An introduction to the subtle wizardry that is gag cartooning. We’ll be doing exercises meant to generate ideas, spark jokes, and inspire cartoons in the single-panel format.

If we do this right, you’ll walk out with a stack of beginnings and ideas for comics that you’re excited about. If we do it wrong, I’ll be left tied to a pole covered in gasoline out in the desert somewhere. Worried about your drawing skills, or lack thereof?

Don’t be. Some of the best cartoonists really can’t draw for shit. But well cover a bit of technique, too, promise.

Teacher Emily Flake is a cartoonist, illustrator, and writer living in Brooklyn, NY. Her cartoons run regularly in the New Yorker, and she’s unbearably stuck-up about it.

*Materials provided!