05-10-08
#12
Author and syndicated cartoonist Jerry
Craft conducts cartooning workshop at
Mt. Vernon's Boys & Girl's Club
The spacious gym at Mount Vernon's Boys
& Girls Club was humming with excitement on Friday,
April 9, as nearly 80 children who attend the popular
after-school program at the facility awaited the start
of a cartooning workshop.
When introduced to the kids, Jerry Craft, the famed
author and syndicated cartoonist asked the kids to quiet
down and their response was impressive. The kids
immediately focused their eyes on Craft and you
could hear a pin drop in the spacious gym.
Craft opened the workshop by telling the kids how he
ventured into the field, and also explained and showed
how his magical cartoons are created.
Anxious to start, each kid, comprised of Mount Vernon
students in grades K-12, was provided with a
pencil and drawing paper prior to the start of the
session.
During the workshop one kid asked Craft: "Is is hard to
draw a comic strip?" He responded by stating: "For
starters, I need the idea. Luckily, they come to me
pretty easily. Some cartoonists like to isolate
themselves when they come up with ideas. Not me, I like
to get out and see things. That's one of the reasons why
I like working in a big city like New York. I ALWAYS see
something interesting. Once I have any idea, if I don't
think that I will remember it, I'll take out a pad that
I always carry and write it down. If I need to remember
how something looks, I'll do a quick drawing of it.
Next, I begin to sketch out the strip itself. My
original strips are about 14.75 inches wide by 4.75
inches deep. When you work large like this, it's a lot
easier to draw things like backgrounds."
Jerry Craft is one of the few
African-American syndicated cartoonists
in the entire country. He has been
drawing and writing Mama's Boyz for more
than 15 years. In addition to his comic
strip, his work has also appeared in
publications such as
Essence,
Ebony
and
Chicken Soup For The African-American
Soul.
Jerry Craft left his job in
corporate America a year ago to work for
himself and spend a lot more time
helping kids. Since leaving his job as
the Editorial Director of Sports
Illustrated For Kids, he has traveled
around the East Coast teaching kids how
to be a cartoonists. He has appeared at
many of the areas libraries and after-school programs.
Jerry does a comic strip called
Mama's Boyz that has been syndicated by
King Features for over a dozen years.
Over the years he has dedicated a great
deal of his comic strip to spread the
word about issues such as diabetes,
AIDS, organ and tissue donation and
others.
On his main website, http://www.mamasboyz.com/news/index.html
is an article about a project that he
recently did to help fight childhood
obesity in the Kansas City school
system. He also teaches for local
programs that service Urban kids, such
as Kidz Achieve, Horizons, and Family
and Children's Agency.
"The American Council for Fitness
and Nutrition is pleased that Jerry
Craft has contributed his creativity and
talents to the educational materials
developed for the Healthy Schools
Partnership pilot," said Dr. Susan Finn,
ACFN CEO. "His illustrations depict the
diversity of the students who attend
schools in the Kansas City area, and
help to attract the attention of youth
and draw them in to the program's
lessons on balancing caloric intake with
energy expenditure."
Characters from Craft's Mama's Boyz
series and a variety of images of
healthy foods and beverages were created
by the artist to enhance the educational
resources developed for the pilot. The
resources include an interactive
computer game called "The Filling
Station," posters on a variety of
nutrition topics and information cards
that are being displayed in school
cafeterias.
Prior to the workshop commencing, the
children were given a raffle ticket and told not to lose
it. Not realizing what the tickets were for, they held
on to them as instructed.
At the end of the workshop, to their
amazement and joy, the kids finally learned what the
tickets were for - a raffle. After they were explained
how the raffle was going to work and shown the prizes
they could win, smiles were evident on each kids' face.
Several students won prizes and the workshop was a
resounding success.
A
cartoon character drawn by Jerry Craft during the
workshop
One of the many
kids in attendance answering a question
Students
passing around a magazine showing Jerry Craft's
characters
Jerry
Craft illustrating the early stages of a cartoon he
created for a magazine
