The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards are heralded as the "Oscars of the comics industry." This month CCA's MFA in Comics and Writing and Literature faculty member Justin Hall received an Eisner Award nomination for No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics (Fantagraphics Books, 2013), which he edited.
Read the restPosted on Friday, November 30, 2012 by Allison Byers
A comics creator who knows how to milk the fusion of, and tension between, word and image can place us deep inside a character’s head with an immediacy and sensuousness prose writers envy. In comics, style informs substance — physically shapes it to alter our perceptions in intimate ways. Mood and tone don’t emerge over the course of paragraphs and chapters; they’re evident at first glance, infused into the arrangement of panels, thickness of lines and density of detail. We read books; we feel comics.
Read the restPosted on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 by Allison Byers
This year’s Alternative Press Expo (APE) marks its 19th year and it seems the Undead Apocalypse has gone underground. Even this close to San Francisco’s sacred holiday, Halloween, vampires and other miscellaneous undead made nary an appearance in APE’s hallowed halls, which featured the best in alternative, small press, and self-published comics.
Read the restPosted on Wednesday, October 31, 2012 by Allison Byers
Thinking about getting a masters degree but haven’t found the right field? California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco just made it easier, announcing three new graduate programs beginning in 2013, bringing the total number of post-professional offerings to eleven. The trio of curricula includes: a Master of Architecture in Urban Design and Landscape (MAUDL), a MFA in Comics, and a MFA in Film.
Read the restPosted on Monday, October 22, 2012 by Allison Byers
San Francisco, October 22, 2012: California College of the Arts announces the launch of three groundbreaking new graduate programs: the Master of Architecture in Urban Design and Landscape (MAUDL), the MFA in Comics, and the MFA in Film. The MFA in Comics will begin its first classes in summer 2013. The MAUDL program and the MFA in Film welcome their first students in fall 2013. All three begin accepting applications on November 15, 2012, at cca.edu. The deadline to apply is January 5, 2013.
Read the restPosted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 by Allison Byers
In putting together "No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics," cartoonist and teacher Justin Hall has taken a very broad subject matter and managed to condense decades of fiction and nonfiction comics into an impressive, singular work.
Read the restPosted on Wednesday, October 3, 2012 by Allison Byers
Pop Candy reader Matt Silady alerted me to the new M.F.A. in Comics program he helped set up at the California College of the Arts. Let's petition them to grant me an honorary degree so I can start telling people I am a bona fide MASTER OF COMICS.
Read the restPosted on Tuesday, September 18, 2012 by Clay Walsh
The annual Alternative Press Expo (APO), the Bay Area's premiere showcase for independent comics and crafts, returns October 13-14 to the Concourse Exhibition Center (located at 635 8th Street). CCA is proud to take part in the event, where we will be promoting our newest graduate studies program -- the MFA in Comics!
Read the restPosted on Wednesday, July 11, 2012 by Allison Byers
Fantagraphics Books and award-winning cartoonist Justin Hall have produced a definitive collection of the greatest LGBT comics created over the last four decades.
Out superheroes such as Northstar, Batwoman, and Green Lantern’s Alan Scott weren’t always a part of the landscape of comic book characters. Not so long ago even acknowledging the LGBT community was forbidden in the conventional world of comics. That didn’t stop queer cartooning and characters from existing, though.
Read the restPosted on Monday, July 9, 2012 by Rachel Walther
Matt Silady loves teaching, storytelling, and drawing. And as CCA's unofficial "Professor of Comics," he gets to do all three every day. Silady's passion for his job is infectious. It is truly a calling, and it explains why every fall and spring semester course he's ever taught as part of both the college's undergraduate Writing and Literature Program and the MFA Program in Writing has been full to capacity.
"Any day that I can spread the word and show people what comics can do, it's a good day," admits Silady, whose plans are afoot to greatly expand CCA's graduate and undergrad comics curriculum to offer more opportunities to students interested in graphic storytelling.
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