Comments

   I was one of the lucky few who were able to take Scott McCloud's class "Comics: Theory & Practice" at the Minnesota College of Arts and Design.

   I did this two page mini comic for the final assignment.

   Tim Mallos took the class the week before me (I was in the second section) and he has a very nice write up of class (complete with pictures) on his web site.

   I think that he has really captured the relaxed and yet totally professional nature of Scott's class - you feel at once completely a part of a creative community who are each exploring their own goals, and yet at the same time you feel like you're in a production studio where everyone is working to the same ends.

   I can't think of any other class I've had where my work was critiqued as much as SIX TIMES a DAY in the presence of a crowd of strangers without even once feeling like my work was being judged.

   As Tim says, Scott did a great job of helping each person realize their potential in a totally non-threatening way.

   Even after having looked at our work hour after hour, day after day for a whole week, Scott was still able show us things we hadn't realized about our own art and story telling even on the last day in the last hour.

   The class met from 10am until 5pm each day, and there was some fabulous out-of-class assignments and Scott also gave a public interview-style speech where he answered tons of questions and even dramatized some of his on-line comics.

   It may sound like the Stuff Of Legends, but Scott actually BLEW OUT the theatre's speakers during his DRAMATIC dramatization of one of his Morning Improvs, the brilliant and frenetic; "Money Town".

   As you might expect, I got the chance to learn a great deal about how to do comics and where I'm at with my own art and story telling, but more importantly, Scott introduced me to the question of why.

Ciaran.