Thursday, April 2, 2020
But Veitch is the first cartoonist laureate to be inaugurated via livestream — and in the middle of a pandemic. The ceremony that usually takes place in the Vermont Statehouse this time foregoes a congratulatory handshake from the governor, and the audience is virtual. A link to the 3 p.m. ceremony is here.
Gov. Phil Scott, of course, is battling the biggest opponent of not just a career but a lifetime: the coronavirus. Even so, he managed to issue a short message to Veitch: "Congratulations, Rick. Your honor is well deserved."
Tags: Center for Cartoon Studies , cartoons , comics , cartoonist laureate , Rick Veitch , Alison Bechdel , Vermont , Web Only , Image
Monday, February 17, 2020
Velour, who graduated from CCS in 2013, became a household name after winning the 2017 season of "RuPaul's Drag Race." In an interview with WCAX-TV after being crowned "America's Next Drag Superstar," Velour told host Darren Perron that her performance career began in White River Junction, when she would dress up to attend "Drag Race" watch parties.
Through her performances, Velour said, she channels her background in cartooning: "I always think about designing a character that would read in a comic book, and then I just get to put it out into the world," she said.
"Cartooning played a crucial role in Sasha Velour's origin story," said James Sturm, cofounder and director of CCS. "She was asked to be the commencement speaker because she is brilliant and inspiring. I don't know what Sasha will say, but I do know that Sasha knows exactly what it feels like to be on the other side of the podium and can speak to the excitement and dread the graduates may be feeling as they leave a tight-knit community to make their way in the world."
Tags: Velour , RuPaul , drag , Center for Cartoon Studies , White River Junction , Web Only
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
If the fire doesn't get you, the water does. That's what the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction learned the hard way last month.
On January 3, when the school was on break, an accidental fire broke out in an apartment over its offices and lab space, in a former department store called the Colodny Building. (CCS' classrooms and extensive library are in a second building, the former post office, just down the street.) The apartment was unoccupied and being worked on when a fire started and was quickly contained.
But not quickly enough to prevent the sprinkler system from doing its job, which was to saturate everything in sight.
Tags: Center for Cartoon Studies , White River Junction , Michelle Ollie , comics , cartoons , flood , fire , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Tags: James Kochalka , Eisner Awards , Johnny Boo , Web Only , Image
Monday, March 19, 2018
The annual gathering is organized by an international committee that includes the administrators of the Graphic Medicine website, along with physicians, artists, writers and scholars.
Tags: Center for Cartoon Studies , White River Junction , Comics and Medicine , Graphic Medicine , James Sturm , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
Next Thursday, April 6, Edward Koren will pass the torch — er, laurels — to his successor, Alison Bechdel, as Vermont Cartoonist Laureate. In a ceremony at the Statehouse, the longtime Bolton resident, creator of the strip "Dykes to Watch Out For," and author of Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic will become the third cartoonist laureate in the only state to regularly appoint one.
The initiative originated with the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, the professional school founded by James Sturm and Michelle Ollie 10 years ago. Bechdel succeeds New Yorker cartoonist and Brookfield resident Koren, who in turn succeeded Vermont's very first cartoonist laureate, James Kochalka of Burlington.
Tags: cartoons , center for cartoon studies , cartoonist laureate , Alison Bechdel , Edward Koren , James Kochalka , Image , Web Only
Saturday, May 9, 2015
This had barely sunk in when Bechdel received news about another award. Only it wasn’t for her or Fun Home. The news came from legendary comic artist Art Spiegelman. Something unprecedented had taken place at the PEN American Center — the New York City-based organization with the mission of advancing literature, defending free expression and fostering international literary fellowship.
The group’s annual gala was scheduled for Tuesday, May 5, at the American Museum of Natural History. One of the evening's highlights was to be the presentation of PEN's Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award to French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Twelve people were killed at that publication's Paris office last January by gunmen in protest of its frequent depictions of the prophet Muhammad.
But at the last minute, six PEN members announced they would boycott the ceremony in protest of the Hebdo honor. Spiegelman stepped in to co-host the event, and asked Bechdel and comic artist Neil Gaiman to join him. They did, along with three authors.
Tags: PEN , alison bechdel , art spiegelman , charlie hebdo , awards , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Forney lives in Seattle and teaches cartooning at that city’s Cornish College of the Arts. As she was packing her suitcase for the trip east, she took a few moments to speak by phone with Seven Days about her work.
SEVEN DAYS: What’s the occasion for your visit to Vermont and New Hampshire?
ELLEN FORNEY: I’ve known [CCS cofounder] James Sturm since he lived in Seattle in ’93. He was the art director of [altweekly] the Stranger, and that was one of my first jobs as a cartoonist/illustrator. When I started teaching at Cornish College for the Arts in 2002, he was a huge help in my putting together my curriculum. And I still haven’t been out there, so I feel like my visit is long overdue.
SD: You said that writing Marbles took a lot out of you. What did you mean by that?
EF: The story of my bipolar disorder was a story I hadn’t really told before Marbles. I wasn’t “out” about my disorder. So, gathering the materials for the book and then putting it out into the world just took a lot of emotional, social and professional energy. I had never done a full book before — most of my work I would consider graphic essays. So even logistically it was new.
Going through a lot of really difficult and often painful experiences, you kind of push those things under the rug as you go on about your life. Delving into them can be very depressing.
Tags: comics , ellen forney , marbles , memoir , center for cartoon studies , cartooning , bipolar disorder , Image , Web Only
Thursday, February 12, 2015
White River Junction is home to two important institutions that, until now, have not formally collaborated: the White River Junction VA Medical Center, and the Center for Cartoon Studies. The school has invited veterans and their families to take part in the Cartoonist Veteran Project, in which CCS students and faculty will help vets to tell their stories in graphical form.
Tags: comics , center for cartoon studies , ccs , veterans , va , white river junction , james sturm , Image , Web Only
Friday, June 6, 2014
Vermont-based cartoonist Alison Bechdel created the long-running comic strip "Dykes to Watch Out For," which was carried by Seven Days and other alt weeklies across the country. Since she left the strip behind, Bechdel has found herself in a larger national spotlight. Her groundbreaking 2007 graphic memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic sat on the New York Times best-seller list for weeks, won or was nominated for numerous awards and met with near-universal raves. The book landed on many a year-end best-of list.
Then it was made into a musical, which closed at the Public Theater in New York last fall after several extensions. That version, too, won popular and critical acclaim — including being named a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in drama.
This week, Bechdel has a two-page first-person spread in the New Yorker — call it a graphic mini memoir? Titled "My Old Flame: Gradual Impact," it's a lesbian love story gone wrong, and a comic gone right.
Look for more work from Bechdel in Seven Days' upcoming Cartoon Issue on July 2.
Tags: the new yorker , alison bechdel , fun home , dykes to watch out for , Image , Web Only