We love to have fun. We love being creative. We love building community. We work really hard to make sure that POP ROC Cereal Bar & Comic Shop is a safe environment for everyone. We want to be a pop culture destination for people to feel joy! Expanding our reach to provide this kind of service to our community is important to us. Offering new community-building initiatives is a top priority for 2020, and we are working hard to organize them! Coming up for the whole month of February is a new initiative for anyone who has a desire to create. We are launching a pilot program, Comic Creators Series, which are workshops to teach participants how to develop their own comic, and is Special Guest lead by other creatives in our Rochester community. You can check out the event on Facebook here!

We have such a strong relationship with comics and the community that surrounds comics. We believe that they play a crucial role in our own character development and that they are more than a source of entertainment and pleasure. They help provide a moral compass and a sense of justice. They are a source of fantasy and escapism. They help reduce stress and encourage hope. They help young kids become interested in reading. They embrace diversity and inclusion. They are usually quick to read through and they inspire creativity. Victoria Leeder, Special Guest leading Character Development shares that her relationship with comics started at a very young age. “I've been reading comics for pretty much as long as I can remember. When I was in middle school, discovering comics from Japan felt like a revelation - the art styles and stories were so exciting! I remember practicing by re-drawing the comic panels with my own characters. Another important discovery was the rise of webcomics, which made it seem like anyone could make and share their comics. Evan Dahm's "Rice Boy" showed me the versatility of what comics could do and communicate. They don't always have to be superheroes or fantasy adventures, as much as I love those things, they can also be surreal and haunting or personal and emotional. If you can imagine a story, any story, you can tell it through comics and that's what I love about them.”

These series are exclusive workshops to those who register. People have the option to register for one or more of the following workshops: 

Week 1: February 5: Anatomy of a Comic with Sally Jay Sparrow

The purpose of this workshop is to help people understand the different elements of a comic and how they come together to create one product.

Week 2: February 12: Character Development with Victoria Leeder

The purpose of this workshop is to help people learn how to bring their idea of a character to life.

Week 3: February 19: Art of Storytelling with Dave DiPrimo

The purpose of this workshop is to help people understand how to develop, tell, and keep an audience interested in a story. 

Week 4: February 26: Bringing it all Together with Dragon Messmer

The purpose of this workshop is to help people pull their elements, their characters, and their stories together for presentation. 

Week 5: March 6: First Friday New Comic Artist Showcase & Make Art Day

The purpose of participating in First Friday is to celebrate the work put in over the past month and to inspire others to create as well.

To celebrate the conclusion of the series and all the hard work put in by all those who participate, local creators, special guests, POP ROC staff, we will have a gallery showing of the comics created on First Friday, March 6, 2020. Their work, if they choose, can be on display for the whole month of March. POP ROC will also be participating in “Make Art Day” on March 6. This is an event that the Rochester Contemporary Art Center has organized for the second year in an effort to bring the community together to make art at the same time, and a fun way to encourage the community to create a 6x6 art piece for their June 6 6x6 fundraising exhibit. These workshops, the showcase of the work, and the venue participation for “Make Art Day” is all about having fun, being creative and building community. Our goal is to attract anyone who has a desire to create and share. Sally Jay Sparrow, Anatomy of a Comic Special Guest shares “I create because I love what I consume. Since I was a kid, I've loved all sorts of art; I played music, wrote fiction, worked for the school newspaper, made origami, and generally just connected to all sorts of creative outlets. The way those works emotionally touched me compelled me to do the same for others.”

POP ROC is grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the community in the visual arts. We love being able to share the amazing work being done in our community and encourage those who participate to showcase their work for the month of March. Also, for the month of February, each registered participant also becomes enrolled in our Comic Discovery Program where they can read any comic title they want while in POP ROC and can receive 10% off their purchases all month long. 

To help kickstart your comic creating journey, Dragon Messmer, special guest leader for Bringing it all Together on February 26, shares that you should keep the following on you at all times: “You need to keep a sketchbook, or at least a notepad, and pen or pencil with you. I do a lot of the writing in the back of my mind while I go about my day. If I don’t get the ideas down when they emerge, I find I will forget, or they lose their sharp edges and get vague. Also, sometimes doubt creeps in later and I will want to dismiss the ideas. Having them in a book, I can reconsider them later or rework them when the storm of doubt has passed. It’s also handy to have the space, for when I get spare moments here and there to workout layout, postures, perspectives and other visual representations of the story.”

We are really looking forward to this pilot program and feedback from the community. Please register for your workshop(s) now as space is limited. Please note the following information:

• These workshops are for ages 16+.

• Registration is required.

• Seating is limited.

• The cost is $10 per class or $35 for 4 weeks. The cost helps offset any supplies provided like handouts - individuals are encouraged to bring their own supplies (paper, pens, pencils, markers, laptops, etc)

• POP ROC Cereal Bar & Comic Shop may cancel a workshop for extreme weather conditions (i.e. if there is a warning to not be on the roads), we will do our best to reschedule for the following day, Thursday evening at 6:30pm. This may or may not be feasible for everyone and we apologize for any inconvenience. If you cannot make the rescheduled date, we will make an exception, and refund you $10 if you registered for the one workshop or $8 if you registered for the entire series.

• We cannot refund the investment registered participants have made who do not show up to their workshop(s). This is to ensure accountability as seating is limited and not everyone who wants to participate during this series is able to because it is first come first serve and exclusive to only those who pre-registered.

• Registered participants receive exclusive access to POP ROC Cereal Bar & Comic Shop during the workshop and opportunity to learn how to develop their own comic with the opportunity to create their own comic and have it on display for the Rochester, NY community.

• Registered participants become part of the POP ROC Cereal Bar & Comic Shop Comic Discovery Program for the month of February. This includes 10% off all merchandise purchased, including food and beverages, comics and collectibles, and they can read all the comics they want while in POP ROC.

• Registered participants get to meet & greet with special guest creators in a guided workshop setting.

• Special guests may have their own work available for show and sell during the workshop.

We look forward to creating with you!