Saturday, August 11 | 1:00-3:00 p.m. | Downtown Library | 4th Floor Meeting Room | Gr. 6-Adult

How do you create a plausible world filled with vibrant and identifiable characters? Join New York Times best-selling artist Jake Parker (Missile Mouse and The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man) via Skype to explore how compelling character designs can be achieved by varying simple shapes. Learn how the worlds you build can be used to refine the look of your characters and bring out their inner lives! Q & A with Jake follows.

Get a flavor of Jake’s range for imaginative characters and worlds through a sneak peak at The Antler Boy and Other Stories, his current project funded by Kickstarter.

After plowing through all the classics you were setting aside for summer (and the Summer Game), you’re probably ready for some fun, engaging reading material. Check out AADL’s latest graphic novel series and start a whole new chapter! Apologies for the pun.

Soldier Zero – Capt. Stewart Trautmann’s tour in Afghanistan comes to an end when he loses his legs to a roadside IED. He returns home dejected and crippled, but his fortunes change again when an encounter with an alien parasite changes him into a hybrid superhero. Now he finds himself embroiled in a very different war.
Boneyard – A young man inherits a graveyard from his grandfather. To his surprise, the inhabitants of this plot of land are not dead, not human, and not interested in moving. Get out your pitchforks and torches!
Planet of the Apes – How did the balance of power on Earth shift so much as to place humans in bondage to apes? This new series takes place long before the astronaut Taylor’s return to a much-changed planet.
Tanpopo – Tanpopo has super-human intelligence, but cannot experience emotions. She longs to change this, and enlists the help of Kuro, a shape-shifting creature who offers her the chance to experience love and happiness. For a price, that is. The volumes of this series correspond with and allude to great literary classics, beginning with Goethe’s Faust.

The Great War in Europe has ended with no victor because of a plague and an infestation of vampires. Lord Baltimore a British one-legged veteran of the war becomes the scourge of the undead after being wounded on the battlefield and witnessing a horrific attack on his men by vampires. He too is attacked by the vampire Haigus and manages in desperation to gravely wound him. Haigus swears vengeance and thus the plague is set in motion. Is there any way Baltimore prevent the end of humanity?

The team of Mike Mignola and Christoper Golden bring you Baltimore: The Plague Ships. Horror fans don’t miss this one or others in the series. This is graphic novel gothic horror at its best.

Wednesdays, July 11 thru August 15 | 6:00-8:00 PM | Pittsfield | Grades 9-Adult

Join cartoonist Jerzy Drozd as he helps you explore illustration and storytelling strategies used by professional cartoonists to create graphic novels, manga, and comic books. Learn how to choose the right moments in your story, how comics take advantage of the rules of art and literature and how the illustration style you choose contributes to the tone of your work.

THIS WEEK: Take a camera with you to your favorite place and snap at least six pictures of things you see that you like. Bring them to class. Also start thumbnailing your story and bring it with you to class.

Basic supplies (pencils, erasers, paper, etc.) are provided along with a weekly gamecode to add to your summer game totals. No registration required.

Tuesdays July 10 thru August 14 | 1:00-3:00 PM | Malletts Creek | Grades 6-12

Hey teens! Enjoy doodling and have a story to tell? Join the six-week Comic Book Academy at Malletts Creek this summer. Cartoonist Jerzy Drozd will guide you through the steps to creating a complete comic book. You’ll learn about character design, writing the story, penciling the first draft, refining and completing the penciled pages, and inking (finishing) the pages.

THIS WEEK: Learn more about comics creation and start your comics story.

All the supplies (pencils, erasers, paper, etc.) will be provided along with a weekly gamecode to add to your summer game totals. No registration required.

Saturday July 8, 2012: 12:30 pm to 1:00 pm -- Downtown Library: Youth Story Corner

It's Day 2 of Kids Read Comics 2012!

Voice actor Neil Kaplan presents an amazing reading of a Winnie the Pooh favorite. Carry the fun and knowledge throughout Kids Read Comics weekend!

This event is for All Ages

Can’t make it to the San Diego Comic Con this summer? No worries.

Join the fun in downtown Ann Arbor at the Ann Arbor District Library the weekend of July 7-8 for the 2012 KIDS READ COMICS convention, a comics convention - offered at NO admission charge - for comics creators and fans of all ages. This convention is for all “kids” whether 5 or 45!

Saturday, July 7 will be jam packed with fun stuff like voice actor Neil Kaplan reading Winnie the Pooh in multiple voices, puppetbending with Kevin Coppa, turning your life into a comic with Eisner Award winner Raina Telgemeir, creating an Ellie McDoodle/Wimpy kid book, making a mini-comic with Matt Feazell, video game creation via playing Underwater Tomato Ninja, live recording of Comics are Great! podcast, and so much more.

Check the schedule to see how you can visit/shop with 60 cartoonists in Artists Alley, attend the many workshops, and take in Quick Draw sessions.

AADL Summer Game Players – you’ll be able to pick up MULTIPLE Game Codes throughout the two days of this convention!

Join the fun in downtown Ann Arbor at the Ann Arbor District Library the weekend of July 7-8 for the 2012 KIDS READ COMICS convention, a comics convention – offered at NO admission charge - for comics creators and fans of all ages. This convention
is for all “kids” whether 5 or 45!

Sunday, July 8 will continue the comics craze with fun stuff like drawing Adventure Time characters with Chris Houghton, animation with Australian cartoonist Richard Stevens, exploring classroom comics with Josh Elder, storytime with voice actor Neil Kaplan, a “Bigfoot Boy” sighting with J. Torres, and hamming it up in the "Interactive Graphic Novel Theater" with Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman, and so much more.

Check the schedule to see how you can visit/shop with 60 cartoonists in Artists Alley, attend the many workshops, and take in Quick Draw sessions.

AADL Summer Game Players – there will be new Game Codes on Sunday!

“During the darkest days of the Civil War, wicked cutthroats came into possession of six pistols of otherworldly power. The Sixth Gun – the most dangerous of the weapons – has vanished. When the gun surfaces in the hands of an innocent girl, dark forces reawaken. Villains thought long dead set their sights on retrieving the gun and killing anyone in their path. Only Drake Sinclair, a gunslinger with a shadowy past, stands in their way.”

Thus begins The Sixth Gun, a fast paced supernatural horror series currently consisting of three volumes – Book 1: Cold Dead Fingers; Book 2: Crossroads; and as of April 25, Book 3: Bound. Follow Drake, Becky, O Henry, and Gord through a wild and twisted old west.

One more thing - Book 1: Cold Dead Fingers is up for two Eisners, Best Writer-Cullen Bunn and Best Coloring-Bill Crabtree.

Sunday June 3 | 1:00-3:00 PM | Downtown 4th Floor Meeting Room

Chickengirl is back! Cartoonist and children's book illustrator Jannie Ho will offer a demonstration on the use of Adobe Illustrator for creating comics and discuss the pros and cons of creating and submitting work with Illustrator. Illustrator is a popular tool in the publishing world and one to become acquainted with if you have never used it.

Join the Forum to get fresh ideas for your next comics or graphic novel creation. Drawing supplies will be provided, so drop in to draw, learn, and network with other cartoonists.