Jerzy Drozd

Teaching Artist and Cartoonist. He/him. When life is feeling heavy, I enjoy creating and sharing stories of cute heroes showing extraordinary courage.

Playful Collaboration – The Cartoonist’s Instinct

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If you put two or more cartoonists together in a restaurant, something’s getting drawn on. Napkins, takeout containers, pizza boxes–they’re getting covered in doodles. For many cartoonists (professional or not), doodling feels like our first language. So when we’re comfortable and amongst our peers, that’s what we default to.

I noticed in these playful drawing sessions that something collaborative emerges. One person might draw a spaceship, and the next might draw some planets or comets around it. No one says, no, you can’t add that. The implicit rule is the improv cliche of yes, and.

This is why I lead a session of Great Big Giant Awesome Comic in every multi-week comics course. It draws on a cartoonist’s instinct to doodle while leaning into the playful collaboration that can happen as you go. Students learn how to negotiate with others. They experience the happy surprises that come when you let art emerge.

I most recently led this as part of my 8-week course at The McConnell Arts Center of Worthington. The kids committed to the point where they needed extra sheets of paper to branch off their storylines. It was a joyful experience.

It’s hard to count how many times I’ve led this activity over the last 15 or so years. But I’ve been present for many Great Big Giant Awesome Comics.

    You can find where I’ll be teaching next here. You can find lesson plans and how to bring me to your school or library here.

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    My Old Studio

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    My analog drawing area when I lived in Ann Arbor. Sometimes I miss that little yellow nook.

    I have a bit more space now, though! Eventually I’ll figure out how to make it as cozy as my old studio.

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    Free Comic Book Day 2023!

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    This Saturday I’ll be at Thunderfury Comics in Marion, Ohio. But I won’t be pushing my comics this Free Comic Book Day–I’ll be celebrating these young authors:

    For the past nine weeks I’ve been working with the Interactive Media students at Tri-Rivers Career Center. Made possible by the Ohio Arts Council’s TeachArtsOhio grant, my residency helped the students to create characters, thumbnail stories, and eventually make their own minicomics.

    Some of the students worked alone on their books, while others chose to work in teams. And you can bet there were plenty of teachable moments in both scenarios!

    Because I was working with a career center, my syllabus contained some lessons on freelancing and entrepreneurship. So the students created supporting products like stickers, buttons, and bookmarks. Some of them even made custom stands to prop up their books!

    My thanks to the Ohio Arts Council, and to Tri-Rivers Interactive Media instructors Josh Ebert and Jeff Davidson for inviting me to such a meaningful experience.

    This was a meaningful project for me. I can’t wait to celebrate these kids this Saturday.

    Interested in having me visit your classroom?
    See where I’m teaching next!

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    My 5th Grade Characters

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    Back in Thunder Punch Daily 196 I talked about some of the first comics characters I created. Mostly lizard people with magical or super powers. A little while back an old classmate shared an excerpt of a short story I wrote about them that got printed in a school publication:

    If you’re wondering who “George” Drozd is, my understanding is that’s the translation of my first name into english. For most of my childhood I went by this nickname.

    I no longer have most of the character designs from those days, so I’m left wondering who Bones, Master of Lasers is!

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    GoBots

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    As Hoover and I explored repeatedly on the Four Million Years Later podcast, GoBots was a brand I hated as a boy, but grew to love as I got older.

    I learned to appreciate another take on the transforming robot scifi genre (as if there should only be one!); the fact that they had female-presenting robots fully integrated into the series (unlike TF that didn’t have a female main character until the third season), the human characters were much more diverse, there’s very little gunplay, and the voice acting is terrific!

    Oh, and the theme song isn’t bad:

    Here are a few GoBots drawings I did while teaching myself to ink with a brush.

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