Cartooning Text Set

An Interview With Jim Davis

Website
An Interview With Jim Davis" Garfield & Friends. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.
<https://garfield.com/an-interview-with-jim-davis>

https://garfield.com/an-interview-with-jim-davis
The Garfield web page has much information about Jim Davis as an artist, I
located an interview that is both in YouTube and written format, The questions cover
a range of topics from Jim Davis personal background to character development of
Garfield and business expansions. Jim Davis is a prominent local artist and Garfield
is a readily accessible comic strip for many children. The students most likely will be
very familiar with the fat cat and reading about the artist behind the comic can give
some insight into how they can develop a plot for their comic.
Falling Up Childrens Book
Silverstein, Shel. Falling Up: Poems and Drawings. New York: HarperCollins, 1996. Print.

One or two imagery poems can serve as sketchbook fodder to practice

translating what a person reads into visual images. The poems are entertaining to
keep students enticed, yet offer a twist of words that can challenge the mind to follow
the understanding. The students would be given a poem without an illustration and
would have only fie minutes to draw out an illistration for the poem. They must give
careful thought to how they convey the poems meaning and work quickly to get it
down on paper.
Harold and the Purple Crayon
Childrens Book
Johnson, Crockett. Harold and the Purple Crayon. New York: Harper & Row, 1955.
Print.
One small book about one small boy with one large crayon creates an entire city
in the search for bed. Besides a short break from the monotony of a lecture about
lines, the book is illustrated with simple line drawings that would be good visual
examples of the different types of lines. I can read it to them, and then look at a few
pages to analyze the line quality as guided practice. Much of the storytelling is also
reliant on the drawing to convey the full meaning of the simple text, a key
component of good comic writing.
Kurami Facebook page
Social Media
"Kurami." Facebook. N.p., 12 Apr. 2016. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.
<https://www.facebook.com/TheBlindBlonde/>.

https://www.facebook.com/TheBlindBlonde/
The artist has recently become published in the Anderson Harold Newspaper. He
has been both self taught and formally trained as a cartoonist/artist. His comic strip

Love Is is up for viewing on his public Facebook page for people to read. He also is
open about his process, achievements and struggles of being a cartoonist. The page is
updated daily and would be an excellent social media example to expose sudents to
some cartoons, reading and artist career information. I would open up the most recent
post and display it on the overhead and read a few comics with the students at the
beginning of class. They could also follow the Facebook page on their own.
Nostalgias Genius

Website

CrazyShiro. "Nostalgia's Genius :: Deep Breathing | Tapastic Comics." Tapastic: Read and Discover
Comics Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2016. <https://tapastic.com/episode/329878>

https://tapastic.com/episode/329878
The artist behind that creates Nostalgias Genius is a personal friend of mine as
well as an illustrator and writer. The comic series is all drawn on the computer and
many of the comics plot lines flow from one week edition to the next. Students have
yet another exposure to a career as a cartoonist/illustrator. It also serves as a chance
to prepare the students for writing their artist statements, because I would schedule a
Skype call with Adria Winsor to ask her the two questions that the students would
have to answer.
Pixton Website Comics Website
"Pixton's Picks | Pixton #comics." Pixton | Comics | Make a Comic or Storyboard. Pixton Comics Inc.,
n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2016. <https://www.pixton.com/collection/Pixton>.

https://www.pixton.com/collection/Pixton
Comics can be simple or complex. The Pixton website offers a good range of
both under their Just for Fun tab. The students will use a random comic to analyze
the use of line and characterization. Because the website collects popular comics
from across the website, the students will be exposed to a range of well and poorly
written comics and it can allow for open discussion. Even though the comics are
computer generated, half of a good comic is the writing and the students need to be
exposed to a variety of qualities.
Simon Draws: Simon. Video
Simon"s Cat. "Simon Draws: Simon." YouTube. N.p., 22 Nov. 2014. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo-2W0FjFeE>.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo-2W0FjFeE
Who doesnt love silly cat videos? Simon Tofield is an animator that posts cat
cartoons onto YouTube inspired from the antics of his own cats. He also shares many
tutorial videos about how to draw different creatures and speaks openly about his
process and inspirations for funny content. This particular video is a demonstration
about drawing Simon himself. The students can view a different way of
representational drawing of the human figure. The video is only three minutes long
so it will not take much time out of class.

Sunday Funnies

Newspaper

Any compilation of Sunday Funnies will do. The idea here is to occupy the
students as they settle into their seats and also can serve as a drawing example of
may different artists styles. Each student gets a small section of the newspaper hoard
I have collected and sits down to read until the bell rings. The students also are
exposed to the hard copy of comics. They can see how printing affects the line
quality and also read different types of humor that draws a variety of audiences for
each comic. After reading Jim Davis interview they can better analyze the drawing
quality of different comics.