How to draw comics and other comics tidbits

John Donohue of The New Yorker is teaching a very cool class at Mediabistro - not something that's up my alley, but as a budding cartoon/comics reader, I'm definitely interested in there being lots more fabulous cartoonists out there.

Countless gag cartoons are published daily in a variety of publications and on the Internet, as well as appearing in major magazines. You've seen them in The New Yorker and you've dreamed of creating them yourself -- those single-panel gag cartoons with a drawing and a punch line that make you laugh, make you wonder, and occasionally make it to the front of your refrigerator. Whether you've merely doodled while on the phone or have been drawing since you were a child and have a stack of half-finished drawings at home by your bedside, this class will show you how to complete those ideas and take them to the market.

In this seminar you can expect to learn:

How to come up with ideas
The techniques you can use to express them
Insider tips on developing a personal style
How to find places to sell your cartoons
How to get your cartoons to the right people
What you can expect to get paid
Secrets about what to do with rejected cartoons

I'm also in the middle of compiling my big guide to what I want to get at BEA but can tell ou now that on Friday, there's a graphic novel and comic book salute at 4 p.m. and Adrian Tomine is signing:

Sat 2:30 - 3:00 19 Tomine, Adrian Shortcomings The acclaimed Optic Nerve Cartoonist and New Yorker illustrator/cover artist signing! Drawn & Quarterly/FSG Sep 07



Speaking of comics, last Friday I made my virgin visit to Rocketship on Smith Street (and only got turned around twice after exiting the subway!) We were there for a reading and celebration of Ariel Schrag's awesome new anthology Stuck in the Middle: 17 Comics from an Unpleasant Age. Give a copy to your favorite teenager! (I must confess that every time I see Ariel's name, I think of Le Tigre's "Hot Topic," in which she's name-checked. I'm sure she is probably sick of that, but I can't help it, I listened to that song a bazillion times when it came out. She's also a really amazing cartoonist and writer for The L Word and lots of other good stuff you can read about on her site. And she wrote about poop in her book - how can you not adore that?)

I was there with my SMITH magazine pals, but the best comment came from the awesome The Beat blogger Heidi MacDonald (she of the fabulous silver jacket which I will soon post a photo of). I asked her for recommendations of what I should buy (wound up with Stuck Rubber Baby and a copy of Lauren Weinstein's new Vineyland as a gift) and said that I don't really like comic books per se because they don't last that long; I read them and poof, I'm done. I'm more into graphic novels cause they're meatier. And she said, "Comic books are like men. They don't last very long." There may have been a bit more after that I'm not remembering, but it was funny. I'm looking forward to meeting the lovely folks at Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly who I've been corresponding with. July is our comics issue in the Reads section of Penthouse, which I edit, and it has some really great stuff, including a Harvey Pekar interview about Macedonia by the one and only Jahfurry, but I'll post about that when it's on stands.