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"My 8 year old son absolutely enjoys Chester-Comix. He is able to relate to our history lessons more now than ever before." Beverly, homeschooling mom |
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Posts Tagged ‘Bentley Boyd’
Homeschool All-Stars cover
Written on Sunday, November 1st, 2009 [permanent link]
I’m in the homestretch for the homeschooler book! I’m hoping to get it to the printers this week. One of my favorite parts of making a new book is drawing the cover, which is a great moment to try to draw all the inside contents together.
This cover is a tribute to the Justice League of America comix I grew up on. Every year there would be a 2-issue crossover story featuring a whole pack of heroes, so their busts would appear around the edges of the cover to promote the story. To do an homage to that kind of kitchen-sink cover was a fun way for me to get out front more of the one-page bios. (I’m hoping this book will also sell at gift shops in the various museums dedicated to these folks.)
Unfortunately, this stage of the creative process is also the hardest for me emotionally. It’s where I don’t feel talented at ALL! Near the end I get really frustrated as I pull back and see the difference between what I have in my head and what appears on the page. (This used to happen even near the end of much shorter projects, such as the daily black and white political cartoon I drew from 1995 to 1999.) So I’m diving back in and trying to sharpen things up in these last few days — kind of a marathon runner’s last gasp push to cross the finish line strong!
Tags: Bentley Boyd, biography, Chester Comix, George Patton, graphic novel, history, homeschool, Teddy Roosevelt
Posted in Author's Purpose | No Comments »
Hooray for the Constitution!!
Written on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 [permanent link]
One of the teachers who brought her class to see me at James Madison’s Montpelier for Constitution Day ’09 sent me this snapshot! I am on the porch of Madison’s beautiful home after speaking to the kids and the gathered public — I lov…ed being between the Constitution and President Madison himself (played so well by John Douglas Hall). I’m such a history geek – this really was one of the most thrilling things I’ve done in my work to bring powdered wig history alive for today’s students! I MEAN IT!!!!
Tags: Bentley Boyd, Chester Comix, Chester the Crab, Constitution Day, James Madison, Montpelier
Posted in Author's Purpose | No Comments »
New Ideas at Williams Elementary in Virginia Beach
Written on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 [permanent link]Every time I speak to students about my work as an author, I end the session as fired up as they are. I get a new idea, a new phrase, or a new drawing out of the brainstorming we do together, and my talk this week to fourth- and fifth-graders at Williams Elementary in Virginia Beach is a good look at how the process works. . .
First, the school purchased sets of my history comix for each classroom last spring. The teachers reported to me how excited the kids were to read them and how much their test scores improved last spring. So the audience was ready for me Tuesday! (One girl in the front row made a point to tell me, as the other students filed into the cafeteria, that her favorite title was “Slavery’s Storm.” I don’t think of that one as a feel-good favorite. But I was happy she found connection with my stories about the political and social struggles leading up to the Civil War.)
Speaking to about 200 fourth-graders in a big cafeteria is a challenge. But the microphone was great, and I could do my roaming among the rows of kids easily, peppering them with questions and trying to draw ideas with them. Here was one of my inventions for Williams: my fourth drawing in the talk is usually a drawing of me drawing a historical figure, who stands to the side and critiques my drawing. I’ve used George Washington (“My nose is NOT that big!”) and James Madison (“I am NOT that short!”) but for Williams I decided to draw Frederick Douglass and his awesome historical afro! The kids loved it — and, to my happiness, knew who Douglass was. That’s rare among American fourth-graders.
The fifth-graders in the afternoon session also threw me a curveball I’ve never faced. I put on the overhead my page about the Dred Scott decision, which features the black robe of the chief justice of the Supreme Court covering over the panels below it. I started the discussion of the page by asking, “What kind of person wears a black robe for their job?” One student said “Lincoln!” Hmmmm, he did wear a black longcoat . . . “George Washington!” Ummmm, yeah, we see him in a black heavy coat in the crossing of the Delaware, but what kind of job would a . . . “PREACHER!” Oh boy, I hadn’t thought of THAT one before!!! EXCELLENTLY broad cultural referencing there! My own preacher doesn’t wear a big robe, but many ministers in many other kids of churches do.
I laughed and then made my Judge Judy reference, and we were back on track.
Tags: Author's Purpose, Bentley Boyd, Chester Comix, comic book, Frederick Douglass, graphic novel, Virginia Beach, Williams Elementary
Posted in Author's Purpose | 2 Comments »
