Howard Wong

School's out for summer! Congratulations to all the students out there for all their hard work in these challenging times! Time to relax and maybe read some comics! This week was about looking for materials for the various workshops that could be shared digitally, as well as figuring out what tools could be incorporated that people would have at home, or can easily have access to. This may end up with me creating them with friends. I started to work on some of the visuals for the presentations that will be used in some of the workshops. Some are from past workshops and talks I've done where I needed to update certain things. I got some new ideas from doing this, which I will see about adding to the workshop content later. I've connected to a few local businesses and are in talks about how they can help. No doubt, this will be an ongoing task as I connect with more and more local businesses. With that said, I'm still reaching out to comic book creators and comic...

First Happy Father's Day to all the fellow dads and those who have taken on this incredible role in someone's life! Sorry about the late update. Friday is usually when I post my updates for Unlocking the Secretes of Creating Comic Books, but there were things that needed my attention and the day ran away from me. This past week was for the most part, unproductive with furthering the workshops. However, it reconnected me with many comic book creators out there that I haven't seen for quite a while and with the comic book convention season cancelled we ended up catching up and geeking out over things that we normally would in person. It's an odd time for all of us and sometimes it's difficult to press on and continue to be creative. That was the most common topic we all talked about and in a way, became a much needed supportive encouragement for many to keep doing that they do. The bulk of the week went there with the rest going to finalizing my judging of...

As some of you know, I've started to reach out to York Region based comic book creators. I'm looking at having local comic book creators being involved with Unlocking the Secrets of Creating Comic Book's series of workshops. This will be an ongoing task for me, as one of my goals is to show the diversity found in the comic book industry to the young aspiring creators. Not to mention the inspiration with stories they will come up with by becoming aware of the possibilities with comic books. Not much else was done this week as I'm in the middle of judging the Canadian Consulate General of Hong Kong and Macao's Create a Canadian Superhero Contest. There are so many creative, fun and amazing entries! Next week I will start to discuss with the first group of comic book creators to see what and how they can contribute to workshop series, and go over the syllabus I've drafted up.

This is an open call to professional and indie comic book artists, inkers, colourists, letterers and writers residing in York Region. I'm putting together a program of comic book creating workshops and looking for folks in York Region to be a part of this. I received a micro-grant from the York Region Arts Council to jumpstart this and currently in the developmental phase. If you would like to know more about what I have planned and how you can be involved, please PM me here or via my other social media accounts. Feel free to share this post. Thanks!

I started to put together what will become the syllabus that breaks down what each workshop will contain, which is making the organizing much easier. Many of the fundamentals in our craft come naturally at this point, as it does for artists, colourists, inkers and letterers I've spoken to. This resulted in making more notes in regard to elaborating various parts of the process in creating a comic book. The intention is to make it more clear so that new aspiring comic book creators can pick up the necessary skills easier. Next week will be a busy one, with the judging for the Consulate General of Canada in Hong Kong and Macao's Canada Day's Canadian Superhero contest (details here ), as I continue to work on the workshops. I plan to compile additional books, comics and graphic novels I would like to use, which knowing me, will result in some breaks reading many of my favourites. I will also start to contact comic book creators residing in York Region to get input a...