September 8, 2004

For Immediate Release September 8, 2004

White River Junction, VT-From the state that brought America Ben and Jerry’s and Phish comes a new enterprise: The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS). CCS, opening in fall 2005 in the historic town of White River Junction, will be the country’s only full-time two-year cartooning school and feature lectures and workshops by the nation’s leading cartoonists, graphic novelists, and comic book writers including Art Spiegleman (Maus), Chris Ware (Jimmy Corrigan), and Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics). CCS is now accepting applications for its inaugural class.

The school is renovating a downtown department store, The Colodny (circa 1920), with classrooms, labs, and galleries. CCS is partnering with the State of Vermont, local foundations and individuals, and world-renowned cartoonists in an effort to help transform an old railroad town into a thriving “creative economy” city.

There is an unprecedented excitement about comics and graphic novels in the art, literature, and publishing worlds. Recent feature stories in The New York Times Magazine Section, Sixty Minutes and NPR’s All Things Considered, all celebrate the coming-of-age of this great American art form. CCS recognizes this growing trend and unique opportunity. The Center for Cartoon Studies will be a world-class art school for the graphic novel.

“Cartooning is a medium that has been traditionally dismissed by academe. CCS will provide an educational option for the young cartoonist who considers comics equally as valid as painting, sculpture or poetry,” says James Sturm, CCS director. The small school and class size will ensure a strong commitment to each student. In addition, CCS’s library boosts over 3000 volumes of graphic novels and related periodicals. For more information, visit cartoonstudies.org

About James Sturm James Sturm’s comics and graphic novels have been translated into several languages and have won every major industry award. His graphic novel The Golem’s Mighty Swing was named “Best Graphic Novel of 2001” by Time Magazine. James is a founder and active member of The National Association of Comics Art Educators; an organization committed to helping facilitate the teaching of comics in higher education. James is also the co-founder of The Stranger, a Seattle arts and news weekly and an original contributor to The Onion, a weekly humor publication. James’ writings and illustrations have appeared in scores of national and regional publications including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times and on the cover of The New Yorker. Before his breakthrough book, The Golem’s Mighty Swing, James Sturm produced two bold, remarkable short novellas set in different periods on the American frontier. Both stories, The Revival and Hundreds of Feet Below Daylight, are collected together for the first time in Above and Below, an eighty page deluxe comic book. The book will be released in late September, published by Drawn and Quarterly Books.

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