A half-day summer camp for young artists who want to make comics, manga, and page-turning adventures—with characters worth rooting for.
📚✍️🖊️🎨 Calling all middle school creators who love graphic novels, webcomics, manga panels, big feelings, bold action, and those perfect dramatic zoom-ins.
This is the camp where your drawings tell stories—and your stories get to look cool.
In Comics & Manga Camp, we’ll read favorites, study what makes comics work, practice essential drawing and storytelling skills, and build your own in-progress comic or manga from the ground up. You’ll create characters, shape a world, plan your scenes, and start making pages you can’t wait to share.
By the end of the week, you’ll have real momentum on your own comic or manga project—and a roomful of fellow nerds who get why panel spacing is a life-or-death decision. (It is.)
Who’s this camp for?
This camp is a great fit for middle school writers and artists (ages 11–14) who love comics, manga, and visual storytelling—and want to make their own.
During camp, you’ll get to:
-Read and study favorite comics and manga (and learn what makes them hit)
-Create characters with real motivations, choices, and consequences
-Build your story world, from setting details to the rules of how your world works
-Outline your plot using story structures that help your story grow (and keep it from wandering into the void)
-Plan scenes and pages—what happens, what changes, and why it matters
-Practice drawing skills that support storytelling, including:
-linework and expression
-composition and visual clarity
-coloring/shading (as desired)
-Connect body + emotion (aka: how physical expression makes characters feel real)
-Share your work with others and learn how to talk about creative choices in a supportive way
At the end of the week, campers will share their comics and manga with each other—because stories are more fun when they have an audience that actually understands them.
What to bring
Campers are welcome to bring:
-Their favorite comics/manga to share (optional, but fun)
-Their preferred drawing tools (pens, pencils, markers, sketchbook, etc.)
-A digital drawing device/tablet if they want to work digitally (totally optional)
We’ll have special pens and paper available, but bringing your favorites is encouraged.
Dates: Mon-Fri, July 6-10, 2026
Times: 10 am-1 pm
Price: $269
Pricing info: Our classes and events are priced at their actual cost to run.
If paying the full price would keep you from joining us, use the code ACCESS at checkout to reduce your registration amount by 20%—no questions asked. If you’re a Wordcrafters member, use code MEMBERACCESS.
If the full price is within your means, please leave the ACCESS code for those who truly need it.
If you’re able, you can add a donation during registration to support our scholarship fund.
Scholarship info: We want everyone to have access to our writing programs. If you need additional support, please complete our scholarship request form: https://wordcrafters.org/scholarships/
Your instructor
Jen Hernandez (she/they) is an artist and educator based in Corvallis, Oregon.
Through fine arts illustration, comics and crafting, Jen tells stories inspired by the natural environment, people, and stories of the Pacific Northwest and world mythology.
Connect with her on Instagram or at her website https://jenhernandezart.com/.
