This weeks Mighty Network roundup comes from a home studio in Gainesville, Florida. For the past 17 days, SAW has been operating remotely, offering online alternatives to our in-person classes and doing what we can to add to the voices raised in inspiration for this isolating time.

We’re wide awake to the difficulties and danger many people are facing right now, and grateful for the community around us who are reaching out and offering to share the great depth of art that exists to console us in times like this. This Mighty Network roundup is just a glimpse of that. We offer it as a resource for those people who have the time and energy to enter the world of comics and art making. Join us at the Mighty Network to add your voice and let us know what you want to see more of!

TUESDAY COMICS INSPIRATION

Your first round of inspiration this week comes from William Stout and his portfolio of dragon slayers (below). Thanks Virginia for sharing!

Next up, four cartoonists from around the world respond to the pandemic and the ways their everyday has changed over at The Nib.

Next up, Tom shared this great documentary about the life of Moomin creator, Tove Jansson. It’s the best 59 minutes and 7 seconds you’ll use today!

Tom also shared this link to a great call to creative action at this time from Nick Cave.

My response to a crisis has always been to create. This impulse has saved me many times — when things got bad I’d plan a tour, or write a book, or make a record — I’d hide myself in work, and try to stay one step ahead of whatever it was that was pursuing me.

FREE RESOURCES

If there’s anything to be said for the last few weeks, its that artists, and arts and cultural institutions have rallied to make materials available to the general public free of charge. Here are just a few that we’ve come across:

Watch 66 Oscar-nominated and award-winning animated shorts online, courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada.
A Literary Agent’s Guide to Querying your Graphic Novel by Maria Vicente.
This person does not exist, a random generator of faces (very handy for coming up with character designs).
This is both a general online book resource (free for 30 days) and a link to a list compiled by SAW member, Emma Cook (thank you so much!), of Guides to Improve Art, Comics and Cartoons.
A 5-hour Cinematic tour of Russia’s Hermitage Museum.
Google Earth brings you a Glacier National Park Fly Through Tour.
The Smithsonian went and did one better, and released 68 free ‘Aerial America’ videos.

IN FLOW

Our ongoing FLOW group has become the landing place for several of our online courses, with everyone sharing their busy hive of work. This week we’re sharing Debbra Palmer’s latest work from Get Seen Get Good (below).

The latest assignment asks everyone to consider the questions that arise when we portray real life people in our work: am I portraying other people fairly? Am I portraying my own experience fairly? What would this person think of the way I portray them or their experience? Am I okay with that answer?

To see the assignment in full, join the Ongoing Flow Group over at the Mighty Network.

FROM THE MEMOIR GROUP

First up, a dispatch from Queens, New York, by long time member, Jesse Lambert.

Next, a great drawn selfie from Beth Trembley that addresses how different life looks now.

And some thought provoking opinion about the pandemic from David Brooks over at The New York Times.

Lastly, more ideas about discomfort and grief from the Harvard Business Review, true of this period in time but also about writing memoir more generally.

COMING UP

Big thanks to SAW regular, Barry Sawicki, who has instituted Virtual Draw Jam. Once a month we’ve been meeting to write, read, draw comics at SAW. With Virtual Draw Jam, we’ll be meeting every Thursday night through zoom. Starting from 7pm, the virtual zoom doors are open to anyone who needs a little pick me up and shared comics making time. Barry has even put together a playlist to get you in the mood, and has prepared activities to get people collaborating.

Sign up to the Mighty Network for more information and to access the link to the call!

We have postponed all in person classes indefinitely, but we’ll let you know as soon as we’re able to get people together again. In the mean time, our online classes continue. In April, Emily Flake returns for Gag Cartooning, an intensive class on creating comics that make people laugh.

Other new classes include Storyboarding Adventure Time with Derek Ballard, which is open for enrollment anytime. Sign up today!

BIG THANKS

We just want to say thank you to everyone who continues to help us grow the SAW community. It means a lot that we can still reach out to people through our online networks at a time when we’re all separated by a pandemic. So thank you! Stay safe and well. Don’t forget to wash your hands.