Hi, its Jake again.
On March 7th, I got to teach kids at the Butler Area Public Library some basics in comic book making for the library’s Eisner Day. I gave them pages with either 4 or 6 panels on it and they had to tell a joke. The prompt was easy.
If ____ could ____.
But they had to fill in the blanks.
(Special thanks to Janice Liu for this great lesson plan that you can find here on her blog.)
The kids drew things that genuinely made me laugh. I had almost all elementary school kids, with one in middle school and one in high school. Enjoy!
This student, Paige, said she is in middle school and draws comics every day. After I heard that I immediately encouraging her to keep it up. I pointed out that what she was doing well are things that adults still get wrong. She was very receptive and humble about the feedback she got from me and the other kids. She drew two pages. I’ll save the other one for last.
If Pokémon Go to School with Me by Winnie
When we started drawing, the kids were hot off the heels of trading Pokémon cards, so they started brainstorming about Pokémon cartoons. Winnie very clearly had a vision for what would happen in each panel and would happily tell you about the Pokémon misbehaving. As she explained, panel 1 was of Haunter trying to put on school clothes. Panel 2 was Raichu running because he was late to school. Panel 3 is Meowth sitting at a desk and being a class clown. Panel 5 is Jigglypuff throwing her backpack because she wouldn’t put it in the locker.
Our second comic was also about Pokémon going to school, but Benat reasoned that the Pokémon would have to stay outside.
If Pokémon Collected Human Cards by Randall
"I will give you a Ben and a Bob for a Tom!". Randall took the most time and made the most clever page with the help of the others in the room. I also got to teach him how to sign his name which was cool. I told him I wouldn’t take a picture without it.
Liam was excited to tell me that the bad guy ‘snots’ in the last panel and Yoda is so nice, he still says “bless you”.
Murphy was laughing with his mom about this one. I guess their dog loves chicken wings too much. I love that the chicken wing has a sad face.
This is the high school student; he forgot to sign it. I think his expressions and the body language of the monster is really strong.
This is the first comic Paige drew. She demonstrated some real practiced mastery for her age. The expressions of the cats are super readable and engaging. Her handwriting is really neat (Which is rare. Believe me, I’m a public school teacher.) The speech bubbles have the right amount of kerning and tracking, the margins between the text and the bubble edges are precise. I only wish I got a picture of it when she colored it. Coloring it was also very fast and controlled; she colored the cats and the background and even did shading.
I drew one with the kids too, but I think their work deserves the space on this blog instead. And Paige liked it so I sent it home with her.
I think the best part was seeing the young kids sharing their comics and laughing at each other's jokes. It is a treat to see them draw with their imagination unbound. Being ashamed of your art is a learned behavior but they weren't old enough to develop any of that. I encouraged their drawings and they started to do the same for each other.
They just drew what came to mind, got excited to show it off and didn’t overthink it. I think we can learn from that.
I can’t wait for the next one!
Jake