The Center for
Cartoon Studies (CCS)
Students travel from across the U.S. and around the world to study comics at CCS in a diverse and vibrant community in Vermont.
Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree
w/low Residency Option
Do you have burning questions about CCS’s MFA and certificate programs but aren’t able to make it to one of our admissions events? Drop us a line at outreach@cartoonstudies.org and we can set up a 1-on-1 video chat session to answer any of your questions about the curriculum, the application process, student housing, financial aid, living in Vermont, or anything else you need to know about applying to CCS!
Cartoonist and illustrator Leise Hook ‘20 is out with a new book, NAMES AND FACES, a collection of graphic autobiographical essays. Releasing on April 14, it is now available for pre-order via Henry Holt Books!
“In the vein of Cathy Park Hong and Gene Luen Yang, Hook’s graphic memoir-in-essays rendered via her signature, award-winning style, explores what it means to come of age as a mixed-race woman, forging a singular identity in a world intent on putting her into ill-fitting boxes.” —Henry Holt & Co.
MAKING NONFICTION COMICS by award-winning cartoonists and journalists Eleri Harris ‘14 and Shay Mirk is now available for pre-order. The highly anticipated comics guide officially releases 11/11 via Abrams ComicArts.
“The definitive guide to writing, drawing, and publishing nonfiction comics…” —Abrams ComicArts
Canadian cartoonist Seth and CCS cofounder James Sturm—the team who created our very first brochure 20 years ago —joined forces again to create our 2025 Fundraising Appeal Comic.
The comic traces the history of our favorite season, Cartooning Season, and introduces a fascinating score of seemingly historical, likely fictional, characters. Click here to read the comic online!
To top it all off, this year every donation will be matched up to 50k!
Celebrating CCS’s 20th Anniversary, two of Vermont’s most acclaimed cartoonists, Alison Bechdel and Tillie Walden ‘16, will share the stage for a rare public conversation about art, place, and the ways Vermont has shaped their work. Both artists have served as Vermont Cartoonist Laureate, and both have made international contributions to the art of comics—Bechdel through her groundbreaking memoirs Fun Home and Are You My Mother?, and Walden through her Eisner Award–winning memoir, Spinning, and space romance, On a Sunbeam.
Alum spotlight on D. McFadzean ‘12, whose latest comic, FEVER DREAM, is out from Conundrum Press! This surreal graphic novella lives up to its title, capturing the increasingly nightmarish perspectives of a sick child and the parents who care for him. FEVER DREAM is part of the Conundrum 25 series, which includes 25 volumes of comics by different cartoonists, and was launched to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the press.
Out now, the highly anticipated YA sequel, NUBIA: TOO REAL, illustrated by Robyn Smith ‘16 and written by L.L. McKinney. And it’s getting rave reviews. The new DC installment by Penguin Random House has received starred reviews by Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal!
“An essential superhero story for this moment.” —Kirkus, starred review
Taught by Eisner-award winning cartoonist and renowned comics instructor Ivan Brunetti, COMICS 101 will cover the basics of cartooning using exercises and assignments from Brunetti’s groundbreaking workbook Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice.
