The Malta Independent on Sunday
Superheroes: Comics as an educational platform to engage young people
From comic book crusaders to Iron Man helmet props, the Euro Media Forum recently organised a training course entitled: Superheroes: How comics can become an educational platform to engage young people. The course was supported by the Erasmus plus programme and the European Union Programmes Agency (EUPA). Youth workers hailed from Malta, Romania, Turkey, Lithuania, Greece, Portugal, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Poland, Italy, and Azerbaijan. During this course, participants were given an insight by various comic book specialists, who work directly in the local industry into how comics and graphic novels can make a non-formal educational tool for youth workers to motivate youths to participate in discussions and develop public speaking skills about a particular subject they like told through the eyes of their favourite comic character.
Salto Youth trainer, Karl Grima, gave an introduction that explored the essence of comics. The non-formal tools that were used were energisers to help the participants reflect upon young people’s needs within the different contexts of their cities, villages and towns. The energisers were conducted so the youth workers could understand that the basis of a comic is the pairing of visual images with words.
The youth workers were given a History of Comics, Comic Book and Graphic Novel specialist, David Pace explained how graphic arts originated in dim antiquity and were forged by different social and historical forces over time. Mr Pace added how modern comics like Detective Comics ( DC) and Marvel Comics saw their origins in the pulp era, providing cheap, reading material for the masses. The U.S Great Depression and the Second World War were instrumental in assembling the Marvel heroes thanks to comic book writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby. Mr Pace explained how the next great development in comic books occurred in the 1980s as the colour palettes that were always associated with children’s escapism morphed into dark, serious fiction becoming known as the graphic novel. Examples mentioned were Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight and Alan Moore’s Watchmen.
Mr Pace elaborated upon comic book conventions including sounds, pictures, body language, superhero skills and comic formats. The youth workers were then given a task where they had to plan their own comic by choosing a name, a superpower, logo, special gadgets and designing an outfit. He then showed the youth workers how to design and build the comic properly in seven steps. The first step was inspiration where the participants had to choose from topics such as environmental, political, social, disabilities and gender. The second step was the style. The third step was sketching the characters and the fourth building a story. The fifth was making the borders and the lettering. The sixth, the pencilling and inking, and the seventh, the colouring of the comic book characters and background. For the seventh and final step, the students had to decide on a publishing platform. During the History of Comics and Storyboarding, the participants were able to look at how comics are used in the educational field as a tool to help young people with difficulties in learning and expressing themselves and therefore the use of a comic as a visual aid is reaping positive results.
Superheroes in Science coordinator Justin Camilleri also gave an educational session on how comic books characters make an effective branding as well as a role playing exercise, to encourage more youngsters and adults to get interested in issues like gender equality, immigration and the environment. Mr Camilleri cited, as an example, superhero comics and graphic novels as a valuable resource for youth groups. Introducing a library on superhero literature and comic book clubs to improve literacy and public speaking skills among youngsters. Youngsters would read comics of their favourite character and with the guidance of their youth worker they can then create a debate on bullying through superhero examples like Gamora (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Peter Parker (Spider-Man). Mr Camilleri added that not only can superhero comics be used as a brand to market an initiative, but also cult horror comic characters. An example is paranormal investigator Dylan Dog who was part of the 2005 literacy campaign Beccati a Leggere! (Get Caught Reading!) by the Federation of European Publishers. In fact, comic book illustrated posters bearing Dylan Dog’s image was distributed in Italian libraries.
Through the use of props like the Iron Man helmet and other superhero memorabilia Mr Camilleri said how comics in education can inspire a lot of role playing tasks which will give youths the skills to handle problematic social interactions, such as bullying. When youths engage in role playing it helps to develop their way of thinking and helps them to develop feelings of empathy.
Just Cause Society Comic book creator, William Calleja, showed the whole process of turning a script into a comic book, by creating the initial rough sketches of a story, establishing rules for proportion that can be used as a guide when drawing characters’ basic body structure, gesture and movement. As an example, the superhero comic character, The Flash was mentioned. When captured in a drawing, Flash’s running pose can seem surprisingly slow and the body is fairly upright. Mr Calleja then gave a presentation on the various comic strips and panels, from modern superhero art, to all action, animated, noir style narrative and included a storyboarding exercise where participants worked both individually and in groups. The origins of comics and superheroes were observed with their different socio-political messages and the different superhero designs such as height, gender, race and costumes. By the end of the course the participants acquired the necessary skills on how to project their locality’s culture unto a superhero character.
The Hamrun Our Lady Immaculate Secondary Girls School was selected for the participants to practice lessons learnt. The students and educators were made aware on how comics can be used to learn about reading, preventing bullying, safeguarding the environment, respect for elders and animal welfare. They were then invited to the Superheroes in Science event held at the Esplora Interactive Science Centre on the 10th of November, to observe how comic book characters can be used in the promotion of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths) Education. As part of their final coursework, they made a presentation on their home grown superheroes and a Youthpass certificate was given to each participant. The certificate is an Erasmus Plus Youth in Action programme, Europewide recognition certificate for non-formal learning that strengthens the social recognition of youth work.
Once the training course ended, the participants woke up to the shocking news that Stan Lee one of the most famous comic book writers passed away. Undoubtedly, his works remain very much the source of many recurring themes in comic book education. Comics were not taken seriously at the time that Mr Lee was at the helm of Marvel Comics. Ironically many of his creations are now globally recognised and are being used as informal educational tools to teach and inspire the young and young at heart.
Any youth workers, parents, teachers, schools, non-government organisations who would like to attend Superheroes’ Comic Book Education courses can contact Euro Media Forum on euromediaforum@gmail.com or on Facebook. For more information on the upcoming Young Guardians of the Galaxy Astronomy course inspired by Marvel and DC comics taking place soon at Stella Maris College, Gzira visit http://superheroscience.info/ or call on 9905 2482.