by Matthew Russell - Posted 4 years ago
Welcome, my CryptoComic Compatriots! So glad your back. In part 1 of the 2 part series; Education in Comics, we covered some pretty important topics about college. Some might find it a little controversial when I said that college isn’t for everyone. As an educator, I strangely even suggested that you could make a living without the need for college.
After that blog post, some might be disheartened because we went into detail about cost and such. Please don’t freak out. In this we will talk about some of the best colleges you can go to in order to master the craft.
We will not be discussing schools such as the Center for Cartoon Studies, as they are an uncredited school. This means that, no matter how good they are, you will not receive a degree that anyone will look at as valid. Even their Master’s Degree in Fine Arts, doesn’t count, unfortunately. This has no bearing on the quality of education. It just means that they, for whatever reason, did not take the necessary steps to ensure the quality of education.
These school are the old school (pardon the pun) schools where you have to get in the classroom every day.
If you are going to go to school strictly for comics, topping the list should always be the Kubert School of Cartooning and Graphic Art. This 3-year technical school is located in New Jersey. If you’re a comic fan, the name alone should explain why you should go there.
Founded in 1976, this school has a reputation for being challenging and impressively connected to the comic industry. It was founded by the comic legend Joe Kubert himself from the DC Comics Sgt Rock fame. Just don’t let the fact that it is in New Jersey change your mind.
Can we talk about the name for a minute? Max the Mutt!?! Well, this is a great school in our neighbors to the north (assuming you live in the continental US). Max the Mutt Animation school has a very impressive 4 year program in Illustration & Storytelling For Sequential Arts.
Located in Toronto Canada, this school even has an immigration program on their site. Not only does this school offer an impressive and challenging art course, but their creative writing and script courses are also nothing to shake a stick at. Color me impressed (and yes they have a course on that too).
The School of Visual Arts located on 23rd Street in New York City is such an impressive school. The quality of students that graduate from there is truly impressive.
A friend of mine and comic creator went there but warned me of their political views. Apparently, the indoctrination into their ideology is pretty steep and permeates almost every class. That being said, they do offer a top-notch education and present so many new design and conceptual concepts, I can’t speak highly enough about them.
This one is rather different. It is one of the education chains you will see. They have campuses located all across the country in Miami, Tampa, Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, VA Beach, Pittsburgh, Boston, Portland, Chicago, and more. The Seattle school was closed after 73 years in 2019.
They offer so many degrees in anything artistic relation. From Culinary Arts to costume design.
For those that either don’t want to venture outside too far due to COVID-19, or you can’t afford things like housing in New York City while also paying for school, there is the online degree.
My neighbors just got a Master’s Degree, due to the fact that as soon as the national shut down happened, she didn’t want to get bored while staying at home. Yep, she got it that quick.
This is my old alma mater. I attended the Art Institute of Pittsburg. It was recently (2019) closed for good, but the Art Institute still offers their online degrees through the other colleges.
I love this school. There are times even I wish I went there. The Academy of Art University is such an impressive school. One thing that is truly unparalleled is their Clothed Figure Drawing with an emphasis of the wrinkles of various materials so you can truly see what is underneath it all. Check out their Graphic Design Course found here.
Don’t worry, it’s not the country Columbia. The Columbia College located in Columbia, MO has an amazing Bachelor’s Degree program in Fine Arts. Some of my favorite artists have studied there and it is amazing. I have been on several virtual tours of the campus and have had hundreds of chats with them concerning their curriculum.
Once again, college might not be for everyone, so, if you just want to sharpen your skills, polish up your portfolio and learn a little bit on the side, here are some low-cost options for you. Before you sign up for any of these, you might want to check with your current boss, as many businesses have accounts with these places in order to help offset the cost of training their employees.
I love me some Skillshare. I was first introduced to it through YouTube sponsorships. Not on our channel, but on some channels that I follow. There were so many of them that would offer 2 months free. I decided to take advantage of this and
I was so glad that I did this. In my first 2 months, I had a blast and the online instructors were very knowledgeable. It was a shame that I couldn’t get a degree from it, as the course instruction was so well laid out.
This place is now LinkedIn Learning. I use this in my own classroom due to the fact that the certifications can be placed directly on my student’s LinkedIn account. I have had many students get job offers directly from this.
Our local public library has a program where you can get this for free if you have a free library card. If you plan on going to college, you should check out these courses first. Believe me, they will help. Check out the full Lynda catalog and also check to see how you can get these courses free.
Udemy Online Learning is a little different from SkillSare and LinkedIn Learning. In this instance, you pay for a single course. Once you own it, you may take it as many times as you would like. With reasonable rates of about $15 per course, it can be a fun quick, easy way to both pass the time and improve your own skills.
One of my personal favorites is Udemy's Ultimate Drawing Course from Beginner to Advanced. It is a pretty cool course to get your feet wet with online learning.
Well, that’s all the time we have today folks. You should have enough information concerning the various schools and online platforms to make an informed decision. Now all that’s left is creating comics in order to help pay for college.
In order to do this, head over to the CryptoComics Marketplace and submit your own comic. Let it be sold on the blockchain and receive a residual income. Also, build a fanbase so when you are finally ready to hit it, professionally, you already have an impressive portfolio and following.
