It’s quite possible the next Alan Moore (Watchmen and so much more), Gary Larson (Far Side) or Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes) was inspired to do great things on Aug. 16 as 14 young West Seattleites gathered to learn the basics of cartooning from professional artist David Lasky.

The “Comics and Characters” workshop took place at the Seattle Library High Point branch as part of SPL’s Summer Reading Program in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the 1962 World’s Fair.

Lasky, a 44-year-old alternative Seattle cartoonist who has been making comics and graphic novels since 1989, approached his lesson by starting out with the basics: geometric shapes that anyone can draw.

“Even Spiderman is made of those shapes,” he said.

The children were armed with pencils, scratch paper and licorice (provided by the library and, ultimately, Seattle’s taxpayers and philanthropists), and followed Lasky’s lead by combining those simple forms into characters. Within minutes, the room was full of anthropomorphic apples, retro robots and “chill” cats (as one young artist put it).

He provided some insider tricks as well.

It turns out the angle of eyebrows is really all that’s needed to convey a world of emotions and (as Walt Disney instructed his cartoonists long ago) it is much easier to draw hands to with three fingers instead of four … and no one seems to mind. Lasky illustrated how a cloudy word balloon conveys internal thought, a smooth one is used for speech, and a spiky one is reserved for robots and their electronic drawl.

Having laid the foundations, Lasky unleashed the children to their own imaginations and, over the next 45 minutes, a wonderful array of characters were born and their eight-panel comic book adventures began.

Eight-year-old Jonathan Simmons, who loves to draw maps more than anything else, worked on “Awesomeman,” who, as the name suggests, was pretty darn awesome.

“He’s like a superhero and he goes around earth,” Simmons said. “Plus, it’s really weird because he has no shirt.”

Dawet Gdwen, also eight, drew inspiration from Lasky’s feline character on the dry erase board and ran with it, keeping the adventure close to home.

“His cat mom told him to borrow two books from the library,” Gdwen explained as his odyssey took shape. “He finished one and he got another one and it’s all about heroes and stuff and he’s late and he’s rollerskating so fast that he starts sweating.”

Asked if he’d like to follow in Lasky’s footsteps and become a professional artist one day, Gdwen replied, “Ya, but I’m not expecting to do that kind of stuff.”

“When I grow up I want to be a scientist.”

He’ll certainly keep drawing in the meantime, though, because the simple truth is, “It’s fun.”

To learn more about David Lasky, visit his portfolio online and check out his Amazon page.