WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Drawn Here, Part 1

Drawn Here, Part 1

White River Junction, Vermont - May 14, 2007

Vermont has long been a leader in higher education, with the state's public and private institutions amassing hundreds upon hundreds of years of teaching between them. But there's a new kid on the block.

Inside an old department store in White River Junction, where sales racks once stood, students now sit. Instructor Steve Bissette says, "You could have knocked me over with a feather the day you told me they were opening the second cartooning school in North America in White River Junction, Vermont!"

The Center for Cartoon Studies opened its doors in the Fall of 2005. Student Bob Oxman says, "I actually grew up across the river in Hanover, went to high school there, then went to California for college and work. Then my mom called me up and said, 'Hey, they're opening up a comic book school across the river in White River. You should come home!'"

He listened, joining the center's inaugural class. This Saturday, eighteen cartoonists will graduate. Emily Wieja is among the graduates. She says, "For a long time, comic books were only thought of as being one way."

But not anymore. Today, full-length novels and memoirs borrowing the comic book look are a booming sector in publishing. Add to that the multi-billion dollar box office totals of superhero movies, the video game craze, and how websites mix text and pictures in eye-catching ways. Cartoons are all around us.

Steve Bissette explains, "We all take it for granted, but if you go into any public restroom in Vermont, there's a six-panel comic telling employees to wash their hands. And if you go onto any airplane, we open a comic to get the safety instructions."

Bissette grew up in Waterbury and worked in comics for a quarter century, on popular titles like Swamp Thing. CCS brought him in to teach. He says, "You're telling a story, so you're working as a writer as well as an artist. You're designing a page as well as a panel."

Michelle Ollie says, "There wasn't necessarily a lot of options in the past for these students."

Ollie worked at a Minneapolis art school where she saw more and more students interested in studying cartooning to work in entertainment or graphic design. So, why was she "drawn here" to found the school? She chuckles, "Why not?! Everybody loves Vermont! We have no problem asking artists, publishers, designers, to come lecture in Vermont. They're knocking on our doors before we're knocking on theirs."

Most students got college degrees elsewhere, in art, literature, even chemistry. Their $15,000 a year post-grad tuition gets them personalized attention from professional cartoonists. Emily Wieja says her favorite part of the culture here is, "Just getting feedback from people who love comics."

But CCS does not provide students housing or meals. They're on their own for those. The school is looking at buying its own building for classes and studios, but plans to keep admissions at about twenty a year.

Monday night on our newscast, we reported that the Center for Cartoon Studies is seeking accreditation through the Vermont Higher Education Council to award degrees. To clarify, the Higher Education Council is merely an advisory body that will make recommendations to the Vermont State Board of Education. Is it the State Board of Education that will actually certify CCS. They could approve the granting of degrees, including a Master's in Fine Arts.

Michelle Ollie says, "We're now hopefully in the final stages of that decision."

As these students decide what's next: How they'll use their deft hands and sharp eyes, honed at Vermont's one-of-a-kind cartooning school. Wieja beams, "I'm excited to be a part of it!"

The graduating students will exhibit their thesis projects from May 19th through June 16th in the Colodny building on South Main Street in White River Junction. For more on the school, click the link above.

Jack Thurston - WCAX News