By Lisa Carolin
Burgeoning cartoonists are meeting after school for the next several weeks to create characters for a comic book. It’s called CAPTN SRSLY and the Super Master Sentinels. It’s an adventure series teaching positive social values.
“The CPTN SRSLY comic book series has been a six-year collaboration between SRSLY, the Chelsea School District, the Chelsea District Library, and Edgar Norman Creative,” said Jesse Kauffman, Director of the SRSLY Coalition.
“The purpose of the series is to use comic books, a medium already appealing to kids, to deliver protective, pro-social messages,” he said.
Cartoonist Jerzy Drozd leads the workshops, which are for middle school students. At the Jan. 11 workshop, Drozd talked to students about creating characters.
“You’re going to make up a whole, new character that you’ll build over the next four weeks,” Drozd said. “You need to think about shape, size, line and color, and what category of character it is-megalomaniac, revenge, greater good, force of nature or dark force.”
Hannah Bolton, an eighth-grader from Stockbridge, came to the workshop because she enjoyed reading previous years’ comic books at her school’s SRSLY club.
“I was creating a character in class with wings,” she said. “I enjoy drawing Manga, anime and animals.”
Beach Middle School seventh-grader Sophie Bugala is back in the workshop for a second year.
“It’s really fun, and it was cool to see my character in a comic book last year,” she said.
“Half of the students indicated they had little confidence in creating comics prior to the workshop last year, but all the students indicated confidence in creating comics after the workshop,” said Kauffman. “The books offer a positive sense of place for students in Chelsea and encourage students to make various healthy choices.”
The comic books are scheduled to be distributed in March in honor of March is Reading Month.
The workshops are funded by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts, the 5-Healthy Towns Foundation, St. Joseph Mercy Chelsea, Drug Free Communities, and the Chelsea Education Fund.
