For the first time, in my whole life, I'm not afraid of feeling alive, this is the last time I'm falling behind and nothing out there will change me

I promised updates and here they are! My first two days here have been AMAZING, getting to know everyone and being able to talk to so many awesome people. I (hope) I'm gaining some real skills that I can apply to my drawings and comics. One of the coolest parts of the whole program is being able to meet artists and writers who I've read previously and now I get to chill with in real life. It makes me a lil' starry-eyed for real. The man in the picture, in fact, is one of my favorite writers and artists and the way I met him? I jumped up to sing 'No Scrubs' with him (hence the craziness). I promised I wouldn't "tag" him in the picture, but let's just say he has an awesome book in a notebook concerning an artist Elephant. to begin, really, I feel so inspired by the instructors and students here. Do I know if this is something I want to do with my life? The verdict is still out. But I do know that my simply being here is allowing a possibility. Like Goethe said, "Anything you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has power, wisdom, and magic in it." Hello, Beginning.

So yesterday (first day), we met with Steve Bissett, Jason Lutes, and Robyn Chapman (who apparently has been the co-ordinator for the whole thing which makes her a rock star in my eyes). Jason and Steve both ran us through their own processes for making comics and then we all sat down and did a Comic Jam and then a 50-minute comic. Was it the best thing I've ever done? HELL NO. Did it challenge me? Hell yes, and that is what truly counts. Then last nght we all went to the Tavern underneath the hotel and sang karaoke, which was super-awesome, and when I say super-awesome I mean: Comicistas all breaking out into 80s songs awesome. I even got up (I know, I know...with my horrible fear of the stage and attention!) and sang 'No Scrubs', 'What I Like About You', and 'Respect'. Afterwards we went over to a couple of the Alumnae's house and just chilled out which was excellent for getting the true low-down on the school and everybody else around.


Then today we worked with James Kochalka, Alec Longstreth, and Aaron Renier and they took us through diary comics, characters, thumbnails, and pacing. James Kochalka's original "lecture" of the day was...interesting to say the best without stepping on too many toes (However, he did sing us the CCS Fight Song that he made for the program...see pic). My biggest concern with it was really just the fact that it was more of a book-reading versus a discussion on comics-making process, diary comics and what their purpose is (I mean other than a daily application of the comics process is there a real purpose for diary comics?). I really did like the character making exercise he ran us through, but all-in-all I felt that his time there could have been put to better use. On a brighter note Alec and Aaron ran us through the thumbnails and pacing exercises and they were both awesome to be around. Both are extremely gifted artists but at the same time very personable and friendly. In fact next year Alec is going to be doing a CCS Fellowship so he'll be something like an artist-in-residency as he works on his book and I think the program is very lucky to have him around. Following that exercise we all worked on creating two of our own diary comics (1 true, 1 false) and then tomorrow we'll be inking them. After the "day" portion was concluded Steve Bissette pulled out some animation films and we watched a slew of different shorts (including Popeye and Betty Boop, some of my favs) and then we watched Miyazaki's _Nauskiaa of the Valley of the Wind_ which was pretty awesome, but pretty much all Miyazaki is amazing.

So barring some existential crises I am having a great time and will keep y'all updated with more info, pics, and (hopefully!) comics!