It's Clobberin' Time!

2006-11-20T00:02:00.000-08:00

Hooray! We've come to my landmark tenth post. While this is the final post that is required for my class, I plan on continuing the blog and expanding a bit. In the future I'll likely be including personal reviews and bringing up things in the comic book that strike me. For now I'd like to say a few things about my blogging experience so far.

To start with, I've certainly learned a lot. I didn't even have a clue what an rss reader was before, and while I had problems in the beginning I now find myself being able to manipulate one just fine. While I was frustrated by the lack of comic book related articles my rss reader turned up, I found that by searching things out a little more specifically on Google I could find plenty of material to work with. I'm quite pleased with the information I've been able to find and things seem encouraging in the realm where comic books and education meet. This is likely to be a hot topic for the next few years as comic books gain respect and find their places in schools as teaching aides. The Maryland act placing comic books in 10% of schools is a great idea and I can't wait to see the results from those experiences by both students and teachers alike. There are certainly a lot of resources out there for teachers wishing to utilize comic books in the classroom. In the future, I will try and make a list of links of resources for teaching lessons and general introductions on using comic books for educational purposes. If anyone has suggestions or lesson plans of their own they wish to contribute for sharing just let me know and I'll be happy to pass the info along. We're really just reaching the tip of the iceberg here and if you're not excited you're obviously not on board yet. Here's your chance. Go out and buy a graphic novel or trade paperback and read one for yourself and decide the value of this literary genre. A few suggestions: For those who like sci-fi and space adventures try Green Lantern or Legion of Super Heroes both published by DC Comics, if you want something that deals with more real life issues try Maus by Art Speigelman or The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation, if superheroes are your thing you can't go wrong with any of the classis such as Spider-man, the Avengers, or Captain America from Marvel or check out Batman, Superman, or Wonder Woman from DC, for the horror lovers try Hellblazer or Swamp Thing form Vertigo Comics, adventurers may like Conan adaptations from Dark Horse or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen from America's Best Comics. These are merely a few suggestions and if you want to know what's going on currently in any book just ask me. I read pretty much everything. I spend roughly $50 bucks a week on comic books. Hey, at least it's not crack!

2006-11-19T22:09:00.000-08:00

A little late is better than never. I suppose it's about time I got around to telling everyone about this year's Michigan Council of Teachers of English conference. The conference was very informative as a whole and I was surprised byt the amounts of resources available at the conference. There were lots of books for sale including everything from poetry, graphic novels(YES!), books on lesson plans, classroom organization, etc. If you couldn't find it there, there were numerous catalogs available with lots of other books and resources to help you find what you need for your teaching needs.

Aside from that, the keynote speaker Alfie Kohn was quite a charismatic fellow and one could not help but to open up to his ideas from the passion he displayed. The majority of his talk revolved around issues from his new book "The Homework Myth" and it proved for some very thought-provoking conversation. Alfie makes several complaints against homework and many of them come directly from a student perspective such as spending too much time on homework at home and not spending enough "home time". Taking into account other student woes, Alfie complains of the setting of standards and how it destroys the learning atmosphere by pushing strict fact-finding and how this type of learning stifles creativity and students thoughts and opinions on subject matters. Kohn also discussed how studies have never shown homework to be beneficial or help improve students learning. While this statement may be shocking he talked further of this in his breakout session following the main talk which I also attended. He explained that not everything needs to be graded and how not grading can affect kids motivation in a positive manner and can ultimately yield better and more honest results from students. Kohn had doen his research and seemed familiar with Michigan school systems funtionality and current issues of importance such as the MEAP test. As voices got louder and arms swung in wider arcs, it was quite clear how Alfie felt about MEAP and standards in general.

I attended two other session that day as well. While not quite as boysterous as Kohn, I attended a session entitled "Resisting Rubrics" by Grand Valley's own Prof. Maja Wilson who outlined several reasons rubrics ought to be relooked. She gave examples of papers that were brilliantly written but did not adhere to rubric codes causing a confusion in how to grade the paper. She also gave examples of writing that received high marks by rubric standards but didn't seem to really deserve the grade offered by the rubric. Several other teachers piped in with similar experiences. Another complaint was the vaugeness and generality that rubrics use and what this says to our students.

The last session I attended was conducted by Salvador Barrientes Jr. and Jamie Wakefield from Cesar Chavez Academy High School. This session was on classroom procedure and contained a useful packet with tips for classroom management and discpline, a procedure checklist, and a how-to on rules and why rules are benfeficial for both students and teachers. Time was a large issue and staying organized was one of the key things to staying on procedure. The importance of procedure can be seen in students when they enter a classroom and know exactly what's expected of them and what is going o happen in the classroom that day. While discipline wasn't directly addressed, the handout covers some ideas in brief. (If anyone wants a copy of this handout let me know)

To top it all off at the end of the day I was in a four car fender bender less than a mile from my exit out of Lansing and back to Grand Rapids. It wasn't my fault though, I got rear-ended and then that guy got rear-ended which sent him into me again and my car into the one in front of me a second time as well. No damage fortunately(I just got the thing paid off!) and I didn't get a ticket, just a little extra excitement.

2006-11-19T21:25:00.000-08:00

So it occurs to me that many people are still uninformed about comic books and think that it's all superheros in tights. When questioning the value of comic books as a source of litereature, this kind of information is used as an argument against comic books. As we've discussed in previous blogs there are many graphic novels and even comic book adaptations of many classic novels with more being published all the time. Did you know that there's comic books about religion, presidents, rock stars, sports stars, and all kinds of other interesting people? Did you know that some comic books aren't afraid to get gritty and tackel some of the big stuff. Such as the 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation. That's right it's an adaptation of the actual 9/11 report. This book was published less than two months ago and an article detailing it's conception and some of the writing experience can be found through the USA Today website at the following link: http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2006-08-21-9-11-report-book_x.htm
While I haven't read this book yet I can only imagine the report as a comic book. The authors decided to leave out only minimal parts of the story that they find might offend people who who were involved or who lost loved family and friends during the event. Reading the article makes me want to read it so I surfed over to Amazon and searched for it. They've got a great preview section and I highly recommend you try doing it for yourself. The preview really gives you a sense of what the book contains and is lavishly illustrated by Ernie Colon. The writing, done by Sid Jacobson, is non-biased and should be considered "graphic journalism" as Jacobson hiomself put it. The back cover contains a quote by Stan "The Man" Lee (the man behind pretty much everything at Marvel...duh) who felt so strongly about the piece he thought it should be required reading for basically everyone and feels that this book may set a new standard to mesaure other graphic novels by. This is a pretty powerful statement coming from the man who came up with such ever-loved chracters as Spider-Man and the Hulk. 9/11 is a rough subject for adults to talk so think about how adolescents must feel. They're trying to figure out which way is up from down in themselves and events like this happen, powerfully impacting young minds. Perhaps Colon and Jacobson have just come up with a great way to ease into the topic and to allow kids to explore it in both narrative and image. Perhaps it's the least provoking way to start a conversation in the classroom about the events that occurred on 9/11. The ease and convenience of informing adolescents with facts about 9/11 through a graphic adaptation of the official report is a great step towards serious recognition for the comic genre. It'll be interesting to see how adolescents and adults alike react to this non-fiction graphic novel and how it might be utilized in a classroom setting. If anyone does use this for a classroom unit or activities please e-mail me and let me know how the experience goes for you.

2006-11-19T17:17:00.000-08:00

For this post I found a great article detailing about an even greater software program. The article can be found at http://www.prwebdirect.com/releases/2006/9/prweb434078.htm
This article talks about this new program called Comic Book Creator published by Planetwide Games. This program allows users to create not only comic books but other kinds of story books, presentations, and even scrapbooks. The program runs on a drag-n'-drop interface and lets students use digital artwork such as photos, student artwork, or found digital artwork and provides templates for students to create different projects. The article says the program could work well with any school subject and gives an example of a physical education teacher using the software to create yearbooks for the hockey team. Students and teachers alike could find the program useful for several applications. When creating a comic book, a lot of work goes into the process and this kind of program would allow students to understand this at an empirical level. Why not teach a unit on graphic novels and at the end have a class project where students contribute all the artwork and writing and put together a comic book witht his program. It could easily be published and distributed throughout the school giving students a sense of accomplishment and a source of pride. Another great aspect is that you can export directly to blogs or published web pages, such as a school webpage, in .pdf format. This is a great tool to get students to integrate English skills and computer skills and learn on several levels. What's even better is how cheap it is. A measly $30 buys you the full program making it affordable for schools or individual teachers who see the benefits that can be reaped. If you're interested in purchasing this program or want more information I recommend you pay a visit to www.mycomicbookcreator.com and chek it out for yourself. They even have a Marvel Superheroes edition allowing students to use familiar characters to create comic books. Want a demonstration from your students that they understand the characters and what's happening in the story? Why not have them make their own comic book adaptation of Lord of the Flies? Want to teach students elements of timing and flow in writing? Have them sequence out a scene from Hamlet in comic book format. As you can see, possibilities with this program are abundant and you can just as easily apply it to history- write a comic book about the Civil War, science- detail the life cycle and purpose of a hwite blood cell in comic book format having the main character being a personified white blood cell. So what are you waiting for? Go out and get a copy!

2006-10-22T20:31:00.000-07:00

Related to the last article, I did a little more digging. Want a great resource that takes a look at comic books in the classroom and even has sample lesson plans? Check out this great portion of Diamond Comics website
http://www.diamondcomics.com/bookshelf/

For those of you not in the know, Diamond Comics is the exclusive distributor of comic books. Anybody who sells comic books, be it in a book store, a comic book store, or even the grocery store has to go through Diamond to get the goods. If you want to learn more about this company that is the world's largest distributor of English-language comic books and graphic novels check out this area of their website
http://www.diamondcomics.com/bookshelf/about_diamond.html

Back to the resource page though...

Much to my delight, Diamond backs up my Ultimate Spider-Man claim from two blogs ago and includes a sample lesson plan using the first trade paperback(who called it?) encouraging comprehension and critical reading skills. There's another great lesson plan involving a Superman:Birthright trade paperback designed to get students to analyze relationships among American literature, history, and culture. Another section on this page discusses the usefulness of comic books among ESL learners. Yet another section adresses concerns about the concerns of comic book use in classrooms and makes an excellent point stating that "By teaching your students to read and create comic books, you are teaching them to analyze the very nature of information, a 21st Century skill."
Besides these resources, Diamond also offers information on cataloging these books and building up a trade collection. On other areas of the site, you can order books directly from Diamond and find all the latest and breaking news on what's happening in the comic books world.
This is a great introductory site for teachers who are interested in using comic books and/or graphic novels in the classroom but need more information before making an informed decision. If you're thinking of utlizing comic books in the classroom(which I HOPE you are) then be sure and bookmark this site as a valuable resource and a good introduction to the use of comic books in schools.

2006-10-22T20:00:00.000-07:00

This is what I'm talking about! Unfortunately, I couldn't get the video to work when I tried to view it but check out the article from CBS News located at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/25/earlyshow/living/studyhall/main683050.shtml
There's also a related article about the same story from the Washington Post located here
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59964-2004Dec12.html

The school systems in Maryland have agreed to make comic books part of their curriculum. True, less than 10% of schools are doing this, but you have to start somewhere. This article shows us some really interesting things. One of the most important parts of this article are the quotes from the children talking about comic books aiding them in reading and getting them to see how stories are set up. A comic book would make a great class project, different students could handle writing and artwork but they would all nedd to collaborate as a whole to decide what the story would be about and how they want to tell the story.
For more on this idea and it's benefits, please read this related article from VOA News located here
http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2005-01/2005-01-07-voa32.cfm?CFID=64255026&CFTOKEN=96220974
The positive reactions of the students are an excellent sign that comic books could be used as an asset in the school system.
Also of great importance is Carol Jago's, of the NCTE, viewpoint on the use of comic book in classrooms. She makes a great point saying that comic books should be used as supplemental reading but not completely replace the already in-practice curriculum. While I obvisouly support teaching comic books in the classroom, I also agree with Jago that poetry and prose must also still be taught. I'll be looking forward to see what results the educators in Maryland will find about the use of comic books in classrooms and how this might affect other schools across the nation as well.

2006-10-22T18:57:00.000-07:00

Ultimate Spider-Man turns 100! "Big deal, there's lots of comics that've reached a hundred and beyond, Detective Comics is in the 800's!". That's what a friend said when I was excited about this article and told him about it. You can check it out for yourself at http://www.marvel.com So what exactly is the big deal and how does this relate to our class? First of all while there are many series that have hit the 100 mark and beyond, the fact remains there are waaaayyy more titles that never reach one hundred. The same writer and artist are still working on this title providing a consistency of work than fans have come to love and adore. Ultimate Spider-Man is the flagship title for Marvel's Ultimate universe. Stay with me, we're about to get dorky.
Marvel is well known for it's rich history and classic characters such as Spider-Man, the X-men, Captain America, and the Hulk to name a few. The "Marvel Universe" consists of all the classic tales and includes titles like Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, Daredevil, The Avengers, etc. In the year 2000, Marvel had an idea to re-launch some of their more popular titles from the ground up. In fact, these stories would occur outside of regular continuity of the regular Marvel Universe and would have their own continuity all together. These stories would include all the favorite characters but the author's would be free to tell whatever stories they wanted and alter them to fit in a more modern setting. Translated that means characters may have different origins(In the Marvel universe Collossus of the X-men is a Russin farmer, in the Ultimate universe, he's a gun-runner and he's gay), their powers may work different(In the Marvel universe Spider-Man had to create web-slingers fueled by cartridges, in the Ultimate universe his webs were produced internally and shot out of his wrists like the movie), or anything else the authors feel like changing(In the Marvel Universe Gwen Stacy was Peter Parker's first love and was killed by the Green Goblin and the character Carnage's real name is Cletus Cassidy, in the Ultimate universe, Gwen Stacy and Peter were never in love, she didn't die by the Green Goblin's hand but Carnage, and it's revealed in issue 100{of course I have one...no you can't have it} that she herself IS Carnage). Why would Marvel want to relaunch their entire Universe? To attract new readers in, guess what age group...you guessed it, young adults!
Marvel's move with the launching of the Ultimate universe was a risky one, no one knew what would happen. Would it attract new readers as it was designed? Would the new stories be contemporary re-tellings of classic story lines fans loved? How would long time fans respond to the new series and directions of their favorite characters in an alternate continuity? The response was overwellming. Long time fan-boys flocked to the comcic stands and new readers would have a chance to jump onto these title from the beginning instead of being faced with the daunting task of starting in on Spider-man with Amazing Spider-man 513 or something and trying to collect all these back issues to get filled in on the story. This set the success and assured continuance of the Ultimate Universe. This success would also ensure that trade paperback collections of storyarcs would be printed for everything in the Ultimate universe. For readers wanting to jump on, they can buy in-expensive trade-paperbacks collecting the stories from the beginning instead of shelling out big bucks for back issues. Ultimate Spider-man #1 is currently valued at around $140 (of course I have one...no you can't have it).
With new contemporary stories involving iconic characters and cheap accessability ot the materials, they make excellent teaching tools. The first trade paperback of Ultimate Spider-man collects the first ten (or so) issues and retails at about $12-$15 keeping school costs low for acquiring such material.
While this relatively new universe is aimed at young adult readers, the subjects and dialogue remain very adult-like. In the Ultimates(The Ultimate universe version of the classic Marvel universe Avengers) killing is not questioned whereas the heroes never cross that line in the Marvel universe(I always did want to see Captain America shoot a nazi).
The Ultimate universe was a great concept turned reality that attracted both fan-boys and new readers alike. The success of Ultimate Spider-man lead to the launching of Ultimate X-men, Ultimate Fantastic Four, The Ultimates, and several mini-series that usually involve cross-overs with these teams. Young readers can relate to the more modern origins and love the classic characters. While the Ultimates may be a bit mature for young readers, Ultimate Spider-man remains a wholesome and entertaining read and could easily be atught in a classroom setting.

By the way, be sure to chek out the trailers for issue #100 that can be found on the link to the article. Marvel made really cool movies using different panels from the actual issue and inserting a few narrative words. They're only a minute or two long but check it out. The conventions of such a clip are radically different than a movie preview and they give you a sense of what it's like when reading a comic book.

2006-09-24T17:21:00.000-07:00

I will not begin my new post with how much Blogger's navigation and word processing systems suck. No, instead I'll tell you about a great article I found in helping comic books gain notoriety(remember the issues from last blog?). The article comes from DC Comics and can be found at: http://www.dccomics.com/news/?nw=6565.
Now, most people, even those of you who don't read comic books, are familiar with the Justice League of America(JLA). Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern, Aquaman etc. (It's not the original League line up but I figure more people are familiar with these characters than Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Martian Manhunter). The Justice League came crashing to a halt after the events of Infinite Crisis(which is far too complex to sum up, suffice it to say, it was indeed a Crisis!) and the book ended. While individual characters such as Superboy and Hawkman can be(and were) killed, the folks at DC know that the JLA are a fan favorite, just like every fan knew to expect a relaunch of the series.
Fanboys are having a field day with Brad Meltzer paving the way for the new Justice League, but that's not the only place this author is tearing up the charts. Meltzer's new novel The Book of Fate is currently sitting #1 on the New York times bestseller list. Mirroring that is Justice League of America #1 sitting at the top of Diamond Comic Distributors Top 300 Sales Chart for the month of October. Meltzer is the first author to rank so high on both lists at the same time. DC is certainly hoping that fans of Meltzer's novel will be interested enough in him as a writer to check out some of his other works such as Justice League of America.
There's plenty of authors who work many mediums like this:
Neil Gaiman - best known for his comic book writing of the Sandman, also a New York Times bestseller for American Gods and Neverwhere
J. Michael Strazynski - first wrote for the television series Babylon 5 before moving on to write such comic books as The Amazing Spiderman, Rising Stars, and Midnight Nation
Joss Whedon - brought life to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television and the script of the movie Alien: Resurrection show before taking on such fan favorite books as the Astonishing X-men.
Alan Moore - considered one of the best authors in comic book period. Many of his graphic novels have been adapted to the screen including the recent V for Vendetta, From Hell, and A League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. His contribution to comic books inlcude other high profile works such as Watchmen, Miracleman, and the revamping of Swamp Thing.
Authors like these help bring recognition to the comic book realm and encourage readership. As a genre on the rise, it's only a matter of time before names like these will become household names as authors.

2006-09-22T08:50:00.000-07:00

The last hour or so has been quite frustrating for me as I've found out how much I suck at opperating an RSS reader. After discovering all of my subscriptions are pretty much worthless to me in the realm of comic books, I've had to do lots of searching for more articles and sources. So it occurs to me to try the big ones - Marvel Comics and DC comics. These of course turn out to be very valuable resources to me. My friend told me about an article in The New York Times about Civil War, Marvel Comics latest crossover that's tearing up comic book charts right now. I thought to myself -Great! This series has a lot of really cool topics I can discuss. You know what else is great? Having to pay to be able to read NYT articles on reader. Sorry folks, the article wasn't worth $5 to me to be able to post on this topic. I did however find this article:
http://www.marvel.com/news/comicstories.634
This article is directly related to our class discussion the other day. As Prof. Rozema passed around those graphic novels and allowed me to put in an extra two cents that day, my head was swimming with ideas and wondering how soon it would be for more books to begin being adapted to some sort of graphic format. Reading this article is pleasing for it sates my curiosity in that many books willl be adapted to this form soon thanks to Marvel and Dabel Brothers Productions(A company I was not familiar with). Basically, the two companies are working together to produce graphic novel adaptations of George R. R. Martin's- The Hedge Knight and the Stone Sword, Robert Jordan's new prequel to his famous Wheel of Time series-New Spring, and Orson Scott Card's-Red Prophet and Worms!!(by the way Mr. Card, what's going on with Ultimate Iron Man? Your writing on this new series is amazing and really breathes new life into Iron Man's origins but why is it taking so long for this book to come out? #1 was published over a year ago{May '05} and we're still waiting for #6! Get it together over there Marvel!). Now, these aren't the only titles they're planning on collabortating on and several adaptations have already been succesfully completed.
This is great news to see that more and more graphic adaptations are being made of books but I do have my concerns. I know that it's really just the beginning of this genre getting moving, but I'd really like to see these adaptations expand and I fear that all the adaptations will center around the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres. I understand that for marketing reasons, these are the genres that are most natural to the medium and therefore the easiest to sell but I'd love to see a biography about Benjamin Franklin, hell I'd love to see 'em try and do an adaptation of Poor Richard's Almanac! As I'm a huge supporter of comic books as literature, I realize that in order for this medium to continue to gain respect expanding the genres of the writing is one of the ways to do this. Frankenstein wasn't a surprise to me when Prof. Rozenburg passed those books around but Red Badge of Courage made me extatic! My kids can make the choice themselves whether to read the graphic adaptation or the regular novel, appealing to multiple kinds of learners. The bookworms will probably still choose the novel but I'm guessing that the more reluctant readers will choose the graphic adaptation and I wouldn't be surprised if they got all the way through it. Graphic adaptations need to start including more canonical literature, biographies, histories, etc. and really expand. But like I said, this is kinda new to the medium so this will take time. I've no doubt as comic books and graphic novels continue to enjoy hollywood fascination and readership continues to grow that this will happen.

2006-08-30T09:35:00.000-07:00

Hello all. Welcome to "It's Clobberin' Time!". What exactly will we be clobberin'? Well any comic book fan out there is sure to know that the ever-lovin' Thing of the Fantastic Four only says that when there's a good fight ahead. And there is boys and girls, and there is. Comic books are a sorely undervalued medium of literature. While Hollywood is having a heydey right now filming movies about just every comic book out there including the soon to be released Ghost Rider, there's still a lot of people who haven't caught on to the comic buzz yet. Unfortunately this includes schools and teachers. You ever hear a teacher say "Man, if only I could get my kids to read more, they seem uninterested in in poetry, uncaring about Shakespeare, and they're falling behind in not only their reading skills but their comprehension skills as well."? Maybe not that exactly, but you get the idea. What if there was a medium out there that connect better with kids, get them intrested in reading more, and improve skills all at the same time? What if I told you this medium was Comic Books? Don't buy it? Try this on for size:
1. Action Comics(starring Superman) is the longest running monthly title in America of any monthly medium including magazines. A whopping 842 issues and counting. Check the Guiness book if you don't believe me.
2. Comic books utilize both sides of the brain at once- the left takes in the storyline, analyzes characters, chronologizes, etc. The right takes in the aesthetics of geometry, shading, and coloring through the art work. Two sides are better than one!
3. Comic books keep mythology alive featuring characters like Wonder Woman whose name is Diana, as in the Greek Goddess, Thor -Norse God of thunder and son of Odin, Hercules, etc. Not only do we have classic stories being retold about these heroes but we also get completely new tales.
4. As part of a pop media, comic book characters like Superman and Spiderman are easily accessable characters to young American children who are often familiar with these chracters from a young age.
5. Comic books deal with tough social issues that can help spark conversation about topics adults often have hard times addressing to kids. For example, the topic of racism is a very touchy one yet what if we could talk about racism without offending any racial groups? The mutants found in the pages of the X-men face racism all the time and offer us a way to deal with issue without having to ever utter words like "black & white".
These are just a few wonderful tidbits about comic books that most people tend not to think of. I think comic books should be taught in the classroom, not as replacement to poetry or prose, but in addition to it. I'll be exploring this issue much more so stop back often for more information. I look forward to Clobberin' you! -benny