• Emily Bazelon and Erica Heilman in Conversation: CCS teams with Dartmouth College for annual Eisner Lecture

    Each year, the Center for Cartoon Studies and Dartmouth College host the Will and Ann Eisner Lecture, a public presentation by artists and storytellers at the top of their craft. This year’s event involved a conversation between two storytellers working in journalism and podcasts, Erica Heilman (Rumblestrip) and Emily Bazelon (NYT Magazine, Slate Political Gabfest).…

  • The Vermont Statehouse Presents: Applied Cartooning

    The Center for Cartoon Studies was invited to present an evening of comics and applied cartooning for the Farmer’s Night series at the Vermont Statehouse. This is a weekly tradition that goes back over 100 years, bringing mid-week entertainment to lawmakers during the legislative session. Michelle Ollie, cofounder and president of CCS, and cartoonist Dan…

  • The Humanities and Mass Incarceration 

    In March, the Applied Cartooning Lab was invited as a community partner (thank you, VT Humanities) to attend a special national convening, Inside & Out: The Humanities and Mass Incarceration. The Lab is currently developing a public education campaign about mass incarceration, so this was an ideal opportunity to deepen our understanding of the subject.…

  • Queer Joy Collective Zine Workshop 

    Earlier this February, Shay Mirk, the 2023-24 Applied Cartooning Fellow, led a Queer Friendship Making Zine workshop hosted by Queer Joy Collective. Here’s a dispatch from Sebastian Crissey, the Collective’s co-director: “Bringing together queer youth from across the country to attend this virtual workshop provided a space for us to not only create but also…

  • Global Health & Applied Cartooning

    Working with the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, the Applied Cartooning Lab partnered with global health researchers, including the African Academy for Public Health (AAPH) and University of Dodoma (UDOM), to translate a page of Let’s Talk About It, A Graphic Guide To Mental Health into Swahili to be shared in a workshop of ten…

  • Teaching Applied Cartooning @ CCS 

    The Applied Cartooning Lab is housed within the larger academic program of the Center for Cartoon Studies, where MFA, certificate, and workshop students develop storytelling and visual communication skills across a range of classes. Within the current MFA/Certificate program, students have many opportunities to build applied cartooning skills. First year students are given an in-depth…

  • James Sturm discusses CCS, Applied Cartooning, and new book in career-spanning profile

    Seven Days published a cover story on James Sturm’s career, with a focus on his role cofounding CCS, launching the Applied Cartooning Lab, and his recent adaptation of Watership Down with Joe Sutphin. From the profile:  In October, the center christened its Applied Cartooning Lab, where students and faculty work with outside organizations on mission-driven, community-based nonfiction comics,…

  • ACL to Exhibit at the Nonfiction Comics Fest

    The Applied Cartooning Lab will be tabling at the Nonfiction Comics Fest in Burlington, and we’ll have all our graphic guides on hand (and staffed by AC Lab director James Sturm). Come say hi! This year’s poster was made by the Applied Cartooning Lab contributor and CCS Faculty member Dan Nott. The Fest’s special guests…

  • “Hidden Systems” Longlisted for a National Book Award

    Hidden Systems: Water, Electricity, the Internet, and the Secrets Behind the System We Use Every Day, a debut nonfiction graphic novel by Dan Nott, was Longlisted for a National Book Award in Young People’s Literature. You can read the announcement at The New Yorker.  Dan is in involved in many Applied Cartooning projects, including as…

  • Mental Health Comic: Fall Update

    This fall over 8000 copies of a newly updated edition of Let’s Talk About It, A Graphic Guide to Mental Health are being given away at comic book shops throughout the country thanks to a partnership with Diamond Comics Distributors. Copies of the comic and the guide’s creator, Cara Bean were also on hand for this…