The Artist Link Project (ALP), created by Arts Access, encourages and promotes the work of North Carolinian artists with disabilities. ALP is free to join and membership includes promotion in our public directory, email group to share opportunities and promote events, free professional development workshops, micro-grants, and more.

The ArtsCenter of Carrboro offers classes, performances, and art exhibits, and strives to create an educational environment that provides opportunities, inspiration and tools to people of all ages and skill levels to participate in the arts.

Artspace is a Raleigh-based space for creativity, arts education and social practice composed of artist residencies and exhibitions, arts education for all ages and abilities, and community outreach.

The Cartoonist Cooperative is a member-driven organization that aims to improve and protect the careers of comics workers globally [with] organized promotional campaigns for members’ comics, career development resources, creative feedback and assistance, professional connections, and more.

The Durham Art Guild‘s mission is to enrich and connect our communities by creating opportunities and providing leadership for current and future visual artists and art enthusiasts.

Kids Comics Unite‘s mission is to build a collaborative and open kids comics community, offering both paid and free resources, courses, membership programs, and networking opportunities to kids comics creators.

The National Cartoonists Society is the world’s largest and most prestigious organization of professional cartoonists working in many branches of the profession, including comic books, editorial cartoons, animation, webcomics and other online platforms, newspaper comic strips and panels, gag cartoons, greeting cards, advertising, magazine and book illustration and more.

The NC Arts Council was “[f]ounded in 1967 with the democratic vision of ‘arts for all citizens,’ [and] sustains and grows the arts for the benefit of North Carolinians and their communities.” Among other things, be sure to check out their Artist Opportunity page!

NC Writers’ Network provides education in the craft and business of writing, opportunities for recognition and critique of literary work, resources for writers at all stages of development, support for and advocacy of the literary heritage of North Carolina, and a community for those who write.

The Redbud Writing Project “is the Research Triangle’s only adult education writing school, serving Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, and beyond. […] Our course topics range from short story, novel, and memoir writing, to workshopping and revising, to publishing and submitting.”

South Arts “Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, South Arts is a nonprofit regional arts organization empowering artists, organizations, and communities, and increasing access to arts and culture.”

Triangle Art Works provides a multitude of programs and services for artists and art organizations. From professional development courses to resource directories, you’ll find something to help you navigate the business of art.

Triangle Book Arts is a grassroots collective of artists in the greater Triangle area of North Carolina. Our areas of focus include bookbinding, artists’ books, printmaking and printing, papermaking, zines, calligraphy – followed by a hearty et cetera. We aim to be inclusive of all book art and skill levels.

VAE Raleigh is a nonprofit community cultural arts organization, supporting artists by providing a platform to showcase their work, educational resources to expand their creative careers, funding for their most ambitious ideas, and connections to the resources needed to thrive.

Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice by Ivan Brunetti
“Through simple, creative exercises and assignments, Brunetti offers an unintimidating approach to a complex art form. […] By following the author’s sophisticated and engaging perspective on the art of cartooning, aspiring cartoonists of all ages will hone their craft, create their personal style, and discover their own visual language.”

Drawing Words and Writing Pictures
and Mastering Comics by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden
“Drawing Words and Writing Pictures is a course on comic creation – for college classes or for independent study – that centers on storytelling and concludes with making a finished comic. With chapters on lettering, story structure, and panel layout, the fifteen lessons offered […] provide a solid introduction for people interested in making their own comics.” Mastering Comics takes things even farther!

The Essential Guide to Comic Book Lettering by Tom Orzechowski
“Piekos provides readers with the most in-depth tips and techniques ever published on the subject of digital comic book lettering in this exhaustive guide. He covers everything from creating lettering templates, emotive dialogue, and dynamic sound effects to developing design skills and building a lettering career in the comic industry.”

Making Comics by Lynda Barry
“For more than five years the cartoonist Lynda Barry has been an associate professor in the University of Wisconsin–Madison art department and at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, teaching students from all majors, both graduate and undergraduate, how to make comics, how to be creative, how to not think. There is no academic lecture in this classroom. Doodling is enthusiastically encouraged.”

Making Comics by Scott McCloud
“McCloud focuses his analysis on the art form itself, exploring the creation of comics, from the broadest principles to the sharpest details (like how to accentuate a character’s facial muscles in order to form the emotion of disgust rather than the emotion of surprise.) […] Both comic book devotees and the uninitiated will marvel at this journey into a once–underappreciated art form.”

Manga in Theory and Practice by Hirohiko Araki
“According to [Araki, author of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure] manga is the ultimate synthesis of all forms of art, and in this book he reveals the secrets behind how to make the magic happen using concrete examples from his own work. Read all about his ‘golden ratio’ for drawing, the character histories he draws up for each of the characters he creates, his methodology for storytelling inspired by the great Ernest Hemingway, and many more aspects of manga creation […].”

Draw Stronger is Kriota Willberg’s excellent guide to injury prevention and first aid for cartoonists (and anyone whose work keeps them desk-bound).

From Chaos to Creativity is Jessie L. Kwak’s guide for “how to focus on the good ideas, manage your project, make time in your life, and execute your passions to completion.”

In Make Every Day Creative “[c]elebrated illustrator Marion Deuchars [shares] a host of inspiring projects and ideas [and] shows people of all ages and artistic abilities how a little creativity every day can make a big difference.” Feeling creatively stuck? Maybe you just need to reset your art brain with with the unrelated (or are they??) art activities in this book!

A People’s Guide to Publishing by Microcosm Press founder Joe Biel is an “accessible and comprehensive guide to running a successful publishing business”, and a there’s even a workbook!

Small Time Operator is CPA Bernard Kamoroff’s guide to starting a business and staying out of trouble, and is excellent whether you’re launching a media empire or selling zines at the local con.

Art Studio Insights is “a podcast that aims to demystify the creative process and engage in dialog about the business practices and skills artists need. Helmed by [Triangle-based artists] Adriana Ameigh and Jackie Sanders, these video and audio podcasts [address] topics ranging (so far) from Creative Warm Ups to Technology in Art [and] explore topics interesting to all working artists.”

In Drawing a Dialogue, hosts Cathy G. Johnson + remus jackson “research a topic that expands our understanding of comics. This podcast is scholarship-driven and student-centered, discussing comics as an artistic medium and educational tool. Citation is available for every episode of DaD to encourage listeners to research and explore themselves!”

Graphic Novel TK is a podcast about the process of making graphic novels aimed at authors, artists, and people who are interested in the behind-the-scenes of the publishing business.” Each episode is devoted to a single topic–pitches, agents, printing, etc.–as it relates specifically to graphic novels and comics. Indispensable!

With Make It Then Tell Everybody, cartoonist-host Dan Berry sought to “interview as many comic artists as I could. I’d been interested for a long time in how artists approach their work, how they rationalise what they do and how they saw themselves fitting in to the wider world, [the] way that comic artists work, what they think about the process of making comics and how they go about making a living from that.” The podcast has ended but has a massive back catalog.

The Sequential Artists Workshop has an ENORMOUS archive of workshops, panels, conversation, and other super useful stuff on YouTube!

Thick Lines is hosted by cartoonists Katie Skelly (Maids, Nurse Nurse) and Sally Madden (Gray is Not a Color, Big Time). Join the hosts and their cartoonist guests as they discuss comics in a way that’s 50% book club and 50% comics-making masterclass. For the fun backstory of the podcast, check out this Comics Journal interview!

Working, one of Slate’s many podcast offerings, features interviews with professionals from a huge range of fields, always with something interesting to say, and they’ve included comics creators many times throughout the years! (Search for “comic” or “cartoon” or “graphic” on their Pandora podcast page for more targeted listening.)