Kutztown Beats Columbia!

Kutztown Beats Columbia and Dartmouth and Netflix! 

Kutztown University will screen Cartoon College on March 28, 2013. Columbia University and Dartmouth screenings are not until April and who knows when it will show on Netflix? The Free screening for the KU community is Thurs, March 28, Sharadin Art Building, Rm 120, 7:30pm.

Here’s how the filmmakers describe their movie: “Each fall the Center for Cartoon Studies invites 20 aspiring cartoonists and graphic novelists to White River Junction, Vermont for a no-holds-barred education in comics. Those who complete the program earn an MFA and are ready to face the uncertainty of a career in one of the world’s most labor-intensive, drudgery-inducing art forms. CARTOON COLLEGE is their story.”

It features literary comics’ biggest stars, including Chris Ware, Lynda Barry, Art Spiegelman, Francoise Mouly, Scott McCloud, and CCS director, James Sturm.

Filmmakers Josh Melrod and Tara Wray funded this movie, in part, by a successful Kickstarter campaign. It has been on the film festival circuit from San Francisco to Palm Beach.

Last month it was a hit at Scotland’s Glasgow Film Fest. UK reviewer Henry Northmore’s wrote “Based in the sleepy town of White Water Junction in Vermont (which looks like an idyllic place to live, work and study), the students’ lives are a mix of geeky bohemia and intense pressure… If you are interested in comics this is an absolutely fascinating look at a new generation of artists/writers, …but even if you are only a casual fan of the medium it gives a human face to an artist’s passion and desire to connect with others via storytelling, highlighting the hard work and dedication involved in this oft overlooked art form.”

In case you are wondering, tuition is north of $17,000 a year for the two-year Cartoon College MFA program. Cartoon College, the movie, is FREE  for the entire Kutztown U community, courtesy of the KU Communication Design Dept. and our student AIGA chapter. Be there: 3/28 @ 7:30pm, Sharadin Art Building. Movie trailer can be seen here.

Kutztown Illustration students who are making zines for the upcoming MOCCAfest will share their work at a table in the lobby after the show!

Special thanks to CCS grad Joseph Lambert for permission to use his art on this page. He’ll be at MOCCAfest, too. His latest comics and illustrations can be found at www.submarinesubmarine.com.