***This event has been POSTPONED. We are working with the presenters to reschedule. The University Libraries is cancelling all public programs through April 20, in compliance with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) protocols established by the University for the safety of our community. ***

On Mini-Comics Day, participating cartoonists from around the world write, draw, and print copies of a mini-comic—completing the entire process from start to finish in a day or less. Anyone in the world can participate.

Join us at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum on Saturday, March 14 from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm to celebrate the art of cartooning by creating your own hand-made comic book! Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just getting started, you’re welcome to create with us! We will supply copy paper, pencils, and colored pencils. Please feel free to bring along your favorite art supplies. Guest cartoonists Ben Towle and Melanie Gillman will be here throughout the afternoon to walk you through the basics and help you navigate the creative process. Already working on a comics project (and not wanting to start something new)? Bring it along and just hang out and draw with us.

This FREE, drop-in event is open to grade 4 through adult. Stop in when you can and join in. Overviews will happen at 2:00 pm and 3:30 pm, but we’ll be hanging out all afternoon to get you caught up.

Mini-comics have been democratizing the art of making comic books since the 1970s or earlier—with the popularization of photocopiers, it became apparent that anyone with an inclination and some spare change could print a little comic book. Wildly varying in both form and content, mini-comics are a wonderful synthesis of cartooning and hand-made art objects.

There is no registration for this event. Stop in anytime between 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm to join in.

Melanie Gillman is a cartoonist who specializes in LGBTQ books for kids and teens. They are the creator of the webcomic and graphic novel As the Crow Flies, published in 2017 by Iron Circus Comics, and winner of the 2018 Stonewall Honor Award. Their newest book, Stage Dreams, was published by Lerner/Graphic Universe in 2019.  They are also a senior lecturer in the Comics MFA Program at the California College of the Arts.

Ben Towle is a four-time Eisner-nominated cartoonist currently working on his next graphic novel, Four-Fisted Tales, a collection of true-life stories of animals in combat forthcoming from Dead Reckoning, the graphic novel imprint of The Naval Institute Press. His previous work, the rollicking nautical fantasy comic, Oyster War, was published by Oni Press in 2015. His other work includes Amelia Earhart: This Broad Ocean (with Sarah Stewart Taylor), a graphic novel for young adults (Disney/Hyperion Books 2010) which received accolades from such publications as The New York Times and Publishers Weekly and was a Junior Library Guild selection, as well as the historical fiction graphic novel Midnight Sun and a volume of comics folk tales, Farewell, Georgia. He lives in Columbus, OH and is a professor of illustration at The Columbus College of Art and Design.

Art by Ben Towle.