Find Your Voice, Tell Your Story & Witness the Possibilities of Graphic Memoir
Join the SAW Monthly Graphic Memoir + Graphic Medicine Intensive Working Group Today
You Have an Important Story to Tell
Wherever you are in the process the Graphic Memoir + Graphic Medicine Intensive Workshop Group has been supporting Creators just like you since November 2017 to -
- Explore New Perspectives;
- Receive Indepth Feedback;
- Stay Accountable;
- Build Structure;
- Find Direction;
- Develop a Regular Creative Practice;
- Work Alongside Fellow Graphic-Memoirists;
- Grow Through Mentorship.
Together #1 New York Times bestselling cartoonist, Tom Hart, and mystery novelist-memoirist-graphic memoirist, Beth Trembley, have taught hundreds of students with 50+ years of combined teaching experience in schools, colleges and community settings. This course brings together their wisdom, curiosity and excitement for personal story telling through comics.
"It wasn't until I began to create my own graphic memoir that I began to realize the deep riches that came with telling my story in words and pictures, not just words alone." - Beth
Each Week in the Graphic Memoir + Graphic Medicine Intensive Workshop Group Looks Different
We tailor exercises and discussions according to the needs of the group or even individuals.
It may be that some people need guided exercises and others want discussions and feedback. Both are always accommodated.
This group has been dynamic, rich, supportive and super-interesting.
Want to see what real people are like? Want to see real people telling their stories? Want to tell your own? Want to make your graphic memoir come alive?
This group will focus and inspire you. Let's make your story happen!
Join our private Mighty Network group and you'll get instant access to an abundance of materials and wisdom from Beth, Tom, guest cartoonists and fellow-creators.
Discover Beth's Wisdom for Yourself in Her Forthcoming Graphic Memoir
'Look Again' by Elizabeth Trembley is the story of walking her dogs in the woods, and finding a dead body.
Trauma can make truth hard to find. Have you ever experienced a terror, grief, or confusion so great that when you try to share it you can only find shattered images floating in darkness? You try over and over, but can’t tell the story, to yourself or to anyone else.
'Look Again' presents us with six variations of the same event, seen through the different lenses caused by other life revelations. It explores the fragmenting nature of trauma by tracing the convoluted evolution of the author’s story, a process often experienced by trauma sufferers and their loved ones.
Trauma can make truth hard to find. Have you ever experienced a terror, grief, or confusion so great that when you try to share it you can only find shattered images floating in darkness? You try over and over, but can’t tell the story, to yourself or to anyone else.
'Look Again' presents us with six variations of the same event, seen through the different lenses caused by other life revelations. It explores the fragmenting nature of trauma by tracing the convoluted evolution of the author’s story, a process often experienced by trauma sufferers and their loved ones.
Tom wrote the book on Graphic Memoir
"My book, The Art of the Graphic Memoir was years in the making, and began here at SAW. In this group, we go beyond, WAAAYYY beyond the book, into powerful, deep exercises and conversations about how to turn life into art (and vice versa)."
Making Comics and Community Accessible
At SAW we believe that everyone should have access to quality arts education. We offer our courses at a sliding scale. Paying what you can afford helps others pay what they can afford, thanks!
Want to pay something other than what is listed below? Contact Tom at tom at sequentialartistsworkshop dot org
Find Out More About Our Instructors
STAY INSPIRED
Tom Hart is a cartoonist has been the Executive Director of The Sequential Artists Workshop, a school and arts organization in Gainesville, Florida since 2012.
His 2016 memoir, Rosalie Lightning, debuted at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List and was featured on many Best-Of-2016 lists.
His Hutch Owen series of graphic novels and books, were nominated for all the major industry awards. His The Collected Hutch Owenwas nominated for best graphic novel in 2000. He was an early recipient of a Xeric Grant for self-publishing cartoonists, and has been on many best-of lists in the Comics Journal and other comix publications. He has been called “One of the great underrated cartoonists of our time” by Eddie Campbell and “One of my favorite cartoonists of the decade” by Scott McCloud. His daily Hutch Owen comic strip ran for 2 years in newspapers in New York and Boston, and his “Ali’s House”, co-created with Margo Dabaie was picked up by King Features Syndicate.
He was a core instructor at New York City’s School of Visual Arts for 10 years, teaching cartooning to undergraduates, working adults and teens alike. Among his students were Dash Shaw, Sarah Glidden Box Brown and other published cartoonists like Leslie Stein, Jessica Fink,Josh Bayer, Brendan Leachand many others. He has taught comix and sequential art at schools and institutions all around New York City for more than 10 years, and has conducted week-long workshops from Maine to Hawaii. He also teaches sequential art in the School of Art and Art History at UF.
His website is http://www.tomhart.net
Find Out More About Our Instructors
Elizabeth Trembley, Ph.D, is the creator of the graphic memoir, Look Again (Street Noise Books, 2022). She is also a Lambda Literary Award-winning mystery novelist and writing teacher of more than three decades.
Beth views her role as helping students increase the power of their stories. She believes that people often psych themselves out wondering "who would ever want to read this?" about their work. She knows that if you really want to be read by others, you need to understand how to shape a story to showcase your authentic insights. Knowing the basics helps you innovate, and writing to be read by others will help you create a more diverse and just world.
Beth trained in literature and in innovation and creativity in places as diverse as the University of Chicago and Disney University. Through her classes, hundreds of students have drafted their first novels, explored digital storytelling, crafted personal essays, and reflected on their lives through memoir, both in prose and in comics. You can learn more about her at https://elizabethtrembley.com
F.A.Q.
So there are two URLs for this course?
Yes, the course materials, are here:
https://learn.sawcomics.org/courses/graphic-memoir-working-group/
and the conversation is on our own Mighty Network (join the public space here: https://sequential-artists-workshop.mn.co/feed ).
The private URL will be given to you upon sign-up
It looks like a ton of material there. How do we go through it?
Yes, there is lots!
We'll excavate slowly!
You can browse at any time you feel like a particular topic is what you need. You can always ask about anything in the class, but more common is that I will point to particular materials there, and have some or all of you take a look and work on the topics therein.
Is there overlap with the self-guided Graphic Memoir mini-course?
Yes, much of what is there is here also. As well as some materials from Comics for Writers and materials from all across the SAW world.
But there is tons of nuts-and-bolts stuff not in the Graphic Memoir mini-course course, and this course gives you access to our private community...
What if we're all at different levels or stages of our project? How does that work?
It works great! I find this is a lot like a dojo; the experienced students get to deepen their understanding by guiding and assisting others, and those in beginning stages learn from a lot of collective wisdom!
What will you have us be doing?
The main thing is working on Sequences. Always creating sequences in combinations of words and pictures, and evaluating how they are working.
As we do this, we will be trying new techniques, or bringing new understandings to each week's sequences. For instance, one week, we might focus on tone of voice, or we might focus on staying silent, or on body language or page composition or lettering. Other times we may take a step back and look at structuring our sequences.
There are always any number of options to enliven our sequences for the week, but these assignments are just for people who want to bend towards their work in a new way.
The main thing we should always be doing is moving forward on our stories the way that makes the most sense to us. My aim is to guide you that way.
What if I don't subscribe next month?
You have access to the materials AND the Mighty Network Community by continuing to be a subscriber.
The price always be sliding scale. And you can change what you pay any month.
You will be removed from the Mighty Network when you're not subscribed; but you can rejoin and still have all your old posts available...
Sliding Scale? What Does That Mean?
It means you pay what you can afford. You have the same access as everyone else. Thanks for paying what you can afford!
Does Tom Hart really post and comment in the group?
Yes, this is me! And the Graphic Memoir Group is the main social media in my life. It is deeply rewarding. I post and comment in this group almost daily, as well as in the Comics Flow Group, and to some degree the rest of our Mighty Network as much as I can be... I have no time for other social media!
Any more questions? Feel free to ask tom@sequentialartistsworkshop.org
Thanks for being on this first adventure with me!
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