Comics Workshops
at Cosmic Monkey Comics!

    Does your child enjoy making art and telling stories? Do they love cartoons, comics or superheroes? Comics are a great way for kids to develop a deeper understanding of language and narrative. Well, Cosmic Monkey Comics is offering weekly workshops and camps for children of all ages!

To register, call 503-453-5839 or email us at comicworkshops@gmail.com

comicworkshopsfliercomiccampflier

 

Christina "Blue" Crow, a zine publisher and professional nanny, has teamed up with cartoonist Katy Ellis O'Brien to create this 8-session program devoted to visual storytelling. Each workshop will focus on a different topic and can be taken individually, but parents are strongly encouraged to register their children for the entire series as this will enable students to make the most progress and maybe - just maybe - gain superpowers! At the end of the workshops, continuing students will have their comics published in a collection that each child will get to take home with them.


About the Instructors

    Blue is a professional nanny with  years experience working with small children. She previously worked with various local artists to produce a series of comics workshops at Sequential Art Gallery and is excited to move to a larger space for the workshops. She is also an organizer for the Portland Zine Symposium. Katy is a cartoon artist and educator who has taught cartooning at the Village Home Education Resource Center and has been featured in group and solo shows at Sequential Art Gallery, Pony Club Gallery, and Together Gallery.

    In addition to these workshops, Katy & Blue collaborate as editors/organizers with Stumptown Underground, a collective publishing monthly anthologies of comics, illustration and writing.

About Cosmic Monkey

    A fixture of the Portland comics community, Cosmic Monkey Comics provides a welcoming environment for children and their parents, complete with an extensive all-ages section. Shop owner Andy Johnson is a member of the Stumptown Comics Foundation and a parent of 3 awesome kids himself!

About the Workshops

    All workshops are 90 minutes long and take place on Sundays at 11:00am, 1:00pm and 3:00pm. Each workshop is divided based on varying factors, mainly by age group (we try to separate ages 6-8, 9-12, and 13-17) . Parents are invited to join in if they choose. Essential materials (paper, pencils, pens, erasers, scissors, glue, rulers) are provided, as well as handouts with each class, but bringing additional materials (such as a sketchbook or collage materials) is encouraged. We also strongly encourage preregistration for each workshop so that we can plan ahead materials needed. We offer a discount if you sign up for all 8 workshops, as a package, they're $70. We will not be hosting any workshops July 4th.

About the Camps

Each camp is 3 days. Essentially, the camps are a condensed and more focused version of the series of eight sessions of workshops. The first day focuses on Character Design, Emotions and Expressions, and Action. The second day focuses on Speech and Text Bubbles, Story Telling, and finishing up comics for the third day, graduation. The first and second days of the camps are 5 hours long, from 11am until 4pm. Children should bring their own lunches, but all comic-making materials will be provided, including lesson worksheets. The final day of each camp is a 1 hour graduation ceremony and party at 2pm, where children will receive compilation books of the comics they’ve made as their diplomas and enjoy an ice cream party! Families are welcome to attend, too!

Schedule

Here is what our workshop schedule looks like for the next few weeks...

11:00am - 9 to 12-year-olds - August 22nd will be Storytelling and September 5th will be Graduation!

11:00am - age TBD based on registration - We'll be resetting with a new group starting September 12th with Intro to Comics. September 19th will be Character Design I, September 26th will be Character Design II, October 3rd will be Expressions and Emotions, October 10th will be Action!, October 24th will be Text & Speech Bubbles, October 31st will be Storytelling and a fun Halloween party, and November 7th will be Graduation!

1:00pm - age TBD based on registration - We'll be resetting with a new group starting September 5th with Intro to Comics. September 12th will be Character Design I, September 19th will be Character Design II, September 26th will be Expressions and Emotions, October 3rd will be Action!, October 10th will be Text & Speech Bubbles, October 24th will be Storytelling, and October 31st will be Graduation and a fun Halloween party!

3:00pm - 7 to 9-year-olds - August 22nd will be Storytelling, and September 5th will be Graduation!

3:00pm - (no age set) -  Starting September 12th, for those of you who have been to all the workshops this first go around, we'd like to continue to offer a time on Sundays when your child can drop in and hang with us to make comics! Having started a creative mentorship with your kids, we'll continue on their path with them to improve their skills where they need work on an individual basis.

Here's what our camp schedule looks like for the next few weeks....

1st camp - Aug . 10th(11:00am-4:00pm), 13th (11:00am-4:00pm) and 14th (graduation)
2nd camp - Aug . 17th(11:00am-4:00pm), 20th (11:00am-4:00pm) and 21th (graduation)
3rd camp - Aug . 24th(11:00am-4:00pm), 27th (11:00am-4:00pm) and 30th (graduation)


As creative 20-somethings, Katy and Blue love sleeping in. If you are planning on coming to the 11:00am workshop, please let us know. If know one has preregistered or prepaid, we will not be there. We've had a group of 3 or 4 for the first two workshops at 11:00pm, so we'd love to have this registration go up and see more older kids at the 11:00am workshop. Please encourage your kids' friends to registister so that Katy and I have a great reason to hop out of bed on Sunday mornings! :]

Another round of 1st week workshops, Introduction to Comics, will be beginning August 22nd and September 19th (later start dates will be announced over the coming weeks).

If you're interested in maybe dropping into a workshop, please call or email to ask which we're hosting on what days. Our schedule is not rigid to allow for flexibility based on registration and demand. When you call or email to preregister, you have the chance to pick the time slot (11am, 1pm, 3pm) that works best for your family's schedule, but these may fill up quick, so not all workshop times are guaranteed available!

Update

So far, the response to the workshops has been SO GREAT! We'd like to thank you all for being the kind of parents that support your children's artist expression. We love the response we've gotten launching our workshops at Cosmic Monkey Comics and we're excited to see our workshops grow and grow, along with your children's art skills in and confidence in finding their creative voices. 

We're open to teaching other afternoons if you're able to to register as a group on a consistent day of the week (excluding Wednesdays), minimum group size of 4 students. Email or call to reserve another day as a group! comicworkshops@gmail.com or 503-453-5839

Our Lesson Plans

1st week: Introduction to Comics - $10  

In this introductory workshop we will have fun answering the question: What are comics, exactly? Then we will take a close look at some classic comics to see what makes them tick! We will provide all the materials for children to begin experimenting with making their own comics. Students will leave the workshop inspired by a greater understanding of visual narrative.

2nd Week: Character Design I - $10

Everyone who can draw basic shapes can design a cartoon character! In this workshop we will offer a series of activities proving just how fun and simple cartooning can be.

3rd Week: Character Design II - $10

In this workshop we will delve deeper into the intricacies of character design and discover how cartoonists learn to draw their characters the same way every time. Students will be encouraged to create model sheets of their characters in preparation for drawing comics.


4th Week: Expressions and Emotions - $10

One of the most important features of any comic are the expressions of the characters. But how do you get them just right? We'll talk about facial expressions, body language, and how cartoonists use exaggeration to create interest.

5th Week: Action! - $10

From superheroes duking it out among the cosmos, to cats chasing mice around a living room, almost all cartoons contain some kind of action. We will look at examples of dynamic cartoon action scenes and create some of our own.

6th Week: Text & Speech Bubbles - $10

In this workshop we will ask the question: What function do words serve in comics? And how can we best use them to advance the story? We will experiment with different techniques of creating captions and dialog.

7th Week: Storytelling - $10

Now that we have all the basics covered, how do we tell a story using what we've learned? In this workshop we will look at the finer points of visual storytelling, such as panel layout and pacing. This will also be the last day to submit a comic for our class zine!

8th Week: Graduation - $10

We've all been published, it's time to party! In this last session each child will receive their copy of the compilation, and we will play some group drawing games to celebrate our accomplishments.