Many teenagers have dreamed of drawing their own comic.

Local Temecula artist Tony Moramarco of Bigfoot Graphics is helping teenagers achieve this dream.

Moramarco – who teaches other art classes including the popular Manga style – arranged for young men and women in seventh through 12th grade to gather in the Temecula Public Library community room to learn about the various skills they would need to hone to make their own comic. About 30 students attended the city-sponsored course.

A graphic novel is a narrative composed of text and art, often in comic-strip form, and is not a bound comic series compilation but rather a traditional full-length story that has a beginning, middle and end.

"You have to start with the story," Moramarco said during the class.

He followed this statement by giving the students an initial conception-stage prompt. "What are you interested in learning about?" he asked.

Moramarco suggested the teens consider developing a character that they can relate to. The character needs to be motivated by something, he said.

The character needs to take some kind of action such as attempting to fulfill a wish.

Teenagers may want their characters to be tough, confident, and someone with a positive self-esteem.

Through the process of character development, the teens may also want to consider having their character reveal a darker side of them.

This will create a conflict that the character must resolve.

By the end of the story, the character must have done something interesting to remedy the problem, and have changed or grown from the experience in some way.

"Graphic novels are a huge trend in the publishing and literary worlds," Moramarco said in a recent telephone interview.

The Young Adult Library Services Association, which is the fourth largest division of the American Library Association, has been recommending books to teens for over 50 years. According to their top ten list of best graphic novels for 2010, a must-read this year is the joint creation by Mike Carey and Sebastian Fiumara called "Ender’s Shadow: Battle School" published by Marvel. In the novel, the main character’s life on the streets is a constant war and his only hope for peace may be to attend school.

Also on the list is Hiroyuki Asada’s "Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee, Volume 1" which is set in a world of endless night where telephones and e-mail are non-existent. Advertisement

[ Berry-Bell and Hall Mortuary ] The story poses the question: "Will your message be received?"

Everyone needs to consider collaborating with at least one other person, Moramarco urged the class.

"The main thing is whether it’s writing or drawing, and you are interested in only one, you can still produce a graphic novel," he explained to the students.

Menifee’s Santa Rosa Academy student Sabrina Sanders, 15, who lives in Winchester, said she loves to write and is working on a fictional novel about a girl who has strange dreams that come true. Her character also finds out that she is a witch. When it comes to drawing though, Sabrina considers her abilities to be inferior to her writing skills.

"I’m not so great at this," she said. "I need to keep learning."

During one of her weekly visits to the library, Sabrina found out about the class through an advertisement poster hanging on one of the walls in the building.

The self-ascribed "book worm" said she was immediately interested and was glad that she came.

Moramarco made the class discussion unique, she said.

"He’s hilarious," Sabrina said. "I’d like to look at some of his creations."

Originally from Southern California, Moramarco, 40, attended the Art Institute of San Diego in La Jolla.

After working for Marriott Corporate Design & Promotions followed by a stint drawing Looney Tunes for a Warner Bros. licensee in Washington, D.C., he started Bigfoot Graphics – a custom design and illustration business – in 1995 based out of Baltimore, Md.

In 1998, he moved back west and brought his experience and passion with him.

Moramarco immediately began teaching his first cartooning workshop for the City of Murrieta. He added more classes which became an ongoing leisure activity amongst people of all ages in the community with the majority of his attendees being teens who loved to doodle.

He eventually landed another city contract but this time it was with Temecula, and today Moramarco continues to teach weekly workshops at the library and senior center.

Other Bigfoot Graphics classes include basic graphic design, and one that explores the Japanese comic book genre Manga.

This was the first time Moramarco had taught the graphic novel design class and he hopes to do it again in the future.

"I didn’t know what to expect," Moramarco said. "I was very pleasantly surprised. It was fun."