Finding Your Inner Looney Tune took place at 826 Valencia on a boiling Saturday afternoon. It was easily 104 degrees, which is ridiculous for San Francisco, but workshop attendees bore the heat with a cool professionalism that even we didn’t expect from 8–11-year-olds.

The workshop was inspired by Chuck Jones’s autobiography Chuck Amuck in which he imparts wisdom to both writers and animators:

“I never had to leave home to develop any character I ever developed or helped to develop. All I had to do was reach down inside my own self and there lurking was the essence of Daffy Duck, the Coyote, or Elmer, or the Martian. It was simply a matter of bringing it to the surface.”

The instructor, who can’t draw but who has loved cartoons since before she could talk, thought this philosophy was a pretty good jumping-off point. Students jotted down observations about themselves, family members, pets, and friends. They built characters by combining pieces of each and eventually wrote a brand-new story. Between writing exercises, the class watched Looney Tunes characters in their very best short film work (Duck Amuck, Feed the Kitty, and Rabbit Fire, to name a few) in order to observe character, setting, conflict, and genre.

Highlights from stories shared with the class:

-A girl and canine detective duo investigate mice on a planet made of cheese

-Clean Man, a germaphobe, is kidnapped and attacked by fly people, then makes his way home on a speedboat after encountering a volcano and Antarctica

-Lilith the dog and Mingo the camel use their wits and biting skills to escape from evil bats

Illustrations included a very happy fish and a sinister pair of twins with fangs and matching polka-dot helmets.

Students were strongly encouraged to submit their finished work to the 826 Quarterly, so perhaps you’ll read more about recently discovered cartoon characters in the next issue.

-Micah Pilkington, workshop leader