In early 2027, I will be teaching 5-week Graphic Storytelling Workshops to small groups via Zoom. All adult students are welcome, and no artistic training is required, or expected. Look below for descriptions of my first two workshops, and please reach out if you’d like to join us or if you want more information. (johndermotwoods@gmail.com)

Graphic Storytelling: One Story, from Beginning to End

After working with students for years, I’ve come to believe that everyone can write, and everyone can draw. We just need the right environment and community to let our stories come forth.

We will enter the workshop, each holding a blank slate. At the end of five weeks, we will have completed a full story using words and images. It may be a comic, an illustrated essay, a collage poem, or something brand new. I will give you exercises to generate ideas and each week we will have concrete goals to bring our stories one step closer to finished. After five weeks, each student will have a complete work to share.

As with all of my workshops, no artistic training or experience is required.

Sample Readings: Ivan Brunetti, Gabrielle Bell, Ursula K. LeGuin, Paul Karasik and Mark Newgarden

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Keeping a Sketchbook: Graphic Storytelling Generator

For five weeks we will establish a practice of drawing in our sketchbooks every day. We will consider what we’ve included and, more importantly, what we’ve left out. What are we revealing and what are we inventing? What did we draw and what did we write? Eventually, we’ll consider how a sketchbook page might evolve into a comic, a story, an essay. Not only will you leave the workshop full of ideas, but you’ll have acquired a new daily habit of making art.

As with all of my workshops, no artistic training or experience is required.

Sample Readings: Lynda Barry, Richard McGuire, Emil Ferris, Chris Ware, Italo Calvino

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What to Expect in my Workshops

We’re going to draw. We’re going to write. And we’re going to talk about it. We’re going to discover stories we didn’t know we had in us, and we’re going to find news ways to tell those stories, using words and pictures.

I begin my workshops by offering my students challenges, and then I follow their lead as to where the lesson or course might take us. Each week, students will share their work, and together we’ll take our time discussing where we might go next, and how each of us can get there.

My Teaching Experience

For two decades, I’ve been a Professor of English and Creative Writing at SUNY Nassau Community College, where I’ve been presented the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for both my teaching and my published creative work. As the Viebranz Visiting Writer at Saint Lawrence University, I began developing my workshop in Graphic Storytelling, and I’ve refined it over the years, both in my full-time classrooms, by teaching masterclasses to both MFA and undergraduate students. I see my online Graphic Storytelling workshops as the culmination of my experience as a teacher.

MASTER CLASSES

I often teach workshops on graphic storytelling and comics at universities and other arts organizations. I’ve developed both single-session and longer master classes, open to all students, regardless of artistic training. (I always ask my audiences to pick up a pen or pencil.) If you’re interested in bringing me to your campus or institution, please feel free to contact me.