Camp Comics: Summer ’23

Camp Comics: Summer '23 logo created by Tania De Rozario

The comics team at the School of Creative Writing is super excited to announce that we’ll be hosting our first ever comics camp for adults this summer.

Join us outside on Saturday, July 15 from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at UBC’s Vancouver campus for one or more workshops. 

This camp is for you if:

• You already have basic knowledge of comics and have made a few of your own
• You’re hungry for more skills and knowledge, and
• You want to make comics in a fun, slightly weird setting that’s like summer camp but cool.

Keep reading for workshop descriptions, instructor bios, and cost and registration information (cost is on a sliding scale from $0 to $100).

Workshop Descriptions

S’mores Comics
Taylor Brown-Evans
10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

The s’more is a weird campfire confection that combines chocolate, graham crackers and marshmallows. Each of these elements are delicious on their own but together make a messy and delectable treat that is somehow more than the sum of its parts. Comics are the same! In this workshop we’ll play with unexpected combinations of pictures, words, panels and pages mushed together into equally messy and surprisingly sweet creations. Also, there may be actual s’mores.

Taylor Brown–Evans is an educator, writer and cartoonist living in Vancouver. His work has appeared in Geist, Matrix, Poetry is Dead, The Feathertale Review and Ricepaper Magazine as well as alternative press zines and chapbooks. His most recent project, Songs for a Lost Pod, is a comic book collaboration with local songwriter Leah Abramson.

Camp Friends: Visual Characterization in Comics
Marian Churchland
11:40 a.m. to 1:10 p.m.

When we’re thrown into a group of strangers, we immediately look around us and wonder who our friends are going to be – especially if we’ll be stuck with those friends for an entire summer! In this workshop we will take a close look at all the subtle, subtextual clues that tell us somebody is a potential friend (or enemy); then we will practice incorporating them into our comics as a technique for adding visual depth to scenes and characters.

Marian Churchland is an illustrator and comic artist living in Vancouver. Their first graphic novel, Beast, won the Russ Manning award, and their most recent publication, The Hchom Book, concerns itself with deep and important matters such as how many pies one person can hoard. They have contributed to several comics series, including From Under Mountains and Arclight, and they have worked on various other visual media projects such as the recent board game Forgotten Depths.

Telling Stories without Words
Napatsi Folger
2:10 p.m. to 3:40 p.m.

Summer crushes and fast friends are what camp is all about! And we all remember being hormonal pre-teens, terrified of saying how we really felt lest we be judged by our terrifying and electrifying peers. So we stumbled through the delicate dance of social and physical cues. Were you coy or bold or shy? Whatever the answer, we were always looking at the silent actions of our campmates to figure out the social order. Learn some techniques for telling your story with everything but text. From putting your panels and gutters to work, to the art of expressive facial and body language, Napatsi Folger will help you make your comics more dynamic.

Napatsi Folger is an Inuk comic artist, fiction, non-fiction, and children’s literature writer from Iqaluit, NU. She now lives in North Vancouver, and graduated from UBC with an MFA in Creative Writing in 2021. Her work has also been featured in Maisonneuve, Carousel Magazine, Long Con Magazine, Walrus Magazine, Matrix Magazine, Taddle Creek, Word Hoard and Puritan Magazine. Napatsi’s first book, Joy of Apex, was published in 2011 by Inhabit Media.

Explore, Observe, Draw
Tajliya Jamal
3:50 p.m. to 5:20 p.m.

Summer camp is full of adventure and so are comics! And sometimes making comics is less about creating an adventure from your head and more about documenting the little adventures you’re already on. Try your hand at diaristic comics, turning your observations into a catalogue to use in your storytelling! This session will include observational drawing, some writing prompts, and a collage approach to story building.

Tajliya Jamal is a queer, mixed-race printmaker and comics artist based in Vancouver. With an emphasis on storytelling, pattern and maximalism, they work experimentally between printmaking, animation, painting and collage. They like to use book forms and print media as it is a more accessible art form for viewers and readers, and often collaborative in practice.

Registration Information

Registration is required to attend. We have space for 25 participants, with priority given to UBC Creative Writing students and alumni, after which we’ll open it up to others in the community.

The venue is located outside behind Buchanan E.

Any questions, please contact Assistant Professor Sarah Leavitt at sarah.leavitt@ubc.ca