Chester Comix - Comic books and graphic novels that bring history to life!

Welcome to Chester Comix! Inside this site you'll find fun samples of the way Bentley Boyd uses comix to spark interest in history for reluctant readers! Check what he's drawing now, go with him to weird historical sites across the country, or download a coloring page and put your own words into his drawings! This home page features my most recent news/blog entries. Learn more about my blog. Have fun! --Bentley Boyd

More teacher's guides for free

July 23rd, 2010

Jump on over to http://www.chestercomix.com/teaching-guides to get the free pdf download of the teacher’s guides for my comix “First Americans,” “Revolutionary Rumblings,” and “War for Independence.”

These additions to the teacher’s area of the website mean almost all my comix now have free teacher’s guides here at Chester’s home on the web. (Because I’m finally running out of the printed versions — and am gaining back some closet space in my house!!) There are many other free teacher resources on the web, but I think the Chester Comix guides do quite well in comparison. Most of the other resources I see are completely text and skimpy on any material you would present directly to students. My guides are broken into distinct sections, have a lot of visuals and have material to directly help both teachers and their students.

Plus, they have quizzes!! I know, I know, the kids don’t like that. But I try hard to craft a light-but-firm tone with them so that these assessments aren’t as heavy as a full-blown standardized test practice but still give the students experience with those kinds of questions. (“Which of the following did Europeans NOT trade for West African gold?”)

These teacher’s guides are packed with the wisdom and work of a dozen real-world classroom teachers who helped me when Chester ran as a newspaper feature for five years. They taught me a lot, and I still hear their guiding voices every time I sit down to draw a new story to help more students.

And their teachers.

Tags: Chester the Crab, educational comics, teachers guide
Posted in History Teacher, literacy | 1 Comment »

Reprints

April 19th, 2010

I just got reprints of three Chester Comix titles off the truck from my Virginia printer. It feels great to be selling enough that I need to get thousands more copies of

Slavery’s Storm

Reconstruction Junction

Lewis & Clark Transportation

Of course there are little tweaks in each of these new editions (Slavery’s Storm is on its third run) — but they’re so small that only I would notice them. Unlike the edits I made to “Jamestown Journey” for its reprint a few months ago, these changes are simpler — a spot of color cleaned up, a word or two trimmed, a verb made more active. I can always make my writing better!!!

It’s fun for me to go back to storytelling I did 8 or 9 years ago to make it better. I’ve learned a lot more about storytelling than I knew then. And I’ve learned more historical details, too. I’m 43, and I’m still learning — I want the books to reflect that, not turn into museum pieces themselves.

If you want to see how I’m constantly working and reworking my storytelling, jump on my Creative Trail through this website. Start here with some rough drafts, then follow Chester’s claws — you’ll see that my books are never completely “done.” 😉

Posted in Author's Purpose | No Comments »

Reading comix boosts vocabulary

April 8th, 2010

Here’s a cute and personal take on the many studies that have shown comix boost the vocabulary and reading comprehension skills of young readers. (You know, like reading just about ANYTHING boosts vocabulary and reading comprehension skills!) This blog on NPR’s website falls apart at the end, as the writer strays from the vocabulary theme and gets into a bunch of obscure comic book themes that, well, OK, I GET, but they aren’t important to his main point.

PS – Interesting to me that he is almost exactly my age. I still remain devoted to Sesame Street and the teaching power of simple and bold ideas. Like comix!

Tags: Bentley Boyd, Chester the Crab, comic books, educational comics, literacy, reluctant readers, vocabulary
Posted in literacy | No Comments »

Comic books that bring history to life!