Comic books used to be serious contraband in America's public schools, covert reading that students would sneak under their textbooks and peruse during math lessons.
They were irksome distractions that teachers would swoop in and banish the way they now outlaw compact disc players and hand-held video games.
Teachers today have a different philosophy. Comic books, no longer such a staple of youth, are now thought of as an old-fashioned way to encourage actual reading, drawing and writing in an age of passive, bottomless satellite-TV watching and Internet surfing.
With the release of the movie "Spider-Man" and the latest "Star Wars" -- both of which have comic books on the market -- baby boomer teachers who always loved the comics' intricate story lines and meticulous art are working to have students create their own characters and books right in class.
"There really is a resurgence in this, and it's a fabulous way to get kids thinking creatively," said Jean Diamond, an art teacher at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda. "They work on character development, plot lines, storyboards, drawing and color. And they are absolutely consumed by it."
Art teachers -- such as Dennis Lutz of Francis C. Hammond Middle School in Alexandria -- have prepared multifaceted lessons that teach students how to brainstorm character ideas and how to write lively and concise thought boxes for the plot lines.
With his drawings spread out over large wooden tables during a recent art class at Hammond, Angel Ortiz, an eighth-grader, hunched over his drawings. He had come up with characters, a problem, a resolution and a moral, just like his teacher asked.
He was trying to perfect the artwork of some fierce-looking characters with names like Retainer-Man and Mouth-Menace. The story was all about dental hygiene and the great fear of all adolescents: braces.
"Before the movie 'Spider-Man' and before my teacher talked about learning how to produce a comic book in class, I never even read a comic," said Ortiz, 13, who went to see the film and was inspired. "Now it's cool, because I am reading them and thinking about my own ideas for stories."
With an increased focus on standardized tests at schools, drawing is left out of many elementary and middle school lessons, said Jan McCormack, an art teacher at Mark Twain Middle School in Fairfax County.
"Comic books are a great way to learn how to draw while also teaching them the math and graphing skills that they need to draw characters to scale," said McCormack, who recently started a cartooning lesson off the "Spider-Man" buzz. "The kids are really hyped about it now."
It's quite a departure from the era when the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee conducted an investigation into whether comic books stirred up juvenile delinquency.
Today, the New York City Comic Book Museum thinks it could help children become free thinkers during a time of fact-driven education. Museum officials have drawn up an eight-lesson curriculum called "Hooked on Comics."
The lessons will be taught in New York City public schools in the coming years and in libraries this summer, said David Gabriel, executive director of the three-year-old museum.
"Kids are so easily distracted by anything colorful, loud and eye-catching," said Gabriel, 36, who read comics growing up. "But kids will read if you make it fun and interesting. Look at Harry Potter. We want to do the same thing and have them learn the structure and creative skills."
Comic books have been on such a decline that on May 4, industry shops held a nationwide Free Comic Book Day to spur kids to read them. Participating stores allowed customers to pick out a free comic book, which usually cost $2 to $6.
"In the 1930s and '40s, they were a ubiquitous part of popular culture. They were the nation's babysitter before television was around," said John Jackson Miller, editorial director of Comics & Games Retailer and the Comic Buyer's Guide. "But in the mid-1990s, you could see readership go down just as the Internet got popular."
The comic industry soared from an estimated 3,000 stores in 1987 to 10,000 in the mid-1990s, Miller said. Then it went back down to about 3,000. This year, it seems to be gently growing with about 3,600 stores, he said.
To bring readers back, Marvel Comics announced in May 2000 that it was launching the "Ultimate Marvel" line to update its characters. In "Ultimate Marvel Spider-Man" for example, Peter Parker, the middle-aged freelance photographer for the Daily Bugle newspaper, is a Web master for eBugle, an online news site. He listens to the Dave Matthews Band.
But there is nothing like a blockbuster movie to boost sales.
Devon Sanders, manager of Beyond Comics II in Georgetown, said the store has had a 30 percent jump in sales since the movie "Spider-Man" came out.
"It's weird, because even last year you couldn't hand a comic book out to a kid for free," said Sanders. "Now the kids are all jazzed up about reading them."
Students are also reading magna, Japanese-style comics. They often have soap-opera style plots and attract a more multicultural audience made up largely of Asian and African American girls.
For students, the increased interest in comics has provided a chance to develop some elaborate characters and even a finished product.
Christopher Kim, a 17-year-old senior at Walt Whitman High School, has worked on a book that features 30 original characters.
He has even sent letters to comic book companies hoping to get an internship.
"I was out there watching 'Spider-Man' on opening night," Kim said. "If I can learn to make art like that, then that would be a pretty amazing thing to graduate with."
