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Q & A with Marek Bennett

Have you heard the siren song of the world of comics? Many of us have felt the allure, that desire to see our own stories come alive on the page. Well Marek Bennett is making that dream come true, not only for himself, but for kids all over the New Hampshire area. Marek is both the author/illustrator of "Mimi’s Doughnuts", a weekly comic strip and quarterly ‘zine, and he's the top banana at Comics Workshop, a comics camp he runs for kids ages 8-13. Find out more at his website, www.marekbennett.com [1]. We met Marek at the Boston ‘Zine Fair and were so taken with this idea, that we tracked him down and fire hosed questions at him. Here are his gracious answers.

Did you draw comics as a kid? If so, what kind?

I started out drawing space comics. I was just starting to draw when Star Wars came out, and I thought spaceships and aliens were just the coolest things ever. I would fill up page after page with these long, drawn out scenes of approaching space ships. The first page would show a planet or two and a little dot (spaceship) between them. Then you'd turn the page and the dot would be a little bigger... and so on, until on the final pages the space ship would fill the whole page, and then in the last page it'd be past you, and you'd be back to just the planets. That's sequential art, or in other words, comics.

I drew lots of super-hero comics, too. When transforming robots were big, I was always making up my own Transformers and drawing them fighting each other. (*Editors note: Marek gets double cool points for mentioning Star Wars and Transformers in one answer) Anything you could imagine, you could imagine even BETTER in comics. I noticed how comics did something more than mere pictures. They cast a more powerful spell... you could bring your imagination to life in the minds of your readers!

What kind of impact have comics made on your life (or to put it another way, what kind of role do comics play in your life)?

As a kid, they were just this great way to communicate all the imagination games I was playing at the time. Now I'm all grown up, and things are more complicated. (Sometimes I find myself drawing kids drawing comics...) There's this very adult concept of "meaning", that everything you draw has to mean something, has to say something. As a kid, you're more content to just play and explore. We adults need to maintain that sense of playful exploration, and comics really help me do that. My favorite comics are comics that just explore their own stories and worlds.

And of course, I'm a teacher, and comics are a great tool for teaching kids, whether you're reading them or making them. They're a real inlet for some kids who maybe don't latch onto straight text so much, and they convey information differently for any reader. They have a visual component, as well as a textual component, so comics activate different intelligence areas in the minds of the artist and reader. When I think in terms of writing, I think of all the rules of grammar and form, the conventions of prose or poetry... but when I think in terms of comics, I look at that blank page and flex my fingers and think, "Okay, ANYTHING could happen here!"

How did you come up with the idea for a "comics camp"?

I was living and working at this wonderful orchard and bakery in New Hampshire, and they had a school there that did camps for area kids every summer. I wasn't drawing a comic at the time, but I was doing the weekly sign boards for the bakery, which involved lots of writing, decoration, and entertaining ornamentation. One of the teachers at the school said, "Hey, why don't you do a camp about comics?" and the moment she said that, it just made perfect sense. Yes! There are so many kids out there who are
PASSIONATE about this art form, and yet there's almost NOWHERE they can go to have an adult say, "Yes, this is a worthwhile activity... and here are some things to think about as you work, and here are some other kids your age doing their own work, and let me help you get your work out to other readers!"

What's the age range like these days?

Some of the workshops are for middle school or even high school kids, but most are for middle- to late-elementary (ages 8-13). Depending on your age and your developmental level (and your personality and working style), you're going to need a different approach to studying comics. For younger kids, we [1]work in shorter sessions, with less discussion of abstract concepts and more of an emphasis on the characters and the stories they act out. We'll think more in terms of straightforward sequence, cause and effect, showing vs. telling. For example, let's say you draw a funky shape on your paper. You draw a couple of eye spots, maybe a hat, maybe some legs... Right away, that shape is becoming a character. It has its own way of looking, moving, acting, talking (or not talking), it has a place where it lives, hopes, fears, dreams, interests, and so on. It all starts with just a few lines on paper, and young kids already know how to do this character creation. They just DO it! It's something we only forget as we get older, if we're not careful.

For older kids... well, I think everyone should focus on their characters and their stories. That's where it all happens in comics. But the older kids are capable of thinking more abstractly or metaphorically, of synthesizing multiple concepts, of moving beyond cause and effect in their sequences, and working with symbols and styles. This is where we start to ask, "What do you want your comic to say?"

Of course, all ages always need one reminder: GO OUTSIDE! We all get so involved in our work, we need excuses to get up and run around and activate the body. It makes your brain work better, and it opens your eyes to the world around you. Every Comics Workshop has some part where we play a game or have a recess of some sort.

How do the kids respond to drawing comics? Have there been any surprising reactions?

My favorite part about the Comics Workshop model is that all the work is student directed. They bring their own content to the table; I just provide some structure and some guidelines or suggestions. It's a workshop, because the kids are making authentic choices about what they want to work on, what they want to learn, and how they want to represent that learning. Some kids come in and want to draw comics about their families. Others come in with characters they want to develop. Others come in not having drawn comics ever before, and I say, “Great! YOU are going to remind us all what fresh, new, ideas look like!”

When helping the kids move forward with their talent, how is constructive criticism given?

I ask kids to run their penciled artwork by at least one other person, and (at least at first) to show it to me, too. I emphasize that extra eyes and reader feedback help you improve your comics. They need to develop the skill of peer conferencing and self-editing, but I'll also explain to them how a reader will read their pages, and if there's a "bump" (that makes it hard to read); I'll talk with them about ways to fix it.

What benefits made you choose this route?

Since the artwork is student-directed, the solutions also need to be student-driven. I'd never say, "Look, page four doesn't read well. Move the monkey to the left side, cut out the tidal wave, and move that word balloon to the bottom of the panel." Sure, maybe that's how I'd do it, if it were my artwork... but it isn't, so the solution has to come from
the artist. My job (as the leader of the workshop) is to provide some concepts, maybe some vague suggestions, and to be a good sounding board for their original ideas. It's a gentle collaboration, and I'm trying to be the invisible partner. When a student's comic is done, it's the work of that student.

Remember, that blank page can be anything. If it ends up in my hands, it'll be one thing. If it ends up in your hands, it'll be something else. And of course, if we both work on it together...

Comics are so unique, what is it about them that makes them better/different from all other storytelling media?

They're better in LOTS of ways. In today's world of mindless electronic stimulation, comics require careful reading, visual attention, and active construction of meaning. More than ANY other medium, they communicate the personality of the person or people who create them. Comics, especially when paired with cartoons, catch our eyes and speak to us in the simplified, symbolic language of our dreams and innermost perceptions. On the creating end, comics give kids a cinematic vehicle that costs literally pennies per story. A pen and paper are all you need to create stories about ANYTHING you can imagine.

The description of creating comics as an inexpensive art form (the idea that all you need is paper and pen) is something that has great appeal to us Pack Ratters. If we live too far away or, alas, are too old to attend your camp, where/how do you recommend we begin?

Get a pencil or pen and a piece of paper and think about the most outrageous, wild, exciting, sad, scary, silly, fun comic you would like to read. Then start making it. And once you've made it, send it to me! I love getting comics in the mail.

What is the philosophy behind the structure of your curriculum?

I believe kids -- or ANY sentient beings, really -- will do the best job they can, whenever they can. The teacher has only to create the right environment. That's why I like the workshop model for the creative work of comics. It allows for early readers and more experienced artists to work side by side, and to teach each other lots in the process.
Sometimes, with more specific curriculum, we'll be more structured. For instance, at a "Creature Comics" camp at the local Humane Society, we did comics, but we also spent time with the animals. We interviewed and shadowed some of the shelter workers, so we could learn about important issues in animal welfare. Then we collected research materials and wrote educational comics about specific issues, such as rabies vaccinations or inhumane puppy mills. The kids could see how their creative work went out and educated the community about vital issues that they (the kids) has really come to care about very much.

There's another aspect of Comics Workshop that I think is equally important -- it's something I've noticed in every school where I've taught. If you look at the art coming out of, say, the preschool or kindergarten, it tends to be really expressive and dynamic, and just incredibly, creatively individual. Then if you look at middle elementary, it's more accomplished and more representational, but also more... well, more standardized. It's almost like as we go through school, we are educated AWAY from creativity and artistic expression in some way. You draw a freaky sun one day, and some well-intentioned adult says, "No, a sun looks like this, and it's yellow..." and suddenly all these doors of perception just close. (That sounds really cynical, but consider the fact that the modern public school system was intentionally designed to provide willing, obedient workers for the factory system, with its clocks and bells and repetitive labor.) In the end, we have a society of adults who say, "Oh, I don't draw," because they have learned that their own personal style of graphic expression is not standard, and therefore not acceptable. At Comics Workshops, I tell the kids that no matter how you draw, it's the perfect style to do your own comics. Plus, nobody else can do your comics for you, so you'd better get crackin'! PR [1]

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Comment in the Make Out Room [2]