» My Name Is Impossible To Know by Liyao Liao

The history behind my Chinese name and the hopes it carries

» We Remain: Stories of Indonesian American Experiences edited by Monica Chiu

A new book illustrates Indonesian-American stories.

✨All of our classes and workshops are online and sliding scale.✨

» Building a Sketchbook Practice with Anna Sellheim: In this four-week class, we’ll build a sketchbook practice that actually sticks. By the end, you’ll have a sketchbook that feels genuinely useful and the tools to keep it going long after class is over. Wednesdays, August 5th – August 26th, 4pm-6pm PST/7-9pm EST.

» Advanced Graphic Storytelling with Sanika Phawde: For this in-depth, six-week class on creating compelling graphic narratives, Sanika will walk participants through building a big project from an idea to the pencilling stage, with a focus on finding the core of a story and pacing a comic to express its emotional beats. Thursdays, September 3rd – October 8th, 4pm-6pm PST/7-9pm EST.

» In Graphic Detail with Mel Gillman: Spooooky comics! In this four-week course about writing and drawing horror comics, students learn about topics like tension building, creating strong narrative surprises, creature design, and horror character building and character arcs. Tuesdays, October 6th – October 27th, 4pm-6pm PST/7-9pm EST

Upcoming One-Off Workshops 

» Intro to digital drawing with Procreate: Want to get into drawing digitally? Or maybe you’re a seasoned Procreate user looking for some new tips and tricks? This beginner-friendly workshop with Audra McNamee will go over a basic comics-making workflow in Procreate. Monday, August 3rd from 4-6pm PST/7-9pm EST

→ Check out all of our upcoming classes

Five Indie Comics That Became Films Worth Watching

For summer movie season, we’re highlighting five indie comics that have film adaptations. Big blockbuster adaptations of  Marvel and DC comics get all the money and attention, but a few indie comics have been turned into cult classic films. 

• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - Arguably one of the most iconic comic adaptations is Edgar Wright’s raucous 2010 adaptation of the sweet supernatural series by Bryan Lee O’Malley. Twenty-something Scott Pilgrim must defeat a league of seven evil exes before he is allowed to officially date his crush Ramona Flowers. 

• Tank Girl - Rachel Talalay directed this 1995 adaptation of Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin punk action/comedy set in an anarchistic future Australian hellscape. Tank Girl was widely panned when it was released, but over time, fans have come around to delight in this absolutely absurd, wild ride of a film, wherein a team of badmouth outlaw eccentrics devise a plan to destroy the dystopian local government. 

• Nimona - Artist ND Stevenson started writing and drawing his comic about a spunky, shape-shifting antihero on Tumblr, gaining a huge fanbase for the story’s artistic strength and its queer themes. A decade later, Netflix turned ND’s sharp-witted story into an animated film that overflows with both humor and emotion.  

• Persepolis - A stunning feat of animation and storytelling, the 2009 adaptation of the late Marjane Satrapi’s groundbreaking graphic memoir was directed by Satrapi herself, alongside Vincent Paronnaud. Incredibly moving, insightful, and funny, the film discusses Satrapi’s perspective on growing up in Iran during the 1970s, as well as her journey into adulthood and becoming an artist. 

• Robot Dreams - Pablo Berger’s 2023 adaptation of Sara Varon’s whimsical and deeply emotional children’s graphic novel is a beautiful feat of visual storytelling. A film with absolutely no spoken dialogue, the story follows a lonely dog’s friendship with a robot companion. The audience is left with big feelings about the importance and possibilities of love and friendship. 

One Question for Nate Powell 

Bloomington-based artist Nate Powell is best known for his ambitious work on the National Book Award-winning nonfiction series March. But the prolific artist is the creator of an unknown number of comic books. During his artist talk with Crucial in July, Nate put the number “between 20 and 70” depending on how you define a “book.” Here’s Nate (whose newest graphic novel Diana debuts in the fall) talking about how he works well by bouncing between two projects at the same time. 

How many projects are you working on at one time? 

NATE POWELL: Usually it’s two—one fiction and one non-fiction book at a time. Having two projects at once really helps each project enrich the other. I like the buzz that comes with bouncing back and forth a bit between a couple of projects. In general, I'm a long-form comics maker. Most of my stuff is, like, roughly 200 pages each. But I love having a side quest. People outside of comics, I think, don't fully get that comics just take forever to do. For the amount of time in which you can read a comic, it takes like 200 times as long to make the comic. For me, it works to bounce back and forth between this long and short form work. That really helps keep me from drowning in a sea of despair, like, Sisyphus rolling the rock up the hill every day and having it roll back down, or whatever. There are a lot of Jedi mind tricks involved with keeping your sanity and staying on top of your work, because it takes forever and nobody's really there to tell you, “You're doing a great job, buddy.” 

→ Watch Nate’s full talk on our Patreon 

Festivals now open to apply: Seattle’s absolutely perfect festival Short Run has applications open until July 31 and delightful St. Louis festival SLICE has extended applications until July 22. 

Calling all Gen Z Cartoonists! Kuš! is publishing an anthology of comics themed around the Gen Z experience by Gen Z cartoonists, with a deadline of August 1 and all guidelines found here.

Are you a Canadian cartoonist with a book pitch? Inservice Comics are currently accepting graphic novel pitches from new, emerging, AND established storytellers! The call closes on August 31, so get your pitches in now!

The Monograph is seeking single panel comics on a rolling deadline! Humor, wit, profound, surreal- they’re accepting submissions for single panel comics of all tones, so get drawing!

Looking to publish a graphic novel? Dirty Water Comics wants to read your work! They are currently accepting submissions on a rolling basis, and are particularly looking for genre-defying work. Send them your stuff ASAP!

This newsletter was written by Skye Zufelt and Shay Mirk. Crucial Comix is supported in part by our backers on Patreon and by the Sequential Artists Workshop.