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Comics in Education, Breaking Cultural Barriers… and Getting in the Boxing Ring

Published Mon, 03 Feb 2020 17:00:16 -0600

Dominic Archer is currently crowdfunding his comic book, A Boxer, which can be found here.

I wrote my first crossover story at 12 years old. Sat at the back of the class in Mr. Cope's history lesson, my good friend Alex and I wrote an interconnecting narrative of two Parliamentary soldiers fighting at the Battle of Naseby during the English Civil War. It was an epic tale of family drama, betrayal and cavalry tactics that probably lasted for 150 words each, but if you ask me today about how Naseby happened and its aftermath I can give a pretty detailed answer because the lesson engaged my imagination and those are the stories that stay with you.

Over a decade later I was teaching in China. I had never wanted to be a teacher but the economics of my situation demanded it as I wanted to study a Masters degree in Comics and Graphic Novels at the University of Dundee and that is an expensive venture. The Chinese education system is a rigid beast that doesn't actually teach English; instead, it teaches the skills necessary to pass their English exam which often features incorrect English. So when students come to your class it can be an uphill battle to engage them, especially in their second language and especially when that language has been steered towards grammar and vocabulary over actually having fun with it. Thankfully I'm a nerd, and I learned from Mr. Cope's history class.

The first lesson I would have with my classes of up to 60 students was a basic introduction to me and to a simple adaptation of Harvey Pekar's The Name Comic with a dash of Scott McCloud. The strip looks simple because it is designed to be and because I can't draw to save my life, but the information I was getting across was important. Firstly, as McCloud's Understanding Comics shows, the simpler the design the more universally accessible it is, something that is important when working in another culture. Dave Gibbons described the smiley face from Watchmen as 'the simplest cartoon' and it is there to tell students that I'm not their tyrannical trigonometry teacher, our lessons should be fun so it is ok to actually speak in class. The comic also gets across useful personal information, such as where I am from, things that I like but also that I am a genuine person with actual thoughts and feelings. By referencing my own family and the meaning of my family name, I am actively building a bridge between myself and the heavily family-orientated culture that the students come from.

The comic ends with an invitation for the students to create their own. Having read over 4000 Chinese Pekar/McCloud hybrids, I can attest to their success in building a sense of connection between teacher and student. It involves exchanging with each other empathetically as well as intellectually, and the six-panel structure is so easily understood that people of completely varying language abilities are able to make something simple that they are proud to share.

The strip would lead to conversations about why Captain America is better than Iron Man, whether or not I have Chinese friends and over time helped to build a relationship in which multiple students could feel comfortable coming forward to say "Teacher, I'm gay and I'm scared to tell my parents." While the comics were not responsible for these students' bravery, they played an important part in breaking down cultural barriers and helping teenagers feel that a foreigner who they barely know and that doesn't speak their own language is someone that they can trust.

Further comics that we would work on (designed to help integrate incredibly boring things like grammar) would often involve a character named Dominic having his heartbroken, being humorously injured and for some reason wearing a big hat. They literally showed the student's development and one of my favourite moments of teaching was bringing a class their collected work for the year, printed and bound so that they could see it for themselves.

As a creator and as a teacher, you can never predict the lasting influence you will have on those engaging with your work and the response is likewise true. It was after the third student came to me to discuss their sexuality that I struck on the idea of A Boxer, a 100-page graphic novel that tells the story of a professional fighter caught between trying to balance his sexual identity and the hyper-masculine world of combat sports, and it is to the courage of these students and inspiring teachers who got me here to whom the book will be dedicated.

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