Bat City Comic Professionals

Writing and Art Educational Opportunities - Bat City Comic Professionals offers comic creation workshops to area schools, libraries, and to local residents (in our on-site classroom). In these workshops, students learn the writing process through the construction of comic books and their scripts. Students are able to grasp complex writing elements and mechanisms in an easier to digest format in order to better tell the story they desire. Students also learn the skills needed to draw their stories in sequential form using the basics of artistic expression and figure drawing, as well as learning comic-specific techniques like paneling, guttering, and lettering. In 2022, we expanded the program to the Girl Scouts of Central Texas and the Suncoast of Florida, as well as the Cub and Boy Scouts. In these workshops, Scouts are able to earn a badge by creating a comic story through our workbooks. We also hosted local artists and comic publishing companies to do portfolio review and development classes for advanced artists in our community who wanted to learn where they could improve their technique and build on already developed skills. In this workshops, participants were able to bring already existing work to be evaluated or work to learn skills from someone who is currently employed as a professional comic creator or publisher. We also hosted several in-conversations with local comic creators about how they create, market, and develop their work. Through this, we were able to offer a new artist a chance to create an exclusive comic cover for an upcoming title helping them receive a professional credit for their resume, and stock they could sell as they grew their business. In 2024, we added onto these programs by adding our SLAM (Story, Lettering, Art, and Marketing Academy). Using our in-house created curriculum, we created a writing, art, and business intensive summer program for kids and teens who wanted to expand their skills at a college level.

Books for Kids/Story Spelunkers program- In addition to providing books to area schools and libraries, Bat City Comic Professionals also works to incentivize and encourage reading in young people by providing them with a free single-issue comic book every time they come into Bat City. Bat City also creates events to spark a love for reading in young people such as Superhero Storytime (featuring both adult and young readers), Story Spelunkers Book Club (rewarding accomplishments and completion in reading activities), and free comic days where community members can come receive free books, play games, and hear booktalks about titles they may like in a variety of genres. We also worked with area schools and in-store for booktalks and creating content that helped young people discover new books that would be of interest to them and help them find a space in books that they were comfortable.