Wednesday, like the day before, was basically a time of quiet, intense labour on the students’ part.
Free Comics ed. Torben Hansen was unfortunately late, and didn’t actually meet them, but he got to look at most of the comics-in-progress, and asked to be contacted by three of the students.
That, I think, is one of the greatest oppurtunities of working with a class like this – that I can use my network to get others published, sometimes with their first comic ever.
Thanks to a couple of students who had finished early, we had the exhibition area cleared quickly, and I was satisfied with the day’s work when I got on the train home.

Once again, Thursday was dedicated to more work, and I was glad to see that many of the class had worked through the night.
One by one, comics were finished during the first hour of today’s session, and we started getting the exhibition up. I’d had a vague idea about using fishing wire to string the sheets out between ceiling and floor, so they would appear form a distance to float in the air.
Instead we had to use the material at hand, a quite visible, fibrous, white nylon string. Although the illusion of weightlessness was gone, the string turned out to give a good sense of space, much moreso than the alternative, massive mobile walls.
The lightboxes used in session were also brought down one after another as comics were finished, to be used as displays for some pieces.
As deadline loomed closer, the hanging was still empty in some places but in the nick of time the last comics were hung, literally, to dry like laundry.
In my opinion the exhibition went brilliantly, and I overheard a lot of well-deserved praise for the artists. If nothing else, I am personally very proud of my students’ accomplishments over the course of four short weeks, and hope to hear of their progress in the future (in or outside comics)
And then it was over.
People seeped gradually out the door, and in the end I was left there with a few of my students, who appeared to feel the same anticlimax.
We lingered for a minute, but in the end, that was it. I could kick myself for not giving a speech, or at least gathering “my kids” one last time.
They will be missed, and I’m afraid some may abandon comic making now that I’m not there to bend their arms. They are a talented lot, and damn it, I would love to see some of that talent channeled into comics!
Time will tell I suppose. And an email from one of the gang, if I’m lucky