In a UW–Madison art course, students named ‘Hamlet,’ ‘Hello Kitty’ and ‘George Washington’ all can be found. As one of the first tasks of Art 448: Making Comics, students must choose a pseudonym to go by. By the end of the course, students walk away with a 32-page portfolio of work, something Madeline Court — another graduate student in creative writing — says shows the progress and improvement students make over time. Though the course is heavy in writing and cartooning, Shetler describes it as “more than just drawing comics.” Beyond learning how to create comics content, students also gain skills that are imperative to promoting creativity and self-expression. She says the nature of Making Comics is not about criticism, but rather about encouragement.