Interview with Cody Pickrodt, Comics Creator

A former teacher in public schools now inspires a new generation of comics creators in Brooklyn and beyond

'Sometimes it felt like babysitting,’ comic book author Cody Pickrodt says of his days teaching in the California public school system. ‘There’s not enough money and not enough choice, when we need something more like a university, which caters to what the kids want to do.’

Cody is speaking to me in Café Grumpy, ‘a perfect café for comic book artists: big tables and not too loud.’ It’s located on a snowy streetcorner in Greenpoint, a world away from the West Coast schools where Cody first became involved in education. As an art teacher within the state, he would drive from school to school delivering sessions which increasingly came to focus on his first love, comic books. Returning to his native New York, Cody turned his passion into a profession as the leader of comic book workshops first for 3rd Ward, and then for Uproar Art.

Cody’s passion for comics in fact began in the city – specifically, in Chinatown. The young Cody’s Chinese-American mother took him on shopping trips where he developed a taste for Asian comic book imports.

‘I went from Disney comics straight to manga,’ Cody tells me. ‘I couldn’t read what they were saying at first, but the pictures told the story nonetheless. After a while, I even learned how to read Chinese, which after all is just another set of pictures. This was twenty years ago, well before the current popularity of manga today. And I actually learned something then, which I can't say for the quality of manga that kids read today.'

Cody feels it’s vital to encourage a new generation even as Hollywood promotes comic adaptations from Spider-Man to Superman and Tamara Drewe to Scott Pilgrim. ‘It’s easy to forget that comics are actually on the wane. Graphic novel sales have dropped significantly in the last year. The boom in comics became a glut, and it’s only now that the industry is shrinking that there’s room to take creative chances. It’s a great time for young, original creators to jump on board.’

Cody has done his part to foster this new generation of talent among both students and teachers, having trained a new generation of instructors at 3rd Ward, including comics teacher Joanne Sherrow.

Now Cody’s workshops are available for all ages from Kindergarten to 12th Grade, via Max Goodman’s non-profit organization Uproar Art, featured last time on Books and Adventures.

Working around a simple 6-panel page format, Cody uses a variety of techniques and tricks to get creativity flowing among his classes. In one activity, students may pass their comic book to a partner between panels, creating a collaborative work.

‘These classes work with all ages from infant to adult,’ says Cody, although he’s particularly impressed by Kindergarteners, who he says ‘focus and really get into it’.

In common with Uproar’s director Max Goodman, Cody believes that many subjects can be taught via creative, practical art activities. The comic book form lends itself to almost any subject on the curriculum. And, taught in small groups – 6 students is the optimum number – Cody’s classes enable students to find their own creative impulses and express them through the comics medium.

Cody’s own journey from those Chinatown manga to his current output has been a painstaking one. Cody's first comic book, Night Swim, boasting a 200 copy print run, was drawn, printed and individually assembled entirely by hand, prior to his experience using computers. Today his work, largely aimed at an adult audience, includes two concurrent narrative comics alongside countless cartoons, illustrations and the art project Men with Whom I Share the Same Height.

Cody works from a movie-style script, writing up to twelve issues in advance and creating thumbnails before moving on to a Zen-like drawing process. ‘It sounds odd, but I try not to think about drawing while I'm drawing. I'll put on a movie or a listen to the news in the background, or just think about something else entirely, daydream even--anything to occupy that analytical part of my brain while I work. You achieve a purer line that way.'

Cody’s current series Francine Way, born during his studies for an BFA in Sequential Art, follows a teenage girl, interested in survivalism, who leaves her home for the nearby woods. Her illusions about a life of solitary freedom are shattered when she meets a feral boy, living rough in the wild, who may be linked to a series of violent and disturbing events in the town.

‘It’s a kind of Nancy Drew story with a twist,’ says Cody, ‘about an outsider girl who wants to find out who’s behind this mystery, but who also doesn’t want to jeopardize her friendship with this fellow outsider.’

More about Francine Way and Cody’s other work – some only suitable for adult readers – is available at http://codypickrodt.com/shop

In March, Cody will run a one-day parent and child workshop for Uproar Arts, sharing his expertise and giving families a taste of comic book creation. To find out more and get in touch with the Uproar team, visit http://www.uproarart.org/

Interview - Max Goodman, Uproar Art

Never mind the nightlife and the skyscrapers, one of the most exciting things about New York is the commitment of the many artists and educators who serve their community through not-for-profit work. Over the coming weeks, Books and Adventures will be speaking to some of these American heroes striving to provide the best possible start for their city’s children.

Today we speak with Max Goodman. Max is a young artist and educator who, in 2009, founded Uproar Art, a Brooklyn-based non-profit organization which delivers weekend workshops and after-school classes to the local community. A talented jeweler in her own right, Max has assembled a team of artist-educators who offer courses on everything from recycled art to creating your own comic book.

Max is a dynamic and independent figure - she created her own first job in NYC by contacting 3rd Ward, who were advertising their own arts classes, and convincing them to take her on as an instructor! Although she had intended to teach in New York schools, the constraints of the system led her to found her own non-profit organization for arts education.

‘When I arrived in January 2009, there was a hiring freeze in the district,’ Max explains. ‘Founding Uproar Art gave me the chance to commit fully to my students without giving up my own art-making practice. It was a great way to give back to the young art-making community without sacrificing my own art.’

Max believes that an artist-educator who remains committed to their own practice can offer students new ways into learning, beyond the traditional classroom.

‘Pattern, rhythm and symmetry can all be used in art, but they're concepts repeated in math and music. Working with paints and metals helps students understand chemistry in a way that a science textbook could only illustrate flatly on a page. Frequently, students who feel they cannot achieve in other subjects are able to find an outlet in the arts, and in this way art keeps students in school who otherwise might drop out.’

Max gives the example of an 8-year-old student who spoke no English when they first met: ‘Her eyes lit up when she was in my art room, because she could follow the visual examples and create a beautiful piece. She expressed herself without worrying about the boundaries of language. That kind of outlet is absolutely invaluable in our world of standardized tests and rubrics.’

We’ve discussed British educational assessment on Books and Adventures before, but Max’s comments highlight the issues raised by testing on this side of the Atlantic, where there is a move to regulate education at a more national level. Max is ambivalent about this move:

‘I believe that funding for education should be sourced and therefore equalized on the national level, but I do not think it's reasonable to expect students everywhere to pass nationalized standardized tests. Individual communities understand the challenges facing their students, and should be afforded more local control over curriculum. A national curriculum should definitely be offered, but expecting students who speak English as a second language, or those with learning disabilities, to test the same as their peers is absolutely unproductive.’

As Max’s home patch in Brooklyn undergoes gentrification, wealth brings new opportunities and resources to the community – but it can also divide a neighborhood. On a recent visit to Bedford-Stuyvesant, I spoke with a local parent who decried the privileged do-gooders who parachuted in to a deprived area – but were free to leave the community’s problems behind at the end of the day.

Max’s team at Uproar Art are sensitive to these issues and committed to the place where they live: ‘We seek to ease tension and conflict - to make sure we're serving the community that has existed before the influx of wealth as well as the newcomers.’

Wherever possible, Uproar Art offers free and low-cost workshops alongside their comprehensive range of classes. ‘Eventually, we'd like to be a resource for children with an interest in the arts who may not have the means or support to pursue it extra-curricularly, as well as for the students that have the support system in place. We’re hoping to offer sliding scale payments for classes over the coming year.’

Max’s ethical commitments extend to opposing the involvement of the private sector in public education: ‘I think no for-profit entities should be allowed to play any role in our educational system. When I was a student in the Philadelphia public school district, a for-profit company sought to take over our schools in order to use them as a fertile captive audience for advertising. Education is for the good of the students and of the society in general, and somebody seeking to profit from that loses sight of these moral truths.’

Uproar is on the cusp of finishing its incorporation process, which will enable it to accept grants for future projects – and Max’s team are already looking ahead to the months and years beyond.

‘Our first year of business has gone well: we've found many allies in the local community, and have been welcomed with open arms into local studios. In the coming year we'd really to work more directly with local schools. It's time to start reaching out to the parts of the community that don't have access to programs like ours.’

In the immediate future, Max is excited by launching her own workshop on Organic Sculpture in Lefferts Garden. It’s based in part on the work of Andy Goldsworthy, who makes temporary artwork from found items in the environment.

‘Before now it's been difficult to find a location that parents and art studios were both comfortable allowing students to make nature based art, but I'm very excited to see what my 6-8 year old sculpture students discover in our own back yard. In addition to teaching Organic Sculpture we also offer a Recycled Art course. Because of our strong community focus we're always looking for ways to blend art making and the environment, and luckily there's no shortage of other environmentally friendly non-profits ready to partner with us - friends like Glenn Robinson at Bags for the People or Annie Novak of Rooftop Farms.

To find out more about Uproar Art and get in touch with Max and her team, visit http://www.uproarart.org/.

A thank you on behalf of VRH

I wanted to write a brief thank-you note to everyone who supported my fundraising efforts for Volunteer Reading Help in 2010.

I've just heard that, including gift aid, we reached a final total of £680. This will pay for four children to receive one-to-one reading support in this school year.

It is only through the generosity of people like you that Volunteer Reading Help can give this much-needed support...so if you ponied up the cash in 2010...give yourself a pat on the back!

New York, Same Old Blog

Welcome back! Books and Adventures may have moved to New York, but the blog is alive and kicking in 2011, with upcoming features including NYC literacy charity Behind the Book, Alex Simmons' Kids' Comic Con, guest writing from Eric Maddern and much, much more. Off-line, there's a host of educational and literacy projects I'm working on - you'll hear it all first here on Books and Adventures.

I've been staying in an apartment with a lovely cat who nonetheless saw fit to empty her bowels all over the floor of my room, but rather than indulge you with a comedy cat video on Youtube*, I've decided to include a snowy Central Park landscape, photographed this week:

*And if you really need comedy cats...will this do?  Or this?

Time Travelogix - Interview with Claire Dopson

Today on Books and Adventures we’re joined by my friend Claire Dopson, writer of the children’s adventure Time Travelogix.

Back in the day, as teenagers, she and I fought crime and battled evil on the mean streets of Warwickshire, but now Claire is London-based, with a sensible job and a passion for children’s fiction.

Time Travelogix

Claire started writing seriously while studying French at university. ‘I used to want to be an artist, but actually writing fits in much more easily with everyday life, so it’s good I changed my mind!’

After travelling, teaching and general adventuring around the world, Claire set her mind to writing an adventure story of the kind she loved to read. ‘I started something dreadful, which has now ended up as a short story (“I Know What You're Thinking”). I abandoned that and a couple of years later, I began Time Travelogix.’

Claire’s novel sees Ixian, a 24th-century schoolboy, blasted into Victorian times after foiling a an attempt to steal the mysterious ‘Infinity Triangle’. Ixian struggles to cope without the labour-saving gadgets he’s used to, but he has an ally in Ruby Swift, a pickpocket from the era in which he finds himself. Now Ixian must survive in Victorian London, escape the baddies and find his way back to his own time...

Claire explains that the novel was very different in its earlier drafts: ‘It started as an idea of doing some grail-type quest though time, which also dreadful because I had no idea how to write, but it gradually morphed into what it is now. Ruby used to be a boy and Ixian wasn't from the future at all until about 2006.’

Claire Dopson

Claire found researching the Victorian settings for the novel much more challenging than creating a 24th century society – ‘Imaginary things are much easier to write about because no one can tell you it's wrong’ - and she doesn’t envy Ixian his lot, trapped in the past: ‘I’m so dependent on my laptop. I write with it on the sofa – under a blanket in winter, minus the blanket in summer! I can't begin to imagine how Dickens and co managed to write their novels by hand.’

Time Travelogix is the first part of a projected series, which required Claire to develop planning skills as a writer:

‘I just started writing Time Travelogix as it came to me, and spent years editing and perfecting as I went, which was a mistake because I ended up changing so much of it when I finally got to the end. So now I sketch enough of an outline so I know where it's going, write loads of unedited rubbish based on this, then edit and polish afterwards (and abandon if the idea just isn't working). Much more productive. The other 2 books are planned out, but I haven't actually started writing them yet, as I want to see what happens to Time Travelogix first. I'm working on a completely separate novel now, and various short stories.’

Claire writes in the evening and on weekends, with a work ethic that puts some of us to shame! ‘I hate that feeling that you’ll never get anything published ever, ever, ever – but I’m always looking for that turning point in a project, when you realise that it’s not going to be rubbish and you can finish it.’

It’s time to let today’s guest crawl back under her writing blanket now, but to read some of Claire's stories, including extracts from Time Travelogix, visit www.timetravelogix.com.

Books and Adventures Review of the Year

As we soak in the warm bath of another festive lull, it seems a great time to review a busy first year on the blog at Books and Adventures.

We got started in February with an ABCTales/AbracaDABra Radio award for my children’s story Shark with the Mind of a Rabbit. The story had a dual origin in reading sessions with Volunteer Reading Help and old university jokes about a lecturer who we had cast as a wicked witch...

Then came the interviews – and our first celebrity interviewee was a Teletubby, no less...Nikky Smedley joined me to discuss her storytelling and dance production The Tell Woman in March.

April saw the Annual General Meeting of the British branch of IBBY, where I met Mick Inkpen of Kipper fame. During my time with Volunteer Reading Help, I saw a child go from tearing books up on sight to vowing to write his own...Mick’s Anything Cuddly Will Do was a key book in making that transition.

In May I wrote my first theatre review for Claire Massey’s great blog, The Fairy Tale Cupboard. Claire, who edits New Fairy Tales, also pointed me to one of my favourite events of the year, Ignite 2010.

July was the highlight of the literacy calendar for me - I was privileged to speak at the House of Commons on behalf of Volunteer Reading Help, the incredible English charity which helps children develop a lifelong love of reading.

In the same month, I read the first of the late Patricia Wrightson’s Wirrun books, which led on to an interview with Patricia’s publisher Mark Macleod and a series of features on these important, controversial and underrated pieces of fantasy writing. Huge thanks to Judith Ridge for putting me on to this great writer.

The Song of Wirrun, and Nnedi Okorafor’s pitch-perfect novel Zahrah the Windseeker, were my favourite reads of the year. (To be honest, I’m almost scared to read anything else by Nnedi because that first book was so perfect!).

The latter part of the year saw Books and Adventures go on a ‘world tour of literacy support’ with NGOs and charities from San Francisco to Sydney and beyond. Starting with Reading Partners and Reach Out and Read in the USA, we moved on to South Africa’s help2read, and then Rhonda Brain’s inspirational Paint the Town Read scheme in Australia.
 

In November, I was foolhardy enough to participate in, and complete, the 50,000-word challenge of NaNoWriMo, although the resulting text (written to a topic determined at random by fellow writers) will now be broken up to be re-used in an entirely different way!

Still, Chris Angotti, who runs the Young Writers’ Program for Nano, was kind enough to grant an interview during his busiest month of the year –you can find what he had to say about enthusing and supporting young writers here.


Roland Pietsch

Other highlights from the year’s interviews included: Stories from the Web, Edgardo Zaghini of Outside In, storyteller and psychologist Steve Killick, philanthropy guru Mike Dickson, Elena Schmitz of Wales' Young People's Writing Squads, and an old colleague turned pirate historian, Roland Pietsch. Some of these went on to provide useful fodder for Zoe Toft’s directory of book charities at Playing By the Book.

Amid all this frantic reading, writing and blogging, there was a little time for some running, too. Getting bitten by that bug has led me to make some dumb commitments, like signing up to run a 10k in the immediate aftermath of Christmas. (Assuming we don’t get snowed off, I’ll be the guy at the back of the field, with turkey and sprouts visibly bouncing up and down in a still-swollen belly!).

Once post-Christmas recovery has completed, there’ll be a lot more Books and Adventures to come in 2011...I’m looking forward to more interviews from around the world, including YA author Claire Dopson, and guest bloggers including storyteller Eric Maddern. There’s also some big travel plans on the horizon, so hopefully I’ll be delivering some front-line reports from foreign climes along the way!

Wishing you all the best for the season...see you in 2011!

Matt

PS...How pleased was I to see flying sharks in Doctor Who???

Festive sneak preview

Especially given the weather...I couldn't resist a festive sneak preview...

*

Winter wasn’t right this year.

It seemed normal enough in the city of London. The weather was cold, the streets were full of shoppers, and there were Christmas songs on the TV and Radio. School finished and the holidays started. Children played in the park, wrapped up in coats and hats and thick woollen scarves.

But winter wasn’t right this year. And only Stella knew it.

Stella’s parents were in the kitchen having breakfast. Dad served the coffee and peeked over Mum’s shoulder at the newspaper.

‘I see there’s a new exhibition on at the Modern Art Gallery,’ he said.

‘Mum,’ said Stella.

‘We could go and see it after we take Stella to the theatre,’ said Mum.

‘Dad,’ said Stella.

‘That would be nice,’ said Dad. ‘I’m just so excited about seeing Barry Hercules! They say it’s the greatest magic show ever!’

‘OI!’ shouted Stella.

‘What?’ said her parents.

‘Come and look at the snow,’ Stella said. ‘It’s…weird.’

*

Stella and her parents stood in the doorway looking out at the street. The sky was thick with black clouds and the cars had almost disappeared underneath a deep sooty layer of snow.

Stella looked at her parents.

‘Well?’ she said.

They looked at her.

‘Black snow?’ she said.

Dad reached down and picked up a handful.

‘Looks pretty normal to me,’ he said. He made a snowball and threw it at Stella.

It exploded with a PLOOMPH on her coat. It left an oily stain.

‘Look!’ said Stella. ‘Look at my coat!’

Mum reached out and put her hand on Stella’s forehead. ‘Are you getting a temperature, darling?’

‘It’s black snow!’ Stella said again.

‘I think she’s overexcited,’ said Mum. ‘With the trip and all.’

‘Probably,’ said Dad. ‘Come on, Stel, let’s have some breakfast. Plenty of time for excitement later.’

Stella scowled as her parents led her back in doors.

Soon the family would be off on their special trip to the theatre.

And by the end of the night, Stella’s parents would disappear from the face of the Earth.

*

Merry Christmas!!! Matt