I got this email last week (posted with permission, of course):
I am an ELL [English Language Learners] teacher at Freedom Middle School in DeKalb County, Georgia. My students are all refugees who just arrived this year. Most of them are from Nepal or Burma, but I also have students from Thailand, Russia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Eritrea. The languages spoken in my classroom include Tiringia, Amarhaic, Arabic, Karen, Thai, Russian, and Burmese. Depending on their home country and situation, their educational background varies greatly.
We are reading Hereville and they LOVE it! Since they are learning English for the first time, we spent the first part of the year reading children’s books. When we began reading your graphic novel, which is accessible and age appropriate, they were so excited. They whine and complain every day when we finish our lesson.
I was wondering if you would be willing to meet with my students for a Q&A session. They would prepare questions ahead of time to ask you, and then each of the 15 students would ask their questions. I think the students would really enjoy meeting the author of the book they are enjoying so much.
I am not able to pay you for the session as my school does not have extra funding, and our county is struggling as well this year. But I could send you my lessons that I’ve used to teach Hereville. You could include those on your website, and perhaps that would help encourage other teachers to use the books in their classroom.
Thank you!
Sara Lawson
ELL Teacher, Intensive English Program
Freedom Middle School
Stone Mountain, Georgia
Needless to say, I said yes (I always say yes to Skype visits for schools that don’t have funding for author visits). The visit is scheduled to take place tomorrow; I’m really looking forward to it. And I’m looking forward to posting Sara’s Hereville lesson plans sometime in the future.
After Emerald City Comic-Con, I received this email from Kelley, who bought both Hereville and How To Make A Man Out Of Tin Foil from me at ECCC. This is the kind of email that really makes a cartoonist’s day, and Kelley gave me permission to post it online.
Hi,
This morning I made a couple of purchases from your ECCC booth. You might remember me, I was wearing a yellow Star Trek dress and you took my picture!
I am sending you this email because while I enjoyed Hereville and plan on purchasing the sequel, it was your short work How To Make a Man Out of Tin Foil that really connected with me. I loved it! As you correctly guessed during our short conversation, I am a big fan of “slice-of-life” style comics. My husband prefers more action-oriented comics such as G.I. Joe, Star Wars, etc. We share a lot of interests but this was the first time I felt he might get more emotional resonance than me out of one of these kinds of comics. I was right and he really appreciated reading about experiences he could relate to directly, but to my knowledge are not often addressed in media.
The point of this email to to express my deep and sincere appreciation for the “Tin Foil” comic and to encourage you to give it another look some day in the future, to perhaps expand on it or find similar stories to tell. Obviously I like that your current professional interest contains a female protagonist, and maybe at some point in time you could use your excellent storytelling abilities to alternate between the two. Thank you so much for flagging me down with your effective sales pitch; you have one more loyal customer.
Thanks again,
Kelley
Thanks, Kelley! I really loved getting this email.
“Tin Foil” was created for an upcoming anthology of feminist short comics (called “The Big Feminist But”). I wanted to do a feminist story about boyhood – about the expectations that boys will be suitably masculine, and some of the ways that boys who can’t live up to that are punished and damaged. It’s a story that’s special to me, and I’m really glad it touched you and your husband.
I really do want to play more with the themes of “Tin Foil” someday, but I’m not sure when I’ll have the time. Certainly not until after the third Hereville graphic novel.
If you’re interested, you can read How To Make A Man Out Of Tin Foil for free on Bitch Magazine’s website. Info about buying copies of Hereville is here.
I’ll be at Emerald City Comic Con this weekend, sharing a table with autobio cartoonist Becky Hawkins and her shoulder angel. We’ll be at table R-06 in Artist’s Alley; if you’re in Seattle, please come and say hi.
