Several years ago, Matt and I formalized the concept of Comic Construction as a traveling educational program to help spread our love of the comics medium to public and private schools throughout Connecticut.
Comics brought us together as friends and creators way back in our high school days. Starting out sharing our issues of Spider-man, Conan the Barbarian, Batman and others, we got the idea to produce our own comics in the Summer of 1992. Using a photocopier, stapler, and loads of scotch tape, we produced our own mini-comics, and along the way developed the skills we would later use to become professional comic creators.
There were no comics classes then, we were lucky to receive only a disapproving stare from our teachers, rather than having the comics seized from us outright. The medium did not get much respect back then, still suffering from the days of repression in the 1950s. Comics were at best considered junk entertainment.
Thankfully, the passing years have brought increased respect to the medium, both in terms of the quality of the products, but also their value in education. As an arts integrated medium, encompassing both fine arts and literacy, comics finally began to be used both for struggling readers, but also acknowledged as literature as well with such seminal works as Maus and Watchmen brought much deserved credibility.
Collected works and original long form works gained the more credible appellation, "Graphic Novel," and books began to be carried by libraries and appear in curricula around the country, however sparsely.
With Comic Construction, we bring the tools to the students and teachers, and see that creating comics is more than just adding word balloons to silly drawings. The medium offers great freedom and opportunity to create and reinforce concepts from other subjects. The conventions of comics mirror the conventions of prose and theater and film, incorporating dialog, plot, setting and the like.
No longer the reviled step-child or literature, comics have achieved the mainstream respect we comics lovers have always afforded them. With Comic Construction we have the opportunity to spread that message to you and your classrooms.
Steve Kanaras
Comics brought us together as friends and creators way back in our high school days. Starting out sharing our issues of Spider-man, Conan the Barbarian, Batman and others, we got the idea to produce our own comics in the Summer of 1992. Using a photocopier, stapler, and loads of scotch tape, we produced our own mini-comics, and along the way developed the skills we would later use to become professional comic creators.
There were no comics classes then, we were lucky to receive only a disapproving stare from our teachers, rather than having the comics seized from us outright. The medium did not get much respect back then, still suffering from the days of repression in the 1950s. Comics were at best considered junk entertainment.
Thankfully, the passing years have brought increased respect to the medium, both in terms of the quality of the products, but also their value in education. As an arts integrated medium, encompassing both fine arts and literacy, comics finally began to be used both for struggling readers, but also acknowledged as literature as well with such seminal works as Maus and Watchmen brought much deserved credibility.
Collected works and original long form works gained the more credible appellation, "Graphic Novel," and books began to be carried by libraries and appear in curricula around the country, however sparsely.
With Comic Construction, we bring the tools to the students and teachers, and see that creating comics is more than just adding word balloons to silly drawings. The medium offers great freedom and opportunity to create and reinforce concepts from other subjects. The conventions of comics mirror the conventions of prose and theater and film, incorporating dialog, plot, setting and the like.
No longer the reviled step-child or literature, comics have achieved the mainstream respect we comics lovers have always afforded them. With Comic Construction we have the opportunity to spread that message to you and your classrooms.
Steve Kanaras
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