Teaching comics creation
Via Johanna, the Whitney Center in Harrisburgh, PA is holding a special event on March 3 from 10 AM to 3 PM called Kids Love Comic Day, featuring presentations by Jane Fisher-Smith (WJHC), Jimmy Gownley (Amelia Rules!), Harold Bucholz (Apathy Kat) and John Gallagher (Buzzboy). Featured programs include a number of hands-on workshops and Gownley’s launch of a new Amelia Rules book.
And ComicMix colleague Mark Wheatley writes to say he’ll be teaching a class on March 24 at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Here’s the official course listing (scroll down to "Illustrating Graphic Novels"), but Mark has a much more complete and intriguing description below, and adds cryptically, "I have been approached by a media instruction company about committing this event to a DVD package for sale. But that’s probably news for another day."
I’m a pretty simple guy. I see clear distinctions between right and wrong, good and evil, love and hate and Republican and Democrat. In this age of political correctness and doing the right thing I don’t make decisions because they’re popular. I make decisions because I think something is right. 
At my age (insert obligatory “hey you kids, get out of my store!, what do you think this is, a reading room?” here) the blasts from the past seem to blow with ever increasing frequency and velocity. I’m used to various elements of my past circling back on me, as my forays into pop culture hobbies always seem to result in intersecting circles of friends and acquaintances. A number of the same people who used to write for 
Back in a previous life I was a very struggling actor in Chicago. One summer I was working with a small troupe that, among other things, did children’s plays outdoors and in various venues. This particular show we were doing was called Wiley and the Hairy Man, based upon a children’s book. I played the Hairy Man – a swamp-man/boogeyman – and, while I kept getting chased offstage by the Wiley in the title, my character kept sneaking back in. It was not a part of particular subtlety but it did require some finesse. I was the monster in a children’s play which meant I couldn’t be too scary; just enough to produce the tinglies and a lot of laughs.
