as well as various animation and video game projects.
He has written, edited or drawn for such comics titles as Avengers, Blaze, Nth Man, The Nam, Conan, Batman, Wonder Woman, Bizarre Adventures, X-Men, Spider-Man, Daredevil, and dozens more. His illustrations and cartoons have appeared in National Lampoon, Esquire, New York, Rolling Stone and various Children’s Television Workshop publications.
He has worked in TV development on mini-series for David L. Wolper (Project X), and in animation and Internet gaming for Curious Pictures (Out of Your Mind, Jacabee Code). He has written episodes of Robot Boy (TV animation) for Alphanim, interstitials for PBS Kids, and direct-to-DVD material for Flickerlab (Aaron & Emily). He created the Marvel Comic Mort the Dead Teenager that was optioned and developed by DreamWorks. (He co-wrote the screenplay with director John Payson.) He co-wrote “All Ages Night” a feature film about teens in a rock band, which will be seen on STARZ.


MASTER CLASS: ANIMATION WRITING: HOW TO WRITE SCRIPTS THAT WILL MAKE YOU A KEY MEMBER OF THE CREATIVE TEAM
Instructor: DAVID STEVEN COHEN
Monday March 28
7:00-9:00 PM
Admission $40 | $35 for MoCCA Members

Learn the skills and secrets to writing great animation. Inspire the rest of the creative team to be brilliant – and grateful to see your name on script after script!

Animation is collaboration by conveyor belt, and it starts with your script. Award-winning writer/executive producer DAVID STEVEN COHEN (Courage the Cowardly Dog, Arthur, Pee-wee’s Playhouse, Steven Spielberg’s Balto) will show you techniques for crafting indelible characters, solid stories and great scripts that are more than blueprints – scripts that inspire the director, storyboard artist, editor and musical director. Cohen will demonstrate how you can maximize a show's basic concept (while avoiding common mistakes) and create a script that moves visually, rhythmically, emotionally, and comedically - one that communicates vividly without collapsing under the weight of words. Underscoring it all is flexible thinking and the collaborative process: the agony and ecstasy of sharing creative vision. Focus will be on writing character-driven animated comedy for television, with some forays into features.


DAVID STEVEN COHEN was the head writer on all four seasons of Cartoon Network's Courage the Cowardly Dog and has written for many other series, including Arthur, Viva Piñata and ALF Tales, of which he was co-creator and executive producer. As executive producer of Nickelodeon's The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, David was nominated for two Emmys and won a Writers Guild Award for Outstanding Children's Script. He co-wrote the animated feature Balto and has also written many songs for animation, collaborating recently with Jody Gray on the song-score for Clifford's Really Big Movie. David's live-action work includes Phil of the Future, Living Single, Strangers with Candy, Parker Lewis Can't Lose, ALF and Pee-wee's Playhouse. First introduced to opera by a certain Oscar-winning rabbit, David wrote the libretto for the opera Lilith, which premiered at Lincoln Center in 2001.


MASTER CLASS: OH, THE HUMANITY: WRITING SUCCESSFULLY ACROSS GENRES AND MEDIA
Instructor: J.M. DeMATTEIS
Tuesday May 17
7:00-9:00 PM
Admission $40 | $35 for MoCCA Members

While it's not unusual to see comics writers also work on animation or prose in similar genres to their comics work, relatively few work in different genres and media at the same time. J.M. DeMATTEIS is one of the handful of authors who have worked simultaneously and successfully on popular corporate franchise characters, surreal tales of fantasy, hilariously funny satire, and intensely personal dramatic material, in comics, and also in animation, novels (the non-graphic kind), and screenplays. In this rare teaching appearance, DeMatteis (with kibitzing and inappropriate comments by his longtime editor, DANNY FINGEROTH), explains what stories in all genres and media have in common: universal human characters and situations (also known as “heart”), and how you can use that fact to be more than a “one-trick-pony” writer.


Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, J. M. DeMATTEIS was a professional musician and rock music journalist before entering the comic book field. Although he's written almost all of the major DC and Marvel icons—including memorable runs on Spider-Man and Justice League—DeMatteis's greatest acclaim has come for his more personal work. The autobiographical Brooklyn Dreams was picked by the American Library Association as one of the Ten Best Graphic Novels, and Booklist, in a starred review, called it “as graphically distinguished and creatively novelistic a graphic novel as has ever been...a classic of the form.” It was also selected as one of the Top Ten Graphic Novels in Danny Fingeroth's Rough Guide to Graphic Novels. The groundbreaking Moonshadow was chosen (along with Brooklyn Dreams, the children's fantasy, Abadazad, and other DeMatteis works) for inclusion in Gene Kannenberg, Jr's 2008 book 500 Essential Graphic Novels, where it was hailed as one of the finest examples of the fantasy genre in comics. DeMatteis's latest projects include the fantasy novel Imaginalis, published in July 2010 by HarperCollins, and a variety of television and comic book projects. DeMatteis and his family live in upstate New York.



Unless otherwise indicated, all classes will be held at:
MoCCA
594 Broadway (between Houston and Prince Streets)
Suite 401
New York, NY 10012


For more information and to register, call 212-254-3511 or go to www.moccany.org.

The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art - MoCCA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts education organization dedicated to the preservation, study and display of all forms of comic and cartoon art. The museum promotes greater understanding and appreciation of the artistic, cultural and historical significance of comic and cartoon art through a variety of events, exhibitions, and educational programs. The museum is located at 594 Broadway (between Houston and Prince Streets) in New York City. MoCCA is open to the public Tuesdays through Sundays from 12:00-5:00 pm. Suggested donation to the museum is $5 but free for MoCCA Members as well as for children 12 and under (when accompanied by a paying adult). For more information about the museum and MoCCA events, exhibitions and programs, visit the museum's Website (www.moccany.org).