Since 2006, the Educational Publishing Department of Channel Thirteen/WNET has been publishing an annual comic book series that illustrates how comics can be used as an informal educational tool as well as how effective the medium can be for marketing and promotion. In December, Channel Thirteen/WNET, the New York City PBS station, is releasing the third volume of Nature Comics, an annual comic book companion publication to the PBS show Nature.
Each volume of Nature Comics has a print run of 50,000 copies. The periodical comics are advertised through the Channel 13 Ed Online website for teachers and its bulletin, the annual Celebration of Teaching and Learning (a conference for teachers), PBS stations around the country and by the individual artists published through the program. Teachers can request up to two hundred copies. The response to the comics has been positive and not just from teachers and students. Nature’s ratings are up and David Reisman, editor of the comics series says, “I hope we are some small part of that.”
The comics project developed out of a proposal to the National Science Foundation to create a comic to accompany Wild TV, a PBS program on animals in the wild aimed at young people. While the original NSF proposal evolved into a teacher’s guide, the concept of creating a comic linked to PBS programming stayed with David Reisman, who directs the editing and publishing of free publications at Channel Thirteen. And with a Ph.D. in education from Teacher’s College, Reisman, an artist and writer in his own right, is uniquely suited for the assignment. “Comics are very labor intensive, so it is very daunting task, but it is one of my favorite things to do around here,” Reisman says.
Nature Comics are “basically a way of getting kids interested in the series and the subject matter at the same time,” Reisman explains. Each volume includes three main stories along with several one-page contributions. The contributors to each volume include an impressive mix of comics industry veterans like Rick Veitch and highly regarded new comers like R. Kikuo Johnson. The Nature production team, including executive producer Fred Kaufman, as well as series producer Bill Murphy, series editor Janet Hess, supervising producer Janice Young, and senior producer Laura Metzger, provides input as each volume is developed.
Some pieces are direct adaptations of Nature TV episodes, while others take the subject matter as a jumping off point. A January episode about the relationship between real-life animals and dragons, for instance, produced “The Dragon Chronicles,” inspired by the King Arthur legends and created by comics veteran Rick Veitch. “Even with an imaginative story, there is educational content, such as a link to literature,” Reisman observes.
“One of the things I try to do as an editor is to have an eclectic groups of contributors, including mainstream and indie comic artists,” Reisman explains. To find contributors for each issue Reisman searches through anthology collections and attends comics festivals and conventions like the MoCCA Art Fest in New York City looking for new artists and writers. In addition to Veitch, the forthcoming volume will include pieces by such highly regarded cartoonists as Hope Larson, Sabrina Jones, Josh Neufeld, Lauren Weinstein and Tim Hodler. And in a first for the comics collections, one of the stories, “Lobo: King of the Carrumpaw,” by Mark Evanier and Thomas Yeates, will appear in print and on the Channel Thirteen website.
Reisman says he is “hopeful” that there will be fourth volume next year. While there are no formal plans to collect the comics into a book anthology, the editor notes, “In the future that might be a great thing, although we would have to supplement it with new material.” While the comics are aimed primarily at middle-school students, Reisman believes they would also appeal to older students and even adults.
Nature Comics fits well with PBS’s broader mission of allowing people to continue their education outside of the classroom. Reisman explains that much like public television, “Comic books have a lot of potential as sources of informal education.”
“If you can use some of the best people working in comics to get people to learn more about the subject of an educational TV show, it is a great thing,” Reisman adds. “Hopefully students will learn about nature and science and the aesthetics of comics at the same time.”
