Cartooning for Kids @ Concession Library

Cartooning for Kids @ Concession Library (Aug. 6/08).

A few days ago, I received some photos from my cartooning session at Concession Library on August 6th (previously announced). I'm happy to say that the room was jammed pack with over 25 budding young cartoonists ... All who were eager to draw for over an hour non-stop!!

Needless to say, the session flew by as we started with funny cartoon faces, drew some Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny hands, created enormously tall giants with a perspective drawing activity, and finished with a little bit of animation magic!

Very, very fun, but *PHEW!*

I do apologize to those who were left on the waiting list!! The feedback from library staff (and kids) has been extremely positive, so hopefully we'll be able to fit some more seating at a future session ... Stay TOONed here for details :)

A budding cartoonist draws a GIANT giant (Photo courtesy of The Hamilton Public Library).

A special thanks to all of the staff at Concession Library, who took care of all the preparations including registrations and room furnishing. I look forward to cartooning with you again!

Stay TOONed!

- Mike Cope

Time Flies When ... (A Summer Projects Update)

There's no doubt about it ... Time flies when you're having fun!

I just loaded my blog and realized that I haven't posted for almost a month, so I thought I'd share a few details about some of the cartooning-related projects that have been keeping me busy this summer ...

(1) Net Trekkers Comic

First up, we have Net Trekkers -- an exciting new comic series that I'm illustrating for a monthly publication called Canadian Reader (published by LesPlan Educational Services, Ltd.).

Net Trekkers - New comic feature for Canadian Reader (www.lesplan.com).

I apologize for teasing you with such a tiny sample, but this material will not be officially released until the September issue of Canadian Reader is published. What I can tell you right now is that Net Trekkers is a blend of comic book storytelling with an educational twist (written by fellow Canadian, Vivien Bowers).

Whoever said 'learning can't be fun' was extremely mistaken!

LesPlan Educational Services, Ltd. (the company I'm working with on this project) is based in Victoria, British Columbia. They've been providing lesson plans/resource materials to schools across Canada since 1990. For those who may be interested, individual schools subscribe to Canadian Reader as a whole, meaning all of the school's teaching staff is permitted to photocopy and use any of its content (ex. Net Trekkers) in their classrooms. This is a big bonus because teachers don't need to worry about copyright permissions -- Permission is included with your subscription!

Each month, students can join the Net Trekkers (Christopher, Patrick, and Lily) as they literally travel to different places across Canada via their 'unusual' laptop computer. In their first adventure, the kids are transported to a giant freighter traveling on The Great Lakes.

Sample panel from Net Trekkers (September 2008).

Being a cartoonist, I really wish something like this was around when I was a kid!

In an up-coming post, I hope to share more about Net Trekkers, including some sneak peaks on how I've been preparing this comic for both English and French translations. It's kinda neat because this is my first time doing such work!

(2) Website Designing

This week, I'm putting the final touches on a new website I've been designing for fellow cartoonist and talented musician, Roy Schneider (Fort Meyers, Florida). Roy is the creator of The Humble Stumble comic strip (currently syndicated as 'classics' online via United Media's Comics.com).

Since retiring his comic strip back in March, Roy has been focussing his creative energies on his music career, and so, it was high time we revamped his website. The following is a little snippet of what his new website will look like ...

A sneak peak snippet of the new ROYSCHNEIDER.COM.

There's a working version of the website already online, but since we'll be making a few more tweaks and adding some additional graphics this week, I'll post a quick announcement when the final site is ready.

(3) New Book Coming Soon!

Last, but not least, I have a new book coming soon that may interest cartoonists and comic strip fans alike entitled "The Last of the Funnies."

It's been a "work-in-progress" for a little over a year now, but it's now in the final stages of production and will (hopefully) be available for ordering online in the next few weeks.

More to come about this (and other projects) very soon!

Stay TOONed!

-Mike Cope