Does your son love Marvel Comics? Is your ‘tween super into manga?  Do you find your kids doodling and adding thought bubbles to their work? Why not nurture that interest and sign up your budding Lynda Barry or Art Spiegelman for a cartooning class?

Beginning on January 19 and lasting five weeks of Saturdays, Jeremy Miller will offer a beginning comics class at the Preston Arts Center for interested eight to 13 year olds. The store runs classes on a trimester schedule, with new classes in the winter, spring, and fall. Ted Nathanson, who started the Louisville Cartoonist Society and teaches most of the comics classes at the Preston Arts Center, said you can count on at least one comics class per session, with an occasional comics level 2, teen, or adult comics class on the roster. While there is a minimum requirement of five kids per class, the comics classes usually have 10 to 12 students. The classes are so popular, Nathanson explained, because comics are now widely accepted as reading material for both children and adults; comics are available in school libraries and are included in school curriculum. Nathanson also suggested that kids love having the chance to tell their own stories.

Storytelling is at the heart of comics. According to Nathanson, you can create a comic with a stick figure, but the story is fundamental. While the class is driven by drawing lessons, including how to draw faces, figures, and landscapes, the language is different. Instead of a face or a figure, you draw a character. Instead of a landscape, you draw a setting. Lessons also focus on plot. Students will start with three basic cartoon frames: a beginning, middle, and end. Later lessons will focus on subplots. Kids sometimes will interject, “Hey, this isn’t English class!” while working on their project.

Carrie Neumayer, an artist and a teacher, agreed with Nathanson.

“Comics are great language arts and visual arts together,” said Neumayer.

Neumayer has taught the art of comics to children of all ages in the public school system, in afterschool programs, at Louisville Visual Art Association workshops, and at camps offered by the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft. Her approach to teaching is more autobiographical. She believes middle and high school students in particular connect with comics about their own lives. Remember in high school when your English teacher told you to write what you know? Neumayer espouses this pedagogy.

“Write what you know, your own story,” said Neumayer.

Kids who enroll in comics classes are not expected to come to class with a particular level of drawing or writing skill.

“That’s what is fun about it,” said Nathanson.

Both Nathanson and Neumayer spend equal amounts of time teaching standard drawing fundamentals (perspective, texture, shading) and creative writing (plot and subplot, character development, elements of tension and drama).

Neumayer has often taught students who had preconceived notions about comics, preconceptions she admitted she had as a kid herself. For instance, many people think comics are only about superheroes, sci-fi, or manga. Most of Neumayer’s students eventually realize they can draw whatever they want.

“It’s words and pictures together,” said Neumayer. “That’s all it is.”

If your children are interested in drawing their own comics, but your schedule is too jam-packed to squeeze in a class, make sure you keep a steady supply of pencils, pens, unruled paper, and erasers.

“That’s the beautiful thing about comics – you don’t need fancy materials,” said Nathanson.

While other creative arts might depend on more expensive tools – a musical instrument, a computer – or require the help of others, comics can be made on the cheap with just a pencil and a piece of paper. Another tool you might want to find for your budding cartoonist is a good instruction book. Neumayer recommended “Drawing Words and Writing Pictures: Making Comics: Manga, Graphic Novels, and Beyond” by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden.

Both Nathanson and Neumayer believe that comics must be shared. Both artists have anthologized their students’ work, emphasizing the importance of publishing and sharing comics.

“Don’t wait for someone else to publish your work,” advised Nathanson. “Go ahead and make copies! Doing so will make you a better artist.”

So what are you waiting for, kids? Draw me a picture and tell me a story.

 

– Amy Miller

The Details:

Preston Arts Center

Gardiner Lane Shopping Center
3048 Bardstown Road
Louisville, KY 40205
(502) 454-9954

Comics Class (ages 8-13)
11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Saturdays, January 19 – February 16
$70 for five classes (supplies included)
Teacher: Jeremy Miller

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