So, you’re thinking to teach an after-school comics program, try your hand with teaching comics within your class, any kind of setting. I put together some links and notes that might be helpful. (This was originally created for a former student who reached out for advice, and I expand on it periodically).

Everything I do in my classes is accessible from this page: spinweaveandcut.com/education-home/. My education links page should prove useful for arguing why you should be doing this, as will some other pages. Definitely check out the Comic Book Project –  comicbookproject.org. And on this part of my site, you can find a workshop I did for teachers where I went into detail on all the activities with examples. See the guided comics workshop here.

Some books on comics I’d recommend:

  • Matt Madden & Jessica Abel’s Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, and Mastering Comics, also Matt Madden 99 Ways to Tell a Story
  • Scott McCloud Understanding Comics & Making Comics. Maybe Will Eisner Comics & Sequential Art
  • Lynda Barry’s Syllabus, Making Comics, and Picture This, and Ivan Brunett’s Cartooning: Philosophy & Practice
  • For working with younger kids Jess Smart Smiley’s Let’s Make Comics, Ivan Brunetti/Toon Books Comics: Easy as ABC, Usborne Write & Draw Your Own Comics
  • Resources on Making Comics from MoMA

Non-Comics books that I draw on heavily in my teaching and workshops

  • Molly Bang “Picture This” (indispensable for educators)
  • Rudolph Arnheim “Visual Thinking,” “Art and Visual Perception”
  • Mike Rohde “Sketchnote Handbook”
  • Lakoff & Johnson “Metaphors We Live By,” “Philosophy in the Flesh”

Some resources on teaching with comics from American English