Greg Gildersleeve

Well, the Raytown School District's Young Authors Day has come and gone. It was the first time I've ever given a presentation on comics (or anything else, for that matter) to school children; it was a lot of fun and surprising in a number of ways.

For one, the students showed much more enthusiasm for comics than I expected. In the age of video games and action-packed movies, comics still elicited a sense of fun and open-ended creativity from the students. This was particularly evident in the activity Mike and I had them do. After giving our presentation on just how one goes about creating comics in the first place, we had them spend five minutes designing their own comic. Those who opted to share their creations with the class demonstrated an unbridled creativity that only kids who love comics can muster. I won't describe their ideas here (who knows -- one day, we may see them on the stands!), but it brought back a lot of memories. Comics are the medium of Why Not? More than any other medium, comics give kids the freedom to create whatever they want: All you need is a pen and some paper.

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