If you are passionate about storytelling and imagery, and want to be in a city that has a strong comics scene, check out the MCAD MFA Program. Situated in an interdisciplinary environment, our students are invited to hone traditional, digital, and experimental approaches according to their interests, while also focusing on professional development, the placement of comics and comic artists in the cultural world, and the rapidly changing self-publishing avenues in the field.

Mentors / Faculty

Students can select their mentors from the MCAD faculty and/or the professional community of the Twin Cities. For example, a student could reach out to Tom Kaczynski, who teaches at MCAD and owns Uncivilized Books, a boutique comics publishing house based in Minneapolis. Another recent comics mentor is Zak Sally – check out this great MN Originals video about his work.

See the Recent Mentors to get a sense of who our students are working with.

Regional Resources

MCAD and the Twin Cities’ community also has several organizations, events, publications, and studios, which support wide-ranging approaches to comics:

EVENTS:

• Autoptic Festival – The Autoptic Foundation also produces a series of comics readings by comic artists throughout the year (roughly quarterly)
• There are 2 local comic conventions from the Midwest Comic Book Association (MSP Spring Con and MSP Fall Con)
• MCAD Art Sale
• Twin Cities Independent Comics Expo [TWICE] hosted by MCAD Comics
• Twin Cities Zine Fest

PLACES:

• Moon Palace Books has readings and is generally an amazing bookstore for comics (Likewise Magers & Quinn Booksellers, and Dreamhaven)
• Mead Hall Games & Comics – the closest comics shop to campus, and they’re really good about supporting local comics folks
• The College of Comic Book Knowledge – local comic book store
• Issues Needed Comics – co-owned by Bethy Wanvig MCAD BFA ’09 in Apple Valley
• Light Grey Art Lab
• The Source Comics & Games in St. Paul
• World Monster HQ

PUBLICATIONS:

• Kyle Harabedian and Dennis Madamba are local MFA alums with Campfire Comics & Stories, an anthology comic series that features a ton of alumni

Regional Funding

Additionally, MCAD’s MFA program can help you apply to several regional sources of funding. For some awards, you can apply during the summer between your first and second year to receive funding in the months after graduating.

• Jerome Foundation Grants
• Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program
• Metropolitan Regional Arts Council Grants
• Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grants (can apply as a student, but project cannot be associated with your degree program)
• McKnight Foundation Grants
• Midway Contemporary Art Visual Arts Fund
• and more (the funding environment in MN is ever-evolving and growing)

Facilities

The MCAD Service Bureau is your go-to stop for friendly assistance with all of your printing needs for an extremely affordable price. You can check out the facilities on our virtual building tour.

• Color and black-and-white copies and laser prints
• High-quality color inkjet prints
• Scanning
• Bookbinding
• Fabric printing
• Vinyl cutting
• Risograph printing
• And much more…

Recent Alumni Achievements

You can view an on-going list of MFA alumni highlights here. A few call outs include:

• Kristin Tipping ’16, MN Artist Initiative Grant 2019
• Rebecca Silus ’08, MN Artist Initiative Grant 2019
• Alexander Mitchell ’16, MN Artist Initiative Grant 2018

Selected Alumni

We also have many successful alumni who can help expand your network, such as:

• Molly Murakami
• Camilo Aguirre
• Harry Gao
• John Bivens
• Kyle Harabedian
• Alexander Mitchell
• Joi Wenjin Yao
• Rebecca Silus
• Kristin Tipping

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