We’re honored to have had Tessa Hulls as a guest speaker, sharing her history with comics, the process behind Feeding Ghosts, and more!

Per her publisher's website: Carol Tyler is one of the most enduring cartoonists of her generation. Debuting with the short story ""Un-Covered Property"" in Weirdo in 1987, she went on to contribute to other anthologies of the era like Street Music, Twisted Sisters, Wimmens Comix, Drawn & Quarterly, and Zero Zero.

Fred Noland's specialty is visual storytelling, whether in animation, comics, or illustration. Noland’s comics have appeared in the New Yorker, Popula and the East Bay Express. His illustrations have appeared in LA Weekly, Nickelodeon Jr., Xbox Magazine, Revolver, Canoe & Kayak and more. He was the chief artist on the animated short series “Priced Out” which has been shown world-wide. His graphic novel biography about turn-of-the-century champion cyclist Major Taylor is scheduled for release from Drawn & Quarterly in 2025.

David Lasky is the creator of Boom Boom, Urban Hipster, Don’t Forget This Song, and more.

He has worked as an artist, colorist, co-writer, and teacher for many years. Lasky moved to Seattle in the early 90s, soon becoming part of a circle of young self-publishing cartoonists like Ed Brubaker, Jason Lutes, Jon Lewis, Megan Kelso, and Tom Hart. In 1993 he received a Xeric Grant to self-publish Boom Boom, which pushed the boundaries of comics, blending graphic form with history and surreal cartography. Throughout his career Lasky worked to revitalize over- and under-used comics genres and tropes with the spirit of early alternative comix. Lasky won an Eisner Award for Don’t Forget This Song, a graphic biography of The Carter Family, and has been nominated for multiple Ignatz Awards.

Eisner-nominees Jess Ruliffson and Tom Hart discuss how to pitch your book—and what to do when you get a deal! Learn about finding a literary agent and pitching to Big Five publishers; setting realistic expectations and boundaries around deadlines and money; and processing all the big feelings that come with publishing your graphic novel.

This week we talked about navigating social media to promote your work and make money as a cartoonist—from networking and building your audience, to avoiding burnout and fielding harsh feedback.

The internet can be a lovely way to connect with friends and family, make new connections, support fellow cartoonists, and publish your comics. There are great benefits to serializing a webcomic or routinely sharing your work.

But social media can also be a source of pressure, discouragement, and creative doubt.

Do you need to move to NYC and gain a million followers on Instagram to be a commercially successful artist? Do you have to work tirelessly on gaming the algorithm to get your work seen? Do you have to monetize your comics at all?

Read on (or listen in) for answers to questions like these and more!

Tom Hart is the founder of The Sequential Artists Workshop and the subject of our beta test of the 90s Mini-Comic Oral History Archives.

He is the creator of Hutch Owen, Love Looks Left, Wodaabe and many mini-comics in the 90s and after. He is also the NY Times #1 best-selling author of a graphic memoir about his daughter, Rosalie Lightning…

See SAW Comics updates from Feb 1 to Feb 11, 2024

Episode 3 - On Early Drafts

We had THREE topics that were somewhat braided together:

1. A thought Jess had: Become more interested in DOING what you're doing than KNOWING what you're doing.

2. A quote I wrote down: "I often find myself writing long meandering first drafts, that drift around a bit before settling down into a state of baffling indecision." - George Saunders

The Terrible Anvil: Episode 2 - Lean into the worst. In the Comics FLOW + PUBLISH group we asked around: how do you lean in when the going gets weird? What parts are EXTRA UNFUN, and how do you navigate it?

We spoke on all these topics, as well as the role of ritual and community in answering these three questions. We cooked up ideas on how to make a home there in the ruins, being okay with badly-drawn hands, what to embrace when we're working.

Our next Pro-Call is with Tessa Hulls! Come join us in our most affordable, online ongoing-community SAW FLOW + PUBLISH MEMBERSHIP GROUP (comes with a two-week free trial) to join in on MONTHLY PRO-CALLS!

We bring in comic professionals from all walks of life to guest speak (virtually) at SAW. These guest speakers give SAW students/members some insight from their personal experiences throughout their comics career and welcome questions at the end of each session. Come join us!

Welcome friends to 2024 at SAW! And a very special welcome to our friends here in Gainesville (I hope we’ll be seeing you in the space very soon!)

For folks who aren’t familiar with me, my name’s Emma, I’m the Assistant Director here at SAW. Since 2019 I’ve been helping founder, Tom, shape SAW across in person and online programs.

Your Idea(s) Will Change Over Time

Nail down some thoughts on paper or a napkin. Everything counts. Gather everything together and look at it. What are the napkins telling you that you don't know? Sometimes we project a structure onto something early on that falls away later in service of the narrative. That is normal and good!