CCS Awareness Week - Post Graduation: Facilities
Originally published at RKdia Comics. You can comment here or there.
To start off today: Want to come to CCS? Prepare for some of the craziest winter weather anywhere! March is coming in like a fierce, ferocious and very hungry LION this year, as evidenced by these photos I took upon waking up this morning:
A 3-4 foot tall ice damn formed on the far size of the White River right across from my house in Hartford Village, cars for size-comparison, also ice chunks floating en-mass down stream!
The rain turned to ice about 9pm last night and left a 1/4 inch or so coating over everything! Now it’s back to all-snow and still falling!
I figured I’d start my week of CCS Alumni experience posts with one of the most important ones to those of us who have decided to stay here in White River Junction where the school is located: Access to the Facilities.
CCS is a comics-producing machine. It never sleeps. Every part of CCS is geared towards cranking out the next generation of comics greatness! To me, one of the most important parts of remaining in WRJ post-graduation is still having access to the many tools neccessary for independant comics publication.
For a fraction of the price of buying expensive equipment or going to Kinko’s, CCS offers alumni full use of the Production Lab, located in the Colodny Surprise Department Store which serves as the schools main building, housing:
the main classroom,
the schools gallery space, administrative offices and…
THE AMAZING PRODUCTION LAB!
I find myself using the lab on at least a weekly basis for some sort of production step in the creation of my own comics that I just plain can’t do at home. From drawing to scanning to printing and binding, CCS’s facilities are amazing and extremely valuable to every cartoonist here!
The second most important facility for alumni such as myself is the Schulz Library. This collection grows on a daily basis and is the only real place to go around the middle VT area to satisfy your Comics Reading cravings!
From rare collections to the latest graphic novels donated from Fantagraphics or D&Q,
to our Lovely, awesome librarians Catlin McGurk and CCS 2010 Alumni Jen Vaughn, (who are working super hard to bring the library into the latest and greatest in cataloging systems and make our experience even better!)
the Schulz Library has everything a CCSer could need or want.
While attending CCS, two other locations became pivitol parts of daily life: The Telegraph Studio Building and the Gates-Briggs Classroom.
The Telegraph studio building is the Senior Studio space for every 2nd year class. I spent almost every day of my second year in this space, developing what became Citadel, the comic I continue to (VERY SLOWLY) work on today. It also houses CCS’s media room with Pinball Machines operated by CCS Proffessor Alec Longstreth and Lab Tech Jon Chad!
The final space used by CCS is a classroom in the Gates-Briggs building just up the road from the Colodny. Here is where a majority of the lecture-based classes take place as well as CCS Movie Night, hosted by CCS Professor Steve Bissette and Alumni Denis St. John every week! Movie night is always open to CCSers past and present and Steve often showcases rare and un-seen in the USA movies.
In closing, CCS offers alumni access to so much, including options to sit in or audit certain additional courses free of charge, and the Visiting Artist Seminar held each week. The community that has remained continues to grow each year, and any CCSer that does move is often quickly replaced by a new batch of alumni, sometimes in even greater number! I hope to be able to continue to be a part of the community for yet another beautiful year here in Vermont!
-RD
All Photos from CCS Flickr Account and © their respective owners.
Except the first two…those are mine.
