DC’s ‘Birds of Prey’ writer Gail Simone launches Comic School, a 5-day online course on how to create comics
Comic books writer Gail Simone, who has been a writer on ‘Deadpool’ for Marvel, and ‘Birds of Prey’ for DC, announced on Twitter on Friday, March 13, that she would be teaching people online lessons on how to make comics.
Calling the experiment “Comic School”, Simone wrote on Twitter, “I don't care what your politics are, or your talent level or background. Everyone is welcome provided they are open to learn and won't be critical of others participating. (If you are CG or whatever and want to participate, have someone ask to unblock you, and please behave).”
She further said, “So I ask a couple [of] things in return. 1) Come in blank, with no prepared ideas, ready to start from scratch. 2) Be open-minded, and understand that everyone does this a little differently.”
Talking further about this experiment, that she said would last five days, Simone wrote, “This is going to be incredibly exciting. And even people who have done this a bit may find some useful information. It's not going to be a one-way street, I'm not a professor. But I have some tools that can help. What you get out of it is up to you.”
She added that this experiment “should give you access to some useful skills and knowledge in an interesting, creative way,” and asked people to “come in open-minded, don't critique or judge others unless specifically requested to, don't devolve the process into arguments”. She said, “At the end, you will have something to be proud of and some new practical knowledge.”
She asked participants to not tell her their ideas, and said that they don't have to know her work or even like her work to participate: “Just have a little faith that writing 600+ comics has taught me some information that might help you, deal?”
She promised participants that the lessons would be “bite-sized chunks”, and that there would be “a couple of surprise twists. But you will learn some things, I promise”. She, however, set some ground rules, at the same time: “If you're rude to others, it's just an insta-block, please understand that in advance. That's the only actual behavior request.”
For participating in the five-day-course, people would need, aside from a computer, a pen or pencil, a notepad or notebook, and a small basket or box. The event, per Simone, is scheduled to start at 1:00 pm PST, 4:00 pm EST on Friday.