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The Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction has just announced a new MFA course in “Applied Cartooning”, which is a word I hear a lot hat talks about using comics for educational and informational purposes. When the cartoon Illuminati gets together they are all about Applied Cartooning, trust me. According to the announcement, this program will explore “how comics can impact such diverse fields as health, business, public policy, and education.”

With the increased interest in comics as a teaching and learning tool, this seems like a very forward looking course of study, and CCS is just the place to develop this program. CCS has already formed partnerships with White River Junction VA Medical Center, Montshire Museum of Science, Museum of the City of New York, and the US embassy in Bahrain to use comics in this way. More:

“This ground-breaking program builds on the past decade of rebirth and innovation in the comics world, and brings the power of cartooning and sequential art – not to mention the creative powers of CCS’s MFA students – to new frontiers, industries, and communities. Students will gain valuable job experience and connections, creative stimulation, and professional challenges through their applied thesis projects,” says cartoonist Marek Bennett. Marek, one the Applied Cartooning program advisors, is a New Hampshire-based teaching artist who has spent the past 12 years creating comics-based educational programs and community-based graphic novels in New England, Central America, and Eastern Europe.

“I am seeing an increasing number of young cartoonists who are as interested in using their skills in a broader, more socially active context as they are in holing up and focusing exclusively on a graphic novel,” says CCS cofounder and director James Sturm.

BY JEN VAUGHN – Read it and weep! Go have yourself a good cry (probably at a Disney movie). In the tradition of occasionally free newsprint tabloid comics like the one-shot Caboose and quarterly Smoke Signal, a collaborative comic will be available this weekend at MoCCA! Official press release below:

The word “comic” has always been a bit of misnomer and The Cartoon Crier hopes to set the record straight. Sorrow and woe is the focus of this free 36-page newspaper tabloid that highlights the work of members of The National Cartoonists Society and of The Center for Cartoon Studies’ community.

The Cartoon Crier will premiere on Saturday, April 28 at The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival (MoCCA) in New York City.

The Cartoon Crier features the saddest strips from iconic comics like Family Circus, Beetle Bailey, Dennis the Menace, B.C., and For Better and For Worse. The Cartoon Crier also includes comics by Ivan Brunetti, Mell Lazarus, Melissa Mendes, Joe Lambert, Tom Gammill, Hilary Price, Laura Park, Richard Thompson, and Mo Willems as well as new work from the paper’s editors Cole Closser, R. Sikoryak, and James Sturm.

The Cartoon Crier will be available as a free download on May 1 from cartoonstudies.org.

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Jen Vaughn is ready to weep tears in four colors: CMYK.