Anything can be a comic if you are willing to put it into panels. This includes contemplative comics, poetry comics, memoir comics, wordless comics. The paneled format can feel like the marathon of the drawn world—so many decisions to make, details to juggle—wrangling narration, speech bubbles and characters into tiny repetitive squares or shapes. In this workshop, attendees will be guided through different format choices on the spot, making quick decisions and trying several iterations to discover which they like best. Being able to see the choices others are making, including the borrowing and swapping of ideas, is also an important part of the experience.

In a one-on-one conversation, renowned illustrators Elizabeth Haidle and Andy J. Pizza talk about the importance of art in the age of AI and why we humans need to keep making it, no matter what.