Comics University
Comics U is a free summer educational series for a Teen+ audience. This is a program for adults who want to engage with and learn about comics from local professors, creators, scholars, and industry professionals.
Created by syndicated cartoonist Steenz, the program has been running since 2013.
This year’s theme is self-care! We’ll be talking about therapy comics, poetry comics, tarot comics, mental health comics, disability comics, and more!
All sessions are free and open to the public! Comics U is hosted on Wednesday evenings from June 12th – July 24th at Betty’s Books.
June 12th – 6:30-8:30pm – Sacha Mardou
Sacha Mardou kicks off Comics University discussing her work and her upcoming book Past Tense: Facing Family Secrets and Finding Myself. Sacha’s been making therapy comics since 2019 and will lead a workshop on how to use illustration to deal with issues like doom scrolling! Bring a pencil and sketchbook and get ready to draw your feelings!
June 19th – 6:30-8:30pm – Bee Cordera
Poetry Comics are a burgeoning genre in the comics community combining the art of poetry and the art of sequential illustration. Poet Bee Cordera and Cartoonist Steenz will walk students through a brief history of the hybrid form of poetry comics, and will run a workshop teaching students how to make their own comics poetry.
June 26th – 6:30-8:30pm – Mary Wissinger
We can learn a lot about ourselves using Tarot. And we can use those cards to help us craft stories! Get ready to unleash your creativity in our hands-on class blending comic creation and Tarot! Join Steenz and Mary as they guide you through the three-act structure and reveal how Tarot cards can inspire your very own self-care and personal comics.
July 10th – 6:30-8:30pm – Bianca Xunise
The world can feel incredibly overwhelming. By using comics as a method of journalist, we will help take these dark clouds that loom over us and turn them into art in this online workshop. This method will not only wok as a therapeutic reflection buy a release of the pressure that exists in our minds. Award-Winning cartoonist Bianca Xunise guides us through using comics as a form of healing that can be used for tough days and happy moments.
July 17th – 6:30-8:30pm – Caitlin Metz
Caitlin Metz says that “caring for themselves almost always begins by releasing their feelings on paper as words and pictures.” Zines are the perfect medium to validate your feelings because we tend to recognize books (and forms that resemble them) as real and true. We can legitimize our tenderest ideas, worries, fears, and longing by simply giving them a place to live on a page. Join us as we read through some of Caitlin’s zines and make your own in order to regulate and calm your nervous system through paper and pencil.
July 24th – 6:30-8:30pm – Lawrence Lindell
Lawrence Lindell (he/they) of “Blackward” and “Couldn’t Afford Therapy, So I Made This” joins us for class this week! Lawrence will discuss mental health comics and the benefit and downsides of making autobiographical comics about mental health. He’ll then go through a few exercises that he uses for maintaining their mental health and why turning them into comics is worthwhile.