Center for Cartoon Studies: Gag Workshop Summer 2025

Just returned from taking a week-long workshop on gag comics under Hilary Price (creator of the syndicated cartoon “Rhymes With Orange” since 1995) at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont. It had been nineteen years since I was there last, when it was Harry Bliss who taught a class on single-panel comics. Proving once again the meta-lesson in that you ought to remain teachable, and you're never to old to go back to school, and that taking classes is always humbling when you realize just how little you know. It was a perfect balance between professional development as a teacher, especially one that teaches comics, and inspirational insights into my own personal creative process over on the other side of the drawing board as a publishing cartoonist. There was a great mix of personalities and varying skill-sets within our group, with a wide range of ages and experience all brought to bear on an intensive, immersive five-day deep dive into one of the most foundational aspects of sequential art.

Both buildings of the campus are located right on main street downtown in the historic village, and our classroom was in the former post office building. One particular highlight was getting to do research for our homework right next door in the Schulz Library, which was a mecca for us comic nerds to geek out on. There was a daily, sometimes hourly rhythm to the course, each day consisting of a constant stream of warmups, lectures, exercises, breaks, group/collaborative exercises, jams, writing/conceptual exercises, more warm-ups, etc. (repeat). The collective synergy from all eight of the students was fantastic, plus we had a teacher's aide who was a current second-year student at the school, and his contributions and artwork was excellent. We hung out together in varying small groups over lunches and dinners, getting to know the story behind everybody, and made some wonderful new friends & colleagues.

Hilary Price is four-time winner of Best Newspaper Panel Cartoon by the National Cartoonists Society + Cartoonist of the Year in August 2024, with her feature appearing syndicated in over a hundred newspapers. I was in awe of how much energy, output and passion for not just the medium, but also for teaching others about cartooning, was so inspiring on both a professional + personal level. Emphasis was on many components in the creative process like hand-lettering, and how the deliberate arrangement of visual elements in the composition - both image and text - are in fact “sequential” insofar as how we perceive/interpret the cartoon. Hearing someone of such stature further re-legitimizing this particular medium was so gratifying and empowering, as sometimes this single-panel sub-category gets lost amidst the ascendancy of the lofty graphic novel. Another fantastic aspect to this institution is the variety of different genres students can explore, as there was a horror workshop running concurrently with ours. The Center even has a manifesto free to download (here) called "The World is Made of Cheese," which literally illustrates the center's MO.

Price (who considers herself “a writer who draws” rather than “an artist who writes.”) was the perfect instructor at the right time in both my life and career. It was revealing to experience such a course from a student perspective, and if maybe a third of the lessons were familiar exercises or assignments that I use in my own courses, she totally customized them and taught them in completely different ways, some of which I shall dutifully emulate to improve my teaching the same material. Doing essentially double-duty by taking notes on how-to-teach plus doing the assigned work, I wrote and drew so much so fast my hand cramped a couple times – that’s really rare. She was such an exceptionally attentive teacher, very inclusive, supportive and engaging. Since her emphasis was on the generation of ideas, it was ideal to focus on the conceptual underpinnings ie words first, then drawings. We progressed through character development, then plotted punchlines stressing "process over product" ("Amplify - Simplify"), setting + design, some collaborative exercise, "crosstraining" in longer formats like strips and other multi-panels, and constant group reviews of all the work we did during the workshop. An omnipresent timer was used for everything, so as to bypass the inner critic and short-circuit the impulse to over-analyze. A few lessons were in part drawn from Ivan Brunetti and Lynda Barry, each of which are "textbooks" in my own classroom, and another suite of recommended titles have already been ordered. We spent a lot of time exploring various techniques in brainstorming tropes and visual cliches, and the pacing + placement of punchlines with repeated emphasis on how "it's not the joke - it's the getting the joke."

Another highlight of the week was on the morning before the last class when I was last on the list for having a 20-minute one-on-one review/critique with the teacher, whereupon I proceeded to split that time into two 10-minute sections: the first was an attempt at encapsulating my experience of the entire workshop in the context of a cartooning teacher. The second was an overview of a mini-portfolio, from the perspective of the recent NCS rejection (which I'm over btw, and now back at the "self-made rugged artist" thing hand-carving cartoons borne out of the "independent arctic work ethic") (grrr) (snort), and most importantly, showing how the aesthetic effect both her work and that of Peter Gallagher's "Heathcliff" has been in directly influencing my recent stylistic shift. This was true for both the coloring approach/palette overhaul, and now also in the revamped gag-writing aspect. I can't wait to see the growth of even more low-hanging fruit and to in turn share the creative juices with this fall semester's group and future classroom gigs. One irony is that in all of the differing assignments & critiques the weakest and hardest one by far for me personally has always been introducing the single-panel/gag cartoon in my own classes. Now it with be the tentpole for the whole semester.

Yeah I went into total fanboy mode over a special guest cartoonist Suzy Becker (1990's “All I Need to Know I learned From My Cat”): she gave a show & tell of her work + process to our class one morning. Exposure to so many cartoonists during this workshop reminded me of how the relative geographic isolation of living in the middle of Alaska tends to make one even more ingrown than a lot of "normal" artists, and that I really need to get out more. Meeting and listening and talking to both of these artists, each a consummate professional in the field, taught me to add yet another re-evaluation of my own personal work, in that of my entrenched tendency to overwork my panels. It's a good thing that I only have to do a weekly feature, because if I had to do a daily for syndication, I'd never leave the damn cabin. The process, belabored here on Ink & Snow for years, of doodling, then sketchbooking, then penciling>inking>scanning + digital and watercoloring, is resulting in cartoons that many times illustrate perfectly the industry mantra that "a good joke will sell a bad drawing." Unfortunately my parallel career as an art teacher who constantly insists on criteria such as enhancing depth in the composition by using fore/mid/background elements and obsessive attention to linear perspective etc. I love to draw, and absolutely enjoy incorporating all the tricks of the trade that are quite simply just not necessary when making a cartoon. As per usual I'll over-correct on the mental highwire in both directions, going back and forth between extremes multiple times, before finding the correct balance.

This last image is an example of a homework assignment where we were tasked to use an everyday regular object/nearby scenario as a photo reference to incorporate into panel. My hotel room was right down the hall from an ice-machine, and since this transplanted barbarian from the north was suffering from a comparative 90° heatwave (w/60% humidity), it personally resonated with me. On a closing note, maintaining the momentum after a sorely needed reboot has rekindled the daily ritual of putting pen to paper… One final lesson on how everything is fodder and fuel, and anything can be a canvas, even a sick-sack.

In closing, an all-around immersive and powerful experience on many different levels: the Center for Cartoon Studies is an outstanding place full of wonderful folks that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to other aspiring talents, at any stage in their career. After a pilgrimage to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, I aim to return to Vermont for some more serious, scholarly study into cartooning.