Sunday, October 7 | 1:00-3:00 PM | Downtown Library | 4th Floor Meeting Room

Hey cartoonists! Want to make your action scenes jump off the page? Eisner-nominated cartoonist Tony Cliff, creator of Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant (a series of online adventure comics set during the early 19th century) will demonstrate via Skype how to select just the right moment to create the illusion of action, drama, and dynamism. Learn how to draw stunning action shots that will leave your readers breathless!

Join the Forum to get fresh ideas for your next comics or graphic novel creation. Drawing supplies will be provided, so drop in to draw, learn, and network with other cartoonists.

Saturday, September 22 | 1:00-4:00 PM | Downtown Library - Multipurpose Room | Gr. 6-Adult

Instructor Patricia Candor of the College for Creative Studies has developed a new way to look at drawing the human head that can be as simple or as complex as the artist chooses.

She will demonstrate and explain her method using an action line system, and then you can try your hand at sketching the human head. Here's your chance to grow artistically, whether you're an amateur or a professional artist!

La Perdida (2006) has waited patiently to be picked up and read. Long before this I read creator Jessica Abel’s Life Sucks and flipped through her Drawing Words & Writing Pictures: Making Comics: Manga, Graphic Novels, and Beyond. Both titles I enjoyed as part of keeping up with teen graphic novels and good works on comics creation. But from the moment I gazed at the gorgeous cover of La Perdida I knew I was in for a treat.

La Perdida means ‘the lost one’ and that’s what twenty something Mexican American Carla is as she arrives in Mexico City to search for the Mexican side of herself. At first she stays with an ex-boyfriend and hangs out with his associates, other Anglo expats. Then wanting something more authentic Carla finds Mexican friends, handsome Oscar, a DJ wannabee, and charmer Memo, a revolutionary wannabee. Oscar and Memo are involved with petty crimes but Carla turns a blind eye to their shenanigans. That naiveté will suck her in until she becomes an unwilling part of a serious criminal endeavor. Fascinating to the end – this story is all about finding oneself by getting lost.

Sunday, September 9 | 1:00-3:00 p.m. | Downtown Library | Multipurpose Room

Join us for a little world building even if it’s out of this world! Cartoonist James Anderson will show you how he has created a world full of alien flora and fauna for his web comic strip Ellie on Planet X!

Join the Forum to get fresh ideas for your next comics or graphic novel creation and/or feedback from fellow cartoonists. Drawing supplies will be provided, so drop in to draw, learn, and network with other cartoonists.

Wednesday, August 29 | 7:00-8:30 PM | Downtown Library | Multipurpose Room

Learn how nationally-known graphic novelist Shawn Martinbrough became a graphic artist, illustrator, and novelist and about his approach to art.

Shawn's works include DMZ, Vol. 11: Free States Rising with Brian Wood; Batman: Detective Comics; Luke Cage Noir; a new monthly series, Thief of Thieves with Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead); and How to Draw Noir Comics: The Art and Technique of Visual Storytelling. If all the above isn’t enough, check out an interview regarding Shawn’s latest project The Ren.

The bulk of Shawn's work has been done for Marvel Comics, Vertigo and DC Comics. His client list includes Coca Cola/POWERade, The Hershey Company, The Topps Company, Cricket Wireless, Vibe, Bad Boy Entertainment, Penguin Books and McGraw-Hill.

Vault of Midnight will sell Shawn's books, and the event includes a book signing.

P.S. Summer Game Code Fans, here's a chance to get one of the last event game codes!

Learn how to use Adobe Photoshop Element to clean up your art, fill in line work with colors and half tones, create cool lettering, prep the finished page for printing, and more. Cartoonist Jerzy Drozd will be your instructor. Art will be provided for you to work with or we can scan your art for you to work on.

Select from one of the time slots listed below. Both sessions are identical. Registration is required. Register at any AADL location, online at aadl.org or call 327-8301.

Wednesday August 22 -- (3:00-5:00 PM) OR (6:00-8:00 PM) -- Downtown Library -- 3rd Floor Training Center

Learn how to use Adobe Photoshop Element to clean up your art, fill in line work with colors and half tones, create cool lettering, prep the finished page for printing, and more. Cartoonist
Jerzy Drozd will be your instructor and guide.

Choose from one of the time slots below. Both sessions are identical. Registration is required. Register at any AADL location, online at aadl.org or call 327-8301.

Tuesday August 21 -- (1:00-3:00 PM) OR (4:00-6:00 PM) -- Downtown Library -- 3rd Floor Training Center

GB Tran, born and raised in South Carolina, wanted to better understand his parents, his father’s remoteness and his mother’s willingness to stay in a marriage that was at times fractious. To do this he needed to understand their past in Vietnam, the war torn country from which they fled in 1975. He needed to know more about them growing up within that conflict, their families and friends, and what it felt like to start new in their adopted land the USA but hold onto family in the old country.

The result of his research is Vietnamerica: A Family’s Journey, a complex look at his family, where they’ve come from and where they are today. It also highlights GB’s own growth and understanding as a young man, the importance of knowing self by seeing the roots from which you’re sprung. Check out page 26, one of my favorites in the book, overlaying the faces of GB, and his father and mother, a powerful reminder that each generation leaves its stamp on the next.

Vietnamerica blends memoir, theme, narrative, and art together to create a deeply compelling graphic novel.

Joe Kubert, known throughout the world as a cartoonist and graphic artist extraordinaire, died yesterday.

Kubert was born to draw. By the time he was 12 in 1938, he was selling his work for $5 a page ($79.80 in 2012 dollars) and he was an informal apprentice for the MLJ Studio, the forerunner for Archie Comics.

In the fall of 1943, he began his lifelong association with DC Comics, serving as it's Director of Publications from 1967 to 1976.

Among his large body of work which built his fame are Yossel: April 19, 1943 in which he imagined what his family life would have been like if the Kuberts had stayed in Poland (now Ukraine). He also drew Sgt. Rock: Between Hell and a Hard Place, one entry in hissix-part series of the WW II adventures of Sgt. Frank Rock.

In 1973, he opened the The Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, now called The Kubert School. The grueling three-year program has aspiring artists glued to their drawing boards eight to ten hours a day.

In 2009 the National Cartoonist Society awarded him their Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award.

Two of Kubert's sons, Andy and Adam, are popular graphic artists in their own right.

Kubert was just shy of his 86th birthday when he died.

Saturday, August 11 | 1:00-3:00 p.m. | Downtown Library | 4th Floor Meeting Room | Gr. 6-Adult

How do you create a plausible world filled with vibrant and identifiable characters? Join New York Times best-selling artist Jake Parker (Missile Mouse and The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man) via Skype to explore how compelling character designs can be achieved by varying simple shapes. Learn how the worlds you build can be used to refine the look of your characters and bring out their inner lives! Q & A with Jake follows.

Get a flavor of Jake’s range for imaginative characters and worlds through a sneak peak at The Antler Boy and Other Stories, his current project funded by Kickstarter.