Mack students had the pleasure of working with visiting writer, illustrator, graphic novelist, caricature artist, and instructor Stan Yan. Stan led comic strip workshops for 2nd, 4th, and 5th grades—he taught students about two common formulas for writing humorous comic strips and supported them in creating their own comic strips. The results were hilarious! To tie in with 3rd grade’s current literary unit, Stan taught them how to create cartoon character designs with built-in stories by using conventions of comics like speech bubbles, sound effects, and “emanata” (a term coined by legendary comic strip artist Mort Walker to denote things emanating from characters, like motion lines and sweat beads). Students were enthralled by his memorable lessons. We can’t wait to see more work from our budding cartoonists and story-tellers!

Stan will return soon to work with Mack middle school students! Learn more about Stan Yan and his books at www.stanyan.me