On the Road 2009: The Center for Cartoon Studies, Mutts, Feiffer, and an Honorary Degree
I can’t believe it’s August. Where did the year go? Seems like I just got back from Stumptown, but San Diego has come and gone, and this weekend I’m leaving for a signing in Toronto. As I write this, I’m working on the new material I wrote for BONE: Tall Tales, and sometime in September, I’ll be getting back to RASL. In the meantime, I thought I’d catch up on some blogging.
Back in May, I delivered the third ever commencement address at The Center for Cartoon Studies. The Center is in White River Junction, Vermont, and was founded by the brilliant cartoonist James Sturm and administrator Michelle Ollie (both can be seen in the picture above on the left). It was an honor, and I had a great time.
The graduation ceremony was filmed, so if you are interested in seeing the speech, it’s here. Sam Carbough’s talk and Alec Longstreth’s introduction are really good.
CCS is, I believe, the only two year MFA program for cartoonists in North America. Along with Sturm, the faculty includes up-and-comers like Alec Longstreth, and veteran masters such as Steve Bissette and Jason Lutes.
And here they are! The class of 2009. Masters of Cartooning all! They have to grow mustaches before they are allowed to graduate, it’s part of the training.
Below: CCS Fellow Alec Longstreth and me on our way to the ceremony. Alec has the mustache thing down cold.
The students followed a bagpipe player onto the Northern Stage Theater in the beautiful old Briggs Opera House, right in the center of town.
Sam Carbaugh was the student speaker this year, and his talk was funny, smart and insightful. Just what I wanted to follow with my speech!
Then Alec gave me a rousing, full blooded, hilarious introduction that had the audience shouting "Amen, brother Alec!"
After my address, James and Michelle presented me with an honorary degree. It is the first one CCS has given out, and it is definitely the first one I’ve ever received; honorary or otherwise!
The Center for Cartoon Studies Class of 2009 (in alphabetical order): Dan Archer, A. Kubby Barry, Sam Carbaugh, Brandon Elston, Sango Imai-Hall, Lucy Knisley, Liza Petruzzo, Jeremiah Piersol, Steve Seck, Al Wesolowsky, Benjamin Williams. Also present were CCS Fellows: Chris Wright and Alec Longstreth. Congratulations, everyone!
Afterward we all headed back to the Center for a reception with friends and family.
Me & Sam Carbough at the reception. I’m holding my Honorary Degree diploma designed by Jim Rugg.
Behind us, on the walls of the gallery you can see examples of the students’ thesis exhibition.
Below is a close up of Brandon Elston’s thesis project called LUSTY TALES.
Beneath each framed page of original art, hangs a fully printed version of the finished comic. Here’s a closer look at Lusty Tales:
Nice, huh? I was blown away by all the student work. I highly recomend you explore the CCS website!
That same weekend, Vijaya and I stopped in New York for some meetings with our color Bone publisher, Scholastic.
They surprised me with a champagne reception to celebrate the release of the last color volume of BONE: Crown of Horns. Quite a treat, and a lot of fun. (BTW, while looking for a link for the Crown of Horns book just now, I dicovered there are Wikipedia pages for all the Bone books. Who knew?)
Even more surprising was an appearance by my good friend and legendary cartoonist Jules Feiffer!
To top off a great weekend, Vijaya and I had dinner that night with Mutts cartoonist Patrick McDonnell and his wife Karen O’Connell at a nice little Indian place in Mid-town.
Before we left New York City the next day, we went to Ray’s Pizza. And not just any Ray’s, either. We only go to the one on 11th and 6th in Greenwich Village. Local legend says that this is the actual original famous Ray’s, but there are others who claim the same thing. Even if it’s not the original one, it’s still the best slice of pie in the universe.
Hey, I had to get in at least one food shot, didn’t I?
Many thanks to everyone at Scholastic, and at The Center for Cartoon Studies. I had a wonderful time!
Sounds like you guys had fun! I read Mutts in the Sunday paper every week, It’s one of my favorite comic strips. That comic the students did was awesome, I really enjoyed the art. Hey Jeff, at your signing in Toronto will you be doing any sketches?
Comment by The Lobster — August 5, 2009 @ 7:13 pm
Sounds awesome!
Alec Lonstreth, I think you’ve posted an interview with him sometime before, right?
I’ll have to check out his work.
Btw, seeing that you’ve introduced many people (including myself) to some indie artists/writers, I read Echo by Terry Moore and Heavy Liquid by Paul Pope. Awesome work!
RASL is coming late October right?
Oh and wikipedia also has a RASL page too. Check it out.
Comment by Marcus — August 5, 2009 @ 10:49 pm
Is there an email for Jeff Smith? I need to talk to you about your comics and itunes.
Thanks
Comment by Marci — August 6, 2009 @ 9:14 am
Jeff please show use some progress on the Bone movie I am dying to see what it will be like.
Comment by Jeremy Brubacher — August 6, 2009 @ 1:49 pm
I know this may be a weird comment, but thanks for linking to my blog above. If you did it by mistake, don’t undo it. It made me happy.
Cheers.
Comment by shigekuni — August 6, 2009 @ 9:21 pm
Hey Jeff, sounds like you had a great time. I don’t know how doable this is but do you think you could post (even just a selection) of the original letters column that was in the single issues of Bone? I love my first edition one volume to death but I really miss reading those letters at the end of every chapter. Would it be at all possible to add some of those letters to this site?
Comment by dann — August 7, 2009 @ 8:03 pm
Hey Jeff, how many issues will The Fire of St George collect? I read an interview that says 4-6, but that’s only 76 pages?
Comment by Marcus — August 9, 2009 @ 10:23 pm
The second Rasl book will now include issue #7, because the individual chapters are a little shorter. That will make it the same length as the first one.
The Fire of St. George collection is planned for next summer.
Comment by Jeff — August 10, 2009 @ 9:34 am
Oooh, awesome.
Comment by Marcus — August 10, 2009 @ 2:02 pm
Heh, I remember Bone in the app store. I would love to be able to read it from my iPod touch anywhere, at anytime. I can’t remember why I didn’t buy it though. Probably I thought it was a bit much for too few pages and it would end up being split into way too many parts, with each part a different app? And also the way the panels have to be fit to the screen… I dunno, it’s a cool idea but in actuality, I don’t think it works very well.
That’s really awesome that you were able to have dinner with Patrick McDonnell! I absolutely LOVED Mutts for the first original 10 (I think) collected black and white volumes, having read all those strips originally in the newspaper. The newer strips I find don’t have the same magic for me anymore though.
That pizza looks really, REALLY good…
Comment by Brandon Klassen — August 10, 2009 @ 6:38 pm
Hey Tom – you didn’t give a shout on the blog to say that the store is now FULLY STOCKED WITH WONDERFUL STALE BREAD THINGIES!!!
Let the buying begin!
I just sent in my order
Comment by Brandon Klassen — August 11, 2009 @ 7:40 pm
Jeff,
Thank you for posting this. It was great having you at our graduation, the advice you gave is still ringing in my ears. Hope to see you at the Cons this fall!
Best,
Sam Carbaugh
Comment by Sam Carbaugh — August 11, 2009 @ 10:40 pm
Great to hear form you, Sam. As you can tell, I had a wonderful time. It was a real pleasure to meet all of you guys!
Comment by Jeff — August 12, 2009 @ 9:48 am
Brandon,
The Bone iPhone apps are actually pretty cool, and not very expensive at all. I don’t make much moola off of them, but they do put the comics in front of a lot of people. They are .99 cents per issue. That’s much cheaper than buying the books.
Also, the company that sells them, Uclick, did a smart, thoughtful job of laying out the panels.
It’s not a bad reading experience!
BTW, I had to pay .99 to download Bone onto my own iPhone!
Comment by Jeff — August 12, 2009 @ 9:53 am
Hey Jeff, thanks for that info! I may have to check those out again. I obviously didn’t look at it closely enough. That’s pretty silly that you had to buy it yourself!
Comment by Brandon Klassen — August 12, 2009 @ 12:39 pm
hey jeff is there going to be a new series of bone? I love the bone books, they are my favorite books. please right back i want to know and if you can like come to portland OR to sign books i would be there
Comment by josh — September 16, 2009 @ 10:48 pm