MoCCA’s Winter/Spring Comics and Animation Classes Start February 7th!

 

NEW YORK (January 18, 2012) – The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art – MoCCA – is proud to announce the winter/spring offerings from its Adult Education Department, organized and headed by Senior Vice-President of Education, Danny Fingeroth:

 

The classes are:

 

HOW TO WRITE COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS

with DANNY FINGEROTH

 

and

 

DRAWING FOR ANIMATED CARTOONS: Design and Storyboarding

with STEPHEN DeSTEFANO

 

and

 

THE ART AND TECHNIQUE OF COMIC BOOK INKING

with PHYLLIS NOVIN

 

and

 

COMICS STORYTELLING WORKSHOP INTENSIVE [one session]

with DEAN HASPIEL

 

 

and

 

MoCCA MASTER CLASS SERIES:

                                  

            PAUL LEVITZ                       FEBRUARY 7

            PETER DAVID                     MARCH 20

 

 

EARLY BIRD SPECIALS!

Register early and save on tuition!

Details below!

 

 

About the classes:

 

HOW TO WRITE COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS

Instructor: DANNY FINGEROTH

4 sessions, MONDAYS February 27; March 5, 12, & 19   

6:30 PM-9:00 PM

 

TUITION:

EARLY BIRD SPECIAL! Register by February 15:

$250 | $240 for MoCCA members

Register after February 15:

$285 | $275 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, Media Bistro, and at The MiMaster Institute in Milan, Italy. 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 latest book, The Stan Lee Universe (from TwoMorrows), co-edited with Roy Thomas, is about the life and career of the writer who changed comics forever. Danny serves on MoCCA's board of advisors and on the board of directors of the Institute for Comics Studies.

 

 

DRAWING FOR ANIMATED CARTOONS: DESIGN AND STORYBOARDING

Instructor: STEPHEN DeSTEFANO

4  sessions,  MONDAYS March 26; April 2, 16, 23 [No class April 9]

6:30 PM-9:00 PM

 

TUITION:

EARLY BIRD SPECIAL! Register by March 15:

$250 | $240 for MoCCA members

Register after March 15:

$285 | $275 for MoCCA members

 

In this eye-opening course, STEPHEN DeSTEFANO will focus on design and composition for characters, backgrounds and storyboards—in other words, on the overall drawing process for an animated production. The course will show you how to design characters and backgrounds from a script, and how to compose shots for storyboards from the same script—all with a focus on drawing.

 

NOTES:

 

(1) Tools required for class. 2 pencils, an eraser, a sense of humor.

(2) Students will be supplied with an animation script to work from from; model sheets of characters, props and backgrounds to incorporate into their storyboards; and several sheets of thumbnail and storyboard templates.

 

 

STEPHEN DeSTEFANO began his cartooning career in 1985 drawing the fondly remembered ‘Mazing Man for DC Comics. In 1992, he began working in television animation, drawing backgrounds for Nickelodeon's original Ren and Stimpy Show, eventually being promoted to storyboard artist. Studios and productions he has storyboarded for include Warner Bros (on Batman, Superman, Batman Beyond, and The Brave and the Bold); Universal Studios (on Earthworm Jim, Baby Huey, Beethoven, and The Woody Woodpecker Show); and Cartoon Network on several productions, including his own animated pilot film, The Thundermans. Stephen has served as an art director for Katbot, a Disney Television production, and as storyboard and design supervisor on Adult Swim's The Venture Brothers. (eventually being dubbed "the guru" by show creator Jackson Publick). He continues to work in animation, as well as comic books. His graphic novel, Lucky in Love (co-created with writer George Chieffet), was recently published by Fantagraphics Books.

 

 

 

THE ART AND TECHNIQUE OF COMIC BOOK INKING

Instructor: PHYLLIS NOVIN

4  sessions,  WEDNESAYS March 28; April 4, 18, 25 [No class April 11]

6:30 PM-8:30 PM

 

TUITION [includes materials fee*]:

EARLY BIRD SPECIAL! Register by March 15:

$220 | $210 for MoCCA members 

Register after March 15:

$245 | $235 for MoCCA members 

 

[*Instructor will provide the following materials: brushes, copies of pencil art for students to work over, and printed information and reference.

 

Students must bring (and pay for) their own black ink, white ink, a Crow Quill pen with two nibs, and Frisket.]

 

 

This hands-on inking course, taught by PHYLLIS NOVIN, is designed for those new to comic book inking as well as for those who want to expand their basic inking skills. The course is primarily brush-orientated, but will also include instruction in the use of crow quill pens and other tools. Through working with these tools of the trade, you’ll learn inking techniques and develop a sense of the “thinking behind the inking.” The goal for the course is for each student to have created at least two inked pages by its end.

 

 

PHYLLIS NOVIN learned her craft while apprenticed to Bob Layton of Iron Man fame while working at Valiant Comics. She went on to work at DC, Marvel, Crusade and others. She expanded her repertoire to include animation-style comics inking and has worked on Johnny Bravo (Cartoon Network), Rugrats (Nickelodeon), Futurama (Bongo), and is currently working on The Simpsons for Bongo.

 

 

 

COMICS STORYTELLING WORKSHOP INTENSIVE

Instructor: DEAN HASPIEL

TUESDAY, April 3 [ONE SESSION]

6:30 PM-9:30 PM

 

TUITION:

EARLY BIRD SPECIAL! Register by March 15:

$75 | $65 for MoCCA members

Register after March 15:

$80 | $70 for MoCCA members

 

In this three-hour intensive session, Brooklyn’s own DEAN HASPIEL will share his knowledge of how to tell stories in words and pictures. Whether you goal is to create your own stories from first inspiration to finished comic—paper or digital—or to work as part of a collaborative team, Dean will show you how ideas become images and images become stories. Combining an interactive lecture with in-class assignments and critiques of each student’s work, this class will test the limits of your storytelling abilities as you stretch heretofore-unknown narrative muscles.

 

[Note: Students are expected to bring sketchbooks and pencils. A sense of wonder wouldn’t hurt, either.]

 

 

Emmy award winning artist, DEAN HASPIEL, created the Eisner Award nominated Billy Dogma, the semi-autobiographical digital comic, Street Code, helped pioneer personal webcomics with the invention of ACT-I-VATE, and co-created/co-curates http://tripcity.net, a Brooklyn-filtered, multimedia salon. Dean has drawn many great superhero and semi-autobiographical comic books published by Marvel, DC/Vertigo, Dark Horse, IDW, Image, Scholastic Graphix, Toon Books, Top Shelf, Playboy, The New York Times, and Tor.com, including critically acclaimed collaborations with Harvey Pekar (American Splendor, The Quitter), Jonathan Ames (The Alcoholic), Jonathan Lethem (Cousin Corinne’s Reminder), Tim Hall (The Last Mortician), and with Inverna Lockpez on the Harvey Award winning, Cuba: My Revolution. Dean illustrated the Super Ray comics art for HBO’s Bored To Death, for which he won an Emmy award for his work on the opening title sequence.

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

MASTER CLASS: THE CRAFT OF COMICS WRITING: THE LONG AND SHORT OF PLOTTING

Instructor: PAUL LEVITZ 

One session, TUESDAY, February 7 [rescheduled from the fall]

6:30 PM-8:30 PM

 

TUITION:

EARLY BIRD SPECIAL! Register by February 1:

$40 | $35 for MoCCA members

Register after February 1:

$50 | $45 for MoCCA members

 

From one of comics’ undisputed master plotters, PAUL LEVITZ, a discussion of how to construct plots to suit story structures long and short, building ideas from character, and tools for analyzing the form to develop your goals. Everything you ever wanted to know about plotting comics but were afraid to ask!

 

 

PAUL LEVITZ was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1956, and entered the comics industry in 1971 as editor/publisher of The Comic Reader, the first mass-circulation fanzine devoted to comics news.  He continued to publish TCR for three years, winning two consecutive annual Comic Art Fan Awards for Best Fanzine. His other fan activities included editing the program books for several of Phil Seuling’s legendary New York Comic Art Conventions. He received Comic-con International’s Inkpot Award in 2002 and the prestigious Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award in 2008. Levitz also serves on the board of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

 

Levitz is primarily known for his work for DC Comics, where he has written most of their classic characters including the Justice Society, Superman in both comics and the newspaper strip, and an acclaimed run on The Legion of Super-Heroes, a series he’s recently returned to write.  Readers of The Buyers’ Guide voted his “Legion: The Great Darkness Saga” one of the 20 best comic stories of the last century, and visitors to the site comicbookresources.com selected the same story as #11 of the Top 100 Comic Book Stories of All Time. Cumulatively, Levitz has written over 300 stories with sales of over 25 million copies, and translations into over 20 languages. As a DC staffer from 1973, Levitz was an assistant editor, the company’s youngest editor ever, and in a series of business capacities, became Executive Vice President & Publisher in 1989 and then served as President & Publisher from 2002-2009. He continues as a Contributing Editor, but is now concentrating on writing and teaching. Paul is the author of the monumental history book, 75 Years Of DC Comics: The Art Of Modern Mythmaking, published by Taschen, which won the 2011 Will Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Book.

 

 

 

MASTER CLASS IN COMICS WRITING

Instructor: PETER DAVID

One session, TUESDAY March 20, 2012

7:00 PM-9:00 PM

TUITION:

EARLY BIRD SPECIAL! Register by March 10:

$40 | $35 for MoCCA members

Register after March 10:

$50 | $45 for MoCCA members

 

Here's how PETER DAVID succinctly describes his MoCCA Master Class:

 

“All the comics writing info I can cram into two hours.”

 

PETER DAVID is a prolific, award-winning author whose career, and continued popularity, spans more than two decades. He has worked in every conceivable media: Television, film, books (fiction, non-fiction and audio), short stories, and comic books, and acquired followings in all of them. In the literary field, Peter has had over fifty novels published, including numerous appearances on the New York Times Bestsellers List. Peter’s comic book resume includes an award-winning twelve-year run on The Incredible Hulk, and he has also worked on such varied and popular titles as Supergirl, Young Justice, Soulsearchers and Company, Aquaman, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, X-Factor, Star Trek, Wolverine, The Phantom, Sachs & Violens, and many others.

 

 

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).