Cartoon College

“Comics saved their lives. Comics kept them from killing themselves or others.”

Lynda Barry, author of One Hundred Demons, in a quote from Cartoon College

In a rundown place called White River Junction, Vermont there exists a school for people who live and breathe comics.

The Center for Cartoon Studies is the nation’s top school for the study and creation of comics. First opened in 2005, CCS has since become the place for hunched-over-the-drawing-board-ink-smeared-and-caffeine-fueled artists to converge and become superheroes of the medium.

This new documentary CARTOON COLLEGE takes place over the course of one school year at C.C.S. and gives you a peek into the lives of three students: 61-year-old freshman, Al; brash wunderkind Lucy; Blair, the Mormon virgin; and the school’s hopeful founder, renowned artist James Sturm. CARTOON COLLEGE captures the complexities of their shared experience and is ultimately a celebration of those brave enough to follow their dreams to create serious art in a medium once considered kid stuff. Cartoon College brings you up close and personal to the fascinating, intense and seriously camera shy artists also known as comic book nerds.