Dakota McFadzean

This ain’t your grandkid’s Facebook. The Center for Cartoon Studies Facebook is one of the first major projects undertaken by new students each year. The idea is simple: everyone creates a bio that can be reproduced on a photocopier, and a self-portrait in the form of a screen print. Then everything is bound together to make a book of memories and friendship that students will cherish into old age when they are impoverished and alone from a lifetime of underappreciated cartooning.

I volunteered to be on the design team, along with Bill Bedard, Melanie Gillman, Sean Knickerbocker, and Katie Moody. After much nerdy discussion, we decided to work with an arcade fighting game theme for this year’s Facebook. So, Street Fighter II is what I’m trying to say, I guess.

First of all, Katie designed the cover and damn near killed herself doing it. If you’re familiar with screen printing, this was done with two colours and a boat load of dot screens. It took a lot of work, not only to do the actual drawing, but to separate the colours in a way that would work when printing (screen printing only allows you to print one colour at a time). Secondly, printing it damn near killed the rest of us. We had a number of problems with bum screens and trouble getting the photo-sensitive emulsion to capture the detail of the dots. But if it’s a question of dying of fatigue or having a crummy cover, I’ll take death every time.

I drew the inside front cover, which features CCS instructor and comics evangelist Alec Longstreth, fighting the school’s spiritual founder, Inky Solomon. Melanie designed the table of contents, and we each contributed a few portraits of our classmates. The looming figure in the background is CCS instructor and screen printing sensei Jon Chad, who came to our rescue numerous times throughout the screen printing process (including helping us troubleshoot our emulsion problems, and bringing us supplies late Friday night).

This is my bio and self portrait. If I have one regret, it’s that I didn’t put my name at the top– it totally ruins the flow of the text. Oh well, next time.

The whole Publication class was a major factor in my decision to apply to CCS. I want to learn how to make, design, and produce the best looking books, prints, and ephemera I possibly can. So despite being overwhelmed by the number of things that can go wrong, not to mention the number of things that did go horribly wrong, I really enjoyed screen printing. I love the way the finished prints look, and hope to apply this technique to future projects.

Anyway, you can download a PDF of the complete 2010 CCS Facebook here and check out the fantastic work done by all the other students, including an Inky Solomon move list by Sean, and the back cover/Game Over screen by Bill!