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exclusively through email tho we did speak on the phone a few times i would send him work i had completed and wait for a response unfortunately tracy is working on several books a month raising a newborn and in the proccess of buying a house he s a very busy guy it took at times a lot of effort on my end to get a timely response out of him occasionally forging ahead without his input tcj how much of an influence do you feel he had on you as an artist and in what ways rd i was always intrigued by tracy s panel layouts they were different exciting full of angles and lines that moved your eye around the page each one felt like it matched the needs of the story at that moment in time perfectly i ve tried often to emulate this tcj how much of that influence was pre existing and how much came as a result of how he worked with you on your thesis rd most of that specific influence was pre existing tracy sort of let me move on with my project in whatever direction i wanted to go allowing me to feel out what was wrong and right about the development of my pages tcj what was the most valuable thing you learned from your advisor rd patience with the early stages he helped me mostly slow down my process into a few more stages than i would have gone normally tcj was the experience all that you had hoped it would be rd not entirely but it s hard to judge how exactly these things are supposed to go over all i m pleased with the effort tracy made to advise me despite his hectic schedule i ll probably continue to send him my work long after ccs tcj what advice would you give to future ccs cartoonists on how to navigate the experience rd be patient with your advisor they have lives to live as well also don t be afraid to ask your questions that s why you re here at ccs in the first place jp coovert 09 tcj who was your thesis advisor j p coovert chris staros co publisher of top shelf comix tcj why did you choose this individual as your advisor jpc i entered my second year at ccs with my fiancee moving away to minneapolis to pursue a career i thought this would be my chance to work hard and make comics my career my original thought was to become a teacher of comics i chose chris mainly because he has always been a big supporter of my comics but also because i thought he would be able to help me craft my book into a better and more saleable piece of literature tcj before you started working with your advisor what was your understanding of what the thesis process would be like jpc my plan was to work on a graphic novel getting chris input along the way my idea was to spend a year getting an outline then thumbnails and the first chapter basically a book proposal finished tcj what was the process of working with staros like how hands on was he jpc i talked on the phone with chris 3 or 4 times throughout the year after mailing him thumbnails i thought it was best to send him large chunks of work and then really dig in chris was extremely thoughtful in his criticism thinking back he gave just the right balance of constructive criticism and encouragement to keep me moving forward tcj how much of an influence do you feel he had on you as an artist and in what ways jpc i think there is a pretty significant influence i believe chris and i share a somewhat similar taste in storytelling and i think that especially rubbed off on me working on my thesis project tcj how much of that influence was pre existing and how much came as a result of how he worked with you on your thesis jpc being able to talk to chris about my project at length really provided a great insight into what he looks for as a publisher and reader it s hard work constructing a longer story be he was able to get me pointed in the right direction tcj what was the most valuable thing you learned from your advisor jpc as i was working on the project interesting characters were paramount later i realized that trying to work on a book as a stepping stone to a career in comics is the worst possible way to move forward in a positive way on a project he never spoke to me directly about this but i think my short time talking to chris helped me snap out of that mentality tcj what was the most frustrating aspect of working with your advisor jpc i wish i could have sat down with him face to face at least a couple of times to talk comics he seems like a rad dude to hang out with tcj was the experience all that you had hoped it would be jpc it was he definitely held up his end of the bargain if there was one regret i had it would have to be that i didn t take enough advantage of his willingness to help me write and craft an awesome story tcj what advice would you give to future ccs cartoonists on how to navigate the experience jpc take full advantage of your advisor the wonderful thing about ccs is all the amazing talent and knowledge that is attracted to the school they want to help so let them ask them to posted by rob clough at 4 20 am 2 comments labels chris staros holly foltz jim lawson jp coovert randall drew tracy yardley friday june 10 2011 ccs the eddie campbell experience this is a companion piece to my article cartoonists leading cartoonists which will appear in the epic issue 301 of the comics journal i interviewed nearly three dozen students alumni mentors and faculty from the center for cartoon studies in white river junction vt regarding how the mentoring process works for second year students these students spend the year working on their thesis turning to their advisors for guidance suggestions and critique the nature of that relationship differed from student to student and advisor to advisor i didn t have room to include every interesting response in my article so i will be publishing some bonus material here at high low to supplement that article this q a will focus on one advisor whom everyone spoke of in glowing terms eddie campbell eddie campbell tcj why did you choose eddie campbell as your advisor al b wesolowsky i ve long admired his autobiographical work its introspective nature his delineation of characters and his sense of inviting one to experience his life bill volk i chose eddie because he was a thesis advisor for previous classes and they all had nothing but praise for him more specifically i chose him from among the previous positively reviewed advisors because i wanted someone who was thoughtful and literate tcj before you started working with your advisor what was your understanding of what the thesis process would be like abw from earlier academic work in the liberal arts i understood that the thesis was to be a demonstration of one s ability to produce work that showed one s assimilation of the curriculum earlier assignments to work on an individual project to plan and budget one s time and resources and to end up with a finished comic that one had written designed drew lettered did digital prepress printed and bound the thesis is not intended to be a masterwork but simply the best work of which one is capable at this stage of one s career the first year at ccs we produced a lot of shorter comics the thesis was to be a longer work although minimum page counts were not specified the sense among students that the thesis was expected to be at least 40 to 60 pages long tcj what was the process of working with campbell like how hands on was he abw for being in australia and me in new england eddie was uncannily quick with responses via e mail i sent him my earlier work from ccs and he provided quick helpful observations as i progressed into writing thumbnailing and drawing the thesis i would ship segments to him and he would respond in my case he did not need to be hands on i was 62 years old at the time and knew how to plan my work but had i requested a more hands on approach i think that he would have obliged bill volk tcj how much of an influence do you feel they have had on you as an artist and in what ways abw a profound influence ranking with alison bechdel and joe sacco among current comickers as we corresponded i became aware of eddie s lively wit and easy communication skills also his intellectual curiosity bv since i started working with him i ve been more conscious of spatial cues in my art according to his suggestions i ve been moving my camera less to provide more of a frame of reference for subtle character actions though he hasn t mentioned it there s a good rule attributed to him that says that you should show feet somewhere in every page i ve also been making pages with more panels in them art copyright bill volk tcj what was the most valuable thing you learned from your advisor abw to look at what i was doing really look at it and to work at word balloons their shape and size with regard to the amount of text within them and to try to integrate the balloons as part of the page design i think i improved a bit with balloons but have a long way to go tcj what was the most frustrating aspect of working with campbell abw that i couldn t just sit down with him and say look at these thumbnails roughs etc and tell me what you think distance precluded such and i d have to scan work to send to him a time consuming process i would have enjoyed more spontaneity had i been able to meet with him in person bv sometimes the long distance between us caused a little frustration i also felt extremely self conscious about staying on schedule which often made me avoid contact with him until i d caught up that was a mistake tcj was the experience all that you had hoped it would be abw i really had no idea of what working with eddie would be like but i was eminently satisfied and was happy when i could send him a printed copy of the thesis via the posts i learned a lot from him although it does not show yet and the experience was most worthwhile we continue to stay in touch so he must not be too disgusted with me tcj what advice would you give to future ccs cartoonists on how to navigate the experience abw choose an advisor who does work that you like to which you respond who tackles some of the same issues and stories that you want to do and be prepared for some candid remarks judge the rate of communication by the timing and nature of the responses from the advisor so you don t overwhelm them or appear to be grudging with output if they suggest something that you don t think will help try it if it doesn t help tell the advisor and if the relationship isn t working out tell ccs and see if you can be assigned someone else advisors and students are not all created equal and you cannot tell how things will work out don t go running to ccs with minor quibbles though just for when the relationship is not working suffice it to say that eddie was the ideal of an advisor my impression is that most students had positive experiences with their advisors there were a few occasions where for one reason or another the match proved not helpful but ccs was quick to work out arrangements with another advisor for those students bv your thesis advisor is not a ghostwriter nor is he a supernatural saviour he is just another pair of eyes to help you point out things you may not notice when your nose is buried deep in the work the work is still all up to you posted by rob clough at 4 22 am 2 comments labels al b wesolowsky bill volk ccs eddie campbell thursday june 9 2011 new review tcj dungeon monstres v 4 over at the comics journal a review has been posted of dungeon monstres volume 4 by lewis trondheim joann sfar jean emmanuel vermot desroches and yoann posted by rob clough at 7 12 pm no comments labels dungeon joann sfar lewis trondheim wednesday june 8 2011 new review tcj the heavy hand over at the comics journal my review of chris cilla s the heavy hand has been published posted by rob clough at 7 18 am no comments labels chris cilla sparkplug gag comic round up nowacki viola reed latta aushenker time to dip into an array of gag oriented minicomics moe by piotr nowacki nowacki a polish artist uses a delightfully simple and blobby line in depicting his anthropomorphic protagonist and the mysterious blotch who both aids and hinders him this is a silent comic with an open four panel per page layout that emphasizes each character s body language above all else nowacki values exaggeration of action as the hero is punched in the face by the blob after being offered a bone winds up in jail gets busted out by the blob smokes a joint with a rasta angel blob in a cloud and finally rescues a beautiful woman underwater the mischievous blob reminds me a bit of al capp s shmoo character only it s black with white eyes nowacki s work is incredibly self assured in its simplicity and expressiveness there are no wasted lines the gags are reminiscient of the sort of thing lewis trondheim does so well in his silent humor comics set up a character provide an antagonist then subvert reader expectations nowacki s imagination isn t quite as wild as trondheim s but moe s ambitions are modest and this mini is a rewarding read some stories 1 by desmond reed reed is another artist who uses a simple line in order to tell his shaggy dog twist gags sort of like the o henry of minicomics gag work reed uses his exposition to set up an unexpected punchline i wish reed would vary the thickness of his line from time to time in order to make his pages more interesting to look at as well as giving him more storytelling options his art is merely functional though it is effective this latest effort published in a larger size than his earlier micro minis is a mixed bag 4 o clock is too much of a shaggy dog story dragging out the fate of a lab guinea pig who is killed by accident and is trying to sort out his afterlife the eventual resolution of this story felt predictable in a way his prior comics hadn t on the other hand todd represented a step up for reed as we meet two fish who are madly in love we continuously flash back in time three seconds at a time a clever way of detailing their extremely short attention spans and memories it s a sort of underwater version of memento where reed adds layer on top of layer until he reaches the final payoff unlike the first story every single page is funny on its own working first as a kind of non sequitur and then finally cohering in the end herman the manatee volume 4 by jason viola viola s meandering strip about a manatee and his lousy friends hits a nice groove in this collection viola has an appealing line and great character design sense but the quality of his work has varied as he s tried to figure out just what he wants to do with his strip he quickly ran out of variations of his initial premise the titular character getting hit in the head by passing boats but attempts at piecing together extended storylines fell flat his characters are simply too silly to support such attempts in this volume viola strikes a balance with the candide like herman depressed to the point of absurdity lester and vicious narwhal knuckles playing off each other instead of trying to attach these...