The Frontier Comics Seminar (FCS) is a six-week seminar that will help you hone your cartooning and comics skills while using them to reach the least, the last and the lost with the hope of the Gospel.

About the Program

The six week Frontier Comics Seminar (FCS), helps you hone your cartooning skills; giving you an understanding of the potential for comics to impact the unreached with the hope of the Gospel.

The seminar is breaks into two parts, the Lecture Phase and Production Phase.

During the Lecture Phase, speakers come to teach on things such as:

Contextualization
Story Telling
Figure Drawing
Character Design
Digital Art (Clip Studio Paint)

During the Production Phase, both staff and students will work as a team on a contextualized project for an unreached people group.

What you will learn

You will learn basic drawing, figure drawing, how to draw sceneries, how to draw animals, story telling, page layout and design, cross-cultural contextualization for comic creation and more. Whether you have experience drawing or making comics, or have never attempted more complex drawings, you will learn a lot! In addition to course materials, instructors will spend time with students reviewing projects, giving feedback, and answering questions. Join us to grow your skills and be inspired to create comics that communicate the good news across cultures.

What to expect

The courses will be at your own pace on your own time as they are video content you access online. There will be assignments and assessments designed to help you practice your skills which are spread out over the course of the program.

Expect the course commitment to be between 1-2 hours each day for 5 days of the week, or 5-10 hours of coursework per week. The amount of time it takes you to complete this coursework depends on your current skill level and comprehension. You will be given weekly deadlines to complete courses, assignments and assessments, but the pace at which you complete the coursework is up to you. Remember though, in the end you only get out of this as much as you put in to it.

In addition, we will host 1 weekly school wide online live meeting with your trainers and classmates for you to discuss your coursework, ask questions, and go over assignments for the next week. Those live meetings will be scheduled at a time to best accommodate the international students enrolled in the course. Along with this we will be providing times through out the week where instructors will be available to talk to you and give any help or feedback that they can.

Join us in creating a comic!

After successfully completing the program, you will have the option of joining us for 2-3 months producing a short evangelistic comic for an unreached people group. This will give you invaluable hands-on experience as you contribute to creating a comic with experienced artists. If you choose to join us for a project like this, you will be responsible to make sure you have the time allotted to work on the comic from afar. You are also responsible for purchasing any additional materials that may be required for you to join the comic project.

Class meeting times

Each week, you will have lectures and assignments that you will work through on your own time. Each week you will be expected to complete specific lectures and assignments and submit them by scheduled due dates. A weekly live meeting with your trainers for discussion, assignment review and questions will be scheduled based upon the time zones and schedules of the students who enroll in the course.

Cost

The cost for the class is USD$300. If a scholarship is needed, you can submit this request in the Seminar Registration. We want you to be able to take this class and to be fully invested in it.

Scholarship

We offer scholarships to students from World B and C countries. If you are from one of these countries contact us for further information.

Payment

After receiving and reviewing your application, we will send you specific payment details and deadlines.

Language requirement

The course will be run in English. The advantage of having pre-recorded lectures though is that you can watch them at your own pace and re-watch them as many times as you want. You will need to have an adequate understanding of English to follow the class, but we don’t expect you to be an expert.

Comics are, after all, a visual medium. We are here to support you in your learning. We will take discussions slow and answer your ongoing questions. We want to see you learn and enjoy this seminar.

Equipment requirement

To take this seminar, you will need a computer or phone and a stable internet connection.

For general drawing assignments, you can use pen and paper an then use a camera or scanner to submit a digital copy of your work, on the other hand you can use Clip Studio Paint. If need be we will work with you as an individual to help you to work with the equipment that you have.

For digital art assignments and comic assignments we request that you use Clip Studio Paint PRO. This program can be used for 3-6 months for free on most devices, though we recommend using it on a computer or laptop in conjunction with a tablet such as a Wacom or XP-Pen. You can also get Clip Studio Paint on tablets such as the iPad Pro, though it is important to know that all teaching for the course is done via laptop.

Free Courses

We’ve made the first two courses of the Frontier Filmmaking Seminar free for anyone. Check them out below…

Introduction To The FCS

Welcome to the FCS, also known as the Frontier Comic Seminar, this course is designed to tell you what the school is about and what to expect!

Introduction to Comics

This introductory course is a basic overview of comics and how this amazing art form can be used as a dynamic, creative communications tool.

Curious about what our lessons look like?

Here’s an example lesson from our Intro To Clip Studio Paint course.

Courses in the FCS

Here’s a look at all the courses offered in the Frontier Comics Seminar! Most courses have preview lessons available in the course curriculum if you’d like to take a look. Courses are also available individually.