Those of you who have been following this blog since its inception will probably remember a very enthused post I wrote back in August extolling the virtues of the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont. Well, it turns out that this week there’s a push on the raise awareness about the programs they offer and the extraordinary caliber of the people involved. Fortunately, this is something I hardly need an excuse to do. As is often the case with small programs (even ones as miraculous and epic as CCS), drumming up a diverse and talented pool of applicants is often as difficult as raising funds to keep the school afloat in the first place — and arguably more important.
My experience at CCS was incredible not only because of the excellent instruction I received, but also because I was surrounded (for the first time in my life!) by 36 other people who all loved comics. And not only did they love them, they made them. And they all meant business. That experience alone, the process of being inspired by work so different from my own, the camaraderie of powering through page after page together in the studio late into the night, was worth more than I can say. The best professors in the world are only as good as the students they teach. A class who will dedicate themselves to the material at hand while pushing each other to new heights of creativity and exploration is crucial to the continued existence of any institution — and CCS is no exception.
So this is for all those aspiring cartoonists and makers of things who spend their time creating while thinking that what they really need is a group of people to bounce ideas off of, be challenged and inspired by, and stay up all night kicking ass with. Go here. You won’t be disappointed.
