201403250158.jpgThe Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction has just announced a new MFA course in “Applied Cartooning”, which is a word I hear a lot hat talks about using comics for educational and informational purposes. When the cartoon Illuminati gets together they are all about Applied Cartooning, trust me. According to the announcement, this program will explore “how comics can impact such diverse fields as health, business, public policy, and education.”

With the increased interest in comics as a teaching and learning tool, this seems like a very forward looking course of study, and CCS is just the place to develop this program. CCS has already formed partnerships with White River Junction VA Medical Center, Montshire Museum of Science, Museum of the City of New York, and the US embassy in Bahrain to use comics in this way. More:

“This ground-breaking program builds on the past decade of rebirth and innovation in the comics world, and brings the power of cartooning and sequential art – not to mention the creative powers of CCS’s MFA students – to new frontiers, industries, and communities. Students will gain valuable job experience and connections, creative stimulation, and professional challenges through their applied thesis projects,” says cartoonist Marek Bennett. Marek, one the Applied Cartooning program advisors, is a New Hampshire-based teaching artist who has spent the past 12 years creating comics-based educational programs and community-based graphic novels in New England, Central America, and Eastern Europe.

“I am seeing an increasing number of young cartoonists who are as interested in using their skills in a broader, more socially active context as they are in holing up and focusing exclusively on a graphic novel,” says CCS cofounder and director James Sturm.

1 COMMENT

  1. Yup. Agree.

    I keep waiting for Wiley or Penguin to adapt their Dummies/Idiots guides into graphic novels. I’ve heard that back in the proto-manga 90s, that almost every Japanese magazine had a comics section, and that many were how-to guides aimed at specific hobbyists.

    Microsoft Press had an entry level series back in the early 2000s, featuring Clippy, and comprised of nothing more than screen shots with some explanatory text below each screen. Yup… nothing fancier than a storyboard.

    It doesn’t even need to be drawn. It could be fumetti.

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