Comic Book Appreciation Project hosts first Comic Book Creator Classroom Awards 

WARNER ROBINS – The Comic Book Appreciation Project’s Comic Book Creator Classroom program wrapped up with awards at Northside Elementary School on Thursday, March 28.

The Comic Book Creator Classroom program was a nine-week course taught by Jason Kelley, Director of the Comics Appreciation Project. The event was hosted in the school’s cafeteria, and Kelley said there were approximately 200 students in attendance. 

Kelley said he would come to two fourth grade classes at the school and teach kids different activities involving comic books, specifically their favorite, the Dog Man series. 

The ceremony recognized four students from each classroom. Kelley said runners-up were awarded “future creators” and were given gift certificates, a sketch kit and additional books. The number one runner-up was called “Best Artist”, and they received a Dog Man trophy, a gift certificate, a premium sketch kit and a $50 gift certificate from Heroes and Villains Comics.

The overall winner was “Best Cartoonist,” which Kelley explained to students both draws and writes the book. He said the judges not only the best artist but the best story. The student was also awarded a trophy, a box art kit and a $50 certificate from Heroes and Villains as well. 

He said they also gave out prizes for students Kelley wasn’t able to spend time with and gave out 200 copies of the newest addition to the Dog Man series. Kelley also shared Scholastic Literacy sent Dog Man to the event and students were excited to meet their idol. 

“When he entered the room, the kids went ballistic, it was insane, and when we took the covers off the books the kids went insane. At one time, Dog Man went bold and he went down the aisle in the middle and the kids were trying to almost mob him. The award ceremony was great,” said Kelley. 

The ceremony also recognized teachers, awarding Jennifer Fowler best teacher. Kelley said they gave her classroom and the library a full set of Dog Man books. 

Before he started the program, teachers and administration invited him to Northside as a guest reader. While he was in the classrooms, he asked students what their favorite book series and, in both classrooms, the majority said the Dog Man series. Later, he asked how many owned a copy of the book and only two out of 44 kids did. 

“That made me sad that 55% of them said it was their favorite but only two owned a copy,” Kelley said.

That’s when Fowler told him that it was a title one school, and a lot of her students don’t have those books at home. 

Kelley said Flint Energies gave the project a grant which he decided to put towards the program. During the ceremony, the company sent a representative and they were recognized for helping the program move forward.

“We chose Northside Elementary because I already met those kids, I already read to them. Most of the kids in those classes were struggling readers, also a quarter of those students were ESOL students, so bilingual, or English is their second language students,” Kelley said.

He shared that he was excited to start the program from scratch and partnered with scholastic literacy and started ordering books for the students. 

The first week of the program, he taught students everything about graphic novels, comics, history of comics and their format. He then gave each student a copy of the first Dog Man and encouraged them to read it for the activities the following week. 

“If they didn’t read the book, they would be a little bit behind, but all the activities were based around that first book. We had read aloud and we had scripts where the kids would get parts and we would read together and then there were all kinds of small group exercises. It ended up just being like so much fun and the kids loved having their own book,” Kelley said. 

He also shared he gave ESOL students both an English and Spanish copies of the book. 

“This was an opportunity for them to affirm what’s called their L1 language in the household, and maybe Spanish is their primary language spoken in the household. The idea was not to make it feel like a lesser than language, but it may help them elevate both languages because now they have a translation,” Kelley said. 

Kelley shared an ESOL student showed him a video reading the book with his mom in Spanish. The student read the English version; his mom read the Spanish version and they read the book together. 

“At that point I couldn’t get enough, so every week I would bring them a new book and every week we would do activities based on the previous book. Some weeks I would come more than one day a week and I would spend the second day just working with them individually and helping them learn how to draw these characters,” Kelley said.

As the program went on, he hoped students would learn how to draw and create their own characters. Over time, he would slowly take off their training wheels and by the eighth week, they were assigned to write and create their own comic strip. 

Kelley describes the ceremony as one of his best days; the school’s Vice Principal Kristina Cummings said the event was a ten out of ten. He said after the event, Cummings approached him and told him the program has helped students on their MAPS with a 29% gain in reading than average. Kelley said it was very encouraging, especially since he is helping his hometown along with his board members.

“It was so much fun, it was so amazing. All of those kids are likely going to the same middle school I went to and the same high school. I went to Northside Middle School and graduated from Northside High School and so Northside Elementary feeds into that. It was a wonderful experience,” Kelley said. 

Kelley said the project will continue to help kids in the community and promote reading. He shared they have received grants from Robins Financial Credit Union and Heroes and Villains which will go towards giving books to children in foster care in the county. 

He shared that they hope to bring the Comic Book Creator Classroom program back next year, but it depends on funding. Kelley said they will bring the program to a local library during the summer, and he already has activities planned. 

He said the project will continue helping schools get updated book sets meaning having enough copies of each book for students. Kelley said they will create a book set program for elementary, middle and high school. 

Kelley shared he loves the phrase “the joy of reading” which he lives by each day and hopes to instill in students.

“At this age it really is about trying to meet the kids where they are and helping them find what they are excited about. To put down the phone and pick up a book, that’s powerful. But if we could help instill those good reading habits at this age, there are whole kinds of research to show what that does for kid’s outcomes,” Kelley said. 

He shared part of the reason of the Comics Appreciation Project is to defeat the stigma on comic books and graphic novels. 

“It’s a powerful storytelling device in its own merit. It doesn’t need to be a stepping stone, and if it can produce a result of kids just wanting to read and enjoy reading and sharing it with their families or their friends, that’s the homerun,” Kelley said.