Newsletter #224: This One Goes Out to All the Teachers

Hey guys, it’s Scott.

It is Monday, November 24th. Happy (almost) Thanksgiving! I know we were going to do a class this week, but we had a better option. First of all, a lot of people emailed us and said they weren’t going to be around because it is the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. So we didn’t want you guys to miss out on the live class, even though you get all of the classes recorded in our archive afterwards so you can watch them whenever you want. Even our first one is there so we have like, 30+ classes or so if you want to sign up for our Best Jackett paid tier and get Comic Writing 101.

But also, I was talking to Ryan Stegman who’s a good friend and also just one of the best artists working in comics and he was talking about the importance of creating big moments in books and series as well. So we thought we’d have him on for a talk, so we will do it the first week of December, that is Wednesday, December 3rd. So it’ll be an extra special class, I always love having guests and Ryan is incredibly smart. He’s got one of the highest artists IQs in terms of like, visual storytelling of anyone I know. He’s really funny and incredibly kind. So I’m excited to have him on.

Also, huge week for us book-wise. It doesn’t get any bigger than this. We’ve got Absolute Batman #14, the finale to our Abomination arc. It’s a big showdown between Bruce and Bane. I really hope you like it. We put everything we have into this one. It’s late because we added pages and violence and emotional moments and all of this stuff, like, we kept throwing in more and more. I’m really proud of it and Nick just went to town and Frank’s colors are unbelievable and Clayton’s letters are great. So can’t wait for you guys to see this one!

And we also have DC K.O. #2. So I can’t wait for you guys to see this one either. It’s with the great Javi Fernández on art and Alejandro Sánchez on colors. Again, each issue is going to have a section by Joshua Williamson and Xermanico as well. We’ve plotted the whole book together, so we’re really thrilled about this issue. It’s even more bonkers than the first one. The first one kind of set everything up, but this one’s where we really get to fight. So it has some of my favorite moments so far with Joker going to town, Vixen going to town, and Clark going to town. Clark has a great moment. Lex is just vicious in it. I really hope you enjoy it!

And things only get crazier from here. So the more you support this event, the more leverage it gives us to try new things on the other side. We already are lining up our Next Level books. Like you know, we have Lobo coming with Skottie Young and Jorge Corona. We’ve got Batwoman with the legend Greg Rucka and Dani. We have other titles you’ve seen and creators that we haven’t announced yet, but you’re going to hear about them very, very soon. Deathstroke and Demon and Shadow of the Bat. All kinds of cool stuff coming.

So I just wanted to put in a nice word for this teachers conference I was at in Denver. It was really moving. So it was the National Teachers of English Conference, NTCE. Hope I got that right. They asked DC if I would go and then DC signed me up and I went and I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Was it just sort of a a quick meet and greet thing where I was going to go on stage and do a quick Q&A, or did they really care about getting comics in schools? I love meeting with teachers. I love being a teacher, but I just wasn’t sure how big a part of the program it was. And it turns out it was an opening thing, it was the keynote. But even more than that, it was really packed.

The amount of teachers that came up afterwards after this Q&A and the questions that were posed during the Q&A really spoke to the passion that teachers have out there for bringing comics into the classroom and especially at a time like this when there’s more crackdown on what they’re allowed to teach and that aperture is being forced closed. I think more and more comics offers an avenue that’s just so expansive. I mean, there’s a comic for everyone. There’s comics about everything from politics, memoir. I mean, there’s like, Swallow Me Whole or Fun Home for memoirs. There’s comics like March that are political. There’s just beautiful literary comics, Daytripper to Pride of Baghdad, all kinds of fun stuff out there. And then there’s big superhero comics and horror comics. And so my point to them in these answers to some of their questions was three ways of thinking about getting students into comics are:

1. There’s a comic for everybody. That’s first and foremost. There’s nothing that you can’t find out there in our world.

2. It’s a really welcoming and great space, honestly, in my opinion. Finding other people that like the same stuff as you by going to the comic store or finding it online, you find your people that way. That’s especially true when you’re more isolated or you don’t know other people that like the same things as you, especially when you’re growing up. You can’t underestimate how key that can be. It was for me.

3. At core, I think it really helps students learn about collaboration because it’s such a collaborative medium in all kinds of ways, right? As a writer, you’re sharing the thing you care about in your script with readers, but then more importantly, you’re sharing them with the artist. You’re hoping that artist is sharing their vulnerability with you on the page. You’re building something with a team.

And then the community, I think, respects that third principle so much too. There’s a sense of shared passion, of shared collective love of this medium. I think it contains all of that stuff. So collaboration, sharing, interconnectivity, all of that is core to comics. And I think it’s a great principle and ideal quality to teach in young people especially so, but just the passion they showed and the energy that was there for comics it was off the charts. I just loved it, and very, very grateful to them for bringing me out. And I really want to keep it up with them. And I’d be happy to do it again. So thank you, teachers. I’m very grateful for you.

Again, big week for us. I’ll circle back right after Thanksgiving, but I hope you guys have a terrific, terrific Thanksgiving. We’re really grateful and thankful to you for keeping everything going at such incredible levels this year at DC, but also here. I’m really grateful for this community that you guys have helped me build with you and the connections I’ve formed with you guys here. So again, I’m really, really grateful. It’s a good time to be reminded of that. So thanks again!

S