Jerzy Drozd
Teaching Artist and Cartoonist
Jerzy Drozd
Teaching Artist and Cartoonist
I just started up a new time tracker/day planner, which reminds me of this discussion I had with Rob Stenzinger on the Lean Into Art Cast episode 351, wherein we looked at designing our own time tracker.
Why spend a lot of money on planners when you can make your own, customized to your needs?
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.
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.
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!
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.
Just a heads-up that I forgot that this Saturday is Free Comic Book Day, so I will not be streaming live at 3pm EDT. I’ll be at a local comics store cheering on some of my students who will be debuting their first minicomics. I hope you have a terrific comics holiday!
If you don’t want to miss any future live streams, follow my Twitch account or subscribe to the calendar below.
Some more from the last three CPTN SRSLY comics. It’s been a while since I’ve drawn people, and looking at these I remember how fun their expressions can be.
Making comics for kids, and teaching kids how to make their own comics are my favorite things to do.
A Doctor Baer art drop from a few years back.
Back when I had a phone I could draw on I had a lot of fun playing in Ibis Paint. 2018, I think?
