Comics class: Whitehorse artists meet famed cartoonist Lynn Johnston

If you ever read a newspaper comic strip about a hapless teacher called Melvin Floob,you'll know it started in Whitehorse.

The character was invented by Maddy Mead, one of a few budding Yukon cartoonistswho attended a workshop at the Arts Underground on Thursday.

"He's a teacher who's always late and still lives with his mom," she says.

The workshop was led byLynn Johnston, perhaps Canada's most well-knowncartoonist. She created the comic strip For Better or For Worse, which follows the Patterson family. Ithas been an internationalsuccess, finding its way into more than 2,000 newspapers (including the Whitehorse Star.)

Johnstonsays it's always nice to meet young people who are interested in drawing, even if their generation is more used to webcomicsthan the 'Sunday funnies.'

"I am glad to see they're readingand they're doing a lot of hand drawing," she said.

"Fantasy will never go away so and so we all have some thing in commonall of us here. We're all members of the same club."

Johnston also held a workshop for adults at the Arts Underground in Whitehorse.