Teacher Comics: Thank you!

A few days ago, I received one hell of an amazing surprise upon getting home from work.

Some kind persons have found my Teacher’s Wish List on Amazon and BOUGHT THE ENTIRE LIST OUT anonymously, with some other contributions to boot! I have NO idea who did this, although I suspect they might have found out about my classroom through the website Reddit.

If you’re reading this right now, please know how absolutely humbled and grateful I am for your kindness, Nameless Do-Gooders. You are the best!

If anybody else out there was thinking of making a donation, you could do so through the following channels:

My Amazon Teacher Wish List (used books are always welcome!)

College Bound Students Need New Reading Opportunities, a DonorsChoose proposal for additions to my classroom library.

Please click through and check ‘em out!

Chalkboard Drawings: The “Homecoming” edition

I draw a picture of myself on my classroom’s chalkboard everyday. I collect those pictures as camera phone photos and post them on Sundays. See the rest here.

This past week was Homecoming at my high school. We have a week-long build up to the Homecoming Game where every day is themed. Students and teachers have a lot of fun participating and I decided to get into the spirit with my chalkboard drawings.

Thrift Store Finds: The Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #10 (DC Comics)

This week, we’ll be looking at The Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #10, a digest-sized collection of comics published by (you guessed it!) DC Comics in 1981.

Cover price is .95 cents… I paid $4 dollars.

I know what you’re thinking: $4 bucks is kind of a big purchase for me book-wise, you’re right! When I’m at thrift stores, I mainly stick to lower priced paperbacks. I found I couldn’t resist this one, mark-up be damned.

DC Comics got out of the digest business in the mid 1980’s but for years, digest sized presentations of their comics were a regular feature at newsstands and grocery stores across the country. These days, Archie Comics is the last company standing in regards to the digest… and there’s a very definite reason for that. Most Archie comics are meticulously drawn in a house style pioneered by cartoonist Dan DeCarlo. Comics drawn by the company today match DeCarlo’s style from the 1960’s. This gives Archie Comics a wealth of back catalog from which to draw for their current digests.

The art and writing for superhero comics has always been a bit more faddish – trends and artistic styles come and go with the times. A Superman comic from the 1960’s looks almost nothing like a modern day Superman comic, save for some cross-generational touches (the “S” shield, the cape, and so on). While Archie can seemingly reprint stories forever with consumers being none the wiser, most of DC’s back catalog has been rendered quaint by time.

This Best of DC Digest is subtitled Secret Origins of Super-Villains and contains six stories focusing on the baddies of the DC Universe. The majority of these stories look to be drawn from DC’s Silver Age of comics but although creator credits are given, the digest doesn’t give any notation of where and when the stories come from. I found this to be somewhat annoying but it makes sense given the time this book was published that this information would not have likely been at the forefront of reader’s minds. Some Googling does reveal the sources of these books and I’ll include them in my appraisals, but as far as I can tell, the first comic story in the collection is original to this digest.

Teacher Comics: Werther’s Originals

Apologies to the legions of Werther’s Originals fans out there but seriously, go buy a roll of Life Savers already.

Teacher Comics: Overheard in the halls

Teacher Comics: Stupid, Stupid Antagonists

Haven’t read Bone? What are you waiting for?!?

Chalkboard Drawings: The “cancelled sci-fi television” edition

 

Thrift Store Finds: Cincinnati Comic Expo finds

Two weekends ago, it was the Cincy Comicon. Last weekend… the Cincinnati Comic Expo.

There’s a long, involved story as to how The Queen City came to have two comic conventions within two weeks of one another. Suffice to say, these two cons are very different beasts. If I had to define the difference, I would say that the Cincy Comicon is more purely a comic book show whereas the CCE leans much further toward a lot of the other aspects of pop culture that often get parceled with comic book shows. The CCE would be your choice destination if you wanted to shake hands with former Star Trek actors or extras from The Lord of the Rings movies. If you want to talk comics, you’d have better look at the Cincy Comicon. If you’ve read this blog at any length, I’m sure you know which side of the equation I’m more interested in… and indeed, from my perspective the Cincy Comicon was a FAR better show.

Yet, even keeping that in mind, I wanted to check out the CCE this year, if only because I’ve done it in the past and I didn’t have quite the shopping experience I was looking for at the Cincy Comicon.

Above are my spoils; below the cut, I’ll talk a little about them.

Teacher Comics: Biting my tongue

Teaching Comics: Building Relationships

I believe this particular student had a tee from The Venture Brothers Tee Shirt Club. I was jealous!