Ty Templeton, who has worked on comics like Batman Adventures, is part of Max the Mutt Animation School’s new diploma program focused on comic illustration and art.

Many of us remember those childhood games of dress up, tying a bed sheet around our necks for a cape, arms stretched out, dreaming about being our favorite superhero. For the students at Max the Mutt Animation School, these dreams have become reality.

“You have to love what you do,” says Ty Templeton, a professor of comic book production, writing, and illustration at Max the Mutt. “Comics are a viable career and it’s a fun industry to work in.”

Max the Mutt Animation School has created a new diploma program focused on comic illustration and art. They have been pushing the idea of a comic illustration diploma program since they founded the school in 1999. This May, they finally got the ball rolling.

With the help of well-known Canadian comic artists like Templeton, who has worked on DC Comics’ Batman Adventures and has illustrated many other titles, including the Justice League, the course is slated to create the comic artists of the future.

“There’s no such thing as talent. Talent is taught, and that’s what we’re teaching the students here,” Templeton says.

American design school, Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Ga.; was one of the few options for hopeful comic artists, with tuition at $22,950 US. Max the Mutt offers the only two-year diploma program for comic art in Canada. Now, Canadian artists don’t necessarily have to hop on a plane south of the border to get the education they want. And course tuition at Max the Mutt is at a bargain price of about $7,000 a year.

Daniel Tynan, a 26 year-old recent graduate of Max the Mutt’s three-year animation program, believes that their current animation program has helped him as an artist. He feels the comic program would be beneficial to artists.

“I’ve learned a lot here. We get to work on great stuff.” Even though the school year has ended, Tynan is ambitiously tinkering at an impressive animation he created using Maya software.

“It’s a lot of hard work, but in the end you make something you’re proud of.”