FOR MATT DEMBICKI, who grew up in a Polish-speaking Connecticut neighborhood, comic books began as a window into the English language. What they ultimately led to, however, was a full and deep and wide-ranging appreciation of his cultural home.
“The goal is to show the value of comics in the education process,” Dembecki tells The Post’s Comic Riffs about one focus of the Smudge! event (noon to 6 p.m. at Artisphere). “It doesn’t matter what tool you use to help students learn—podcasts, iPad, textbooks, comics, etc.—the point is to find what helps students make a connection with content.”
[Trial Balloon: From John Lewis to Lynda Barry: Graphic novels in schools]
Ahead of today’s event, Comic Riffs caught up with Dembicki (“Trickster: Native American Tales” and the Ignatz-nominated “Xoc: The Journey of a Great White”), an Eisner Award- and Harvey Award-nominated cartoonist, to talk about the creative and educational imprint he aims to make with the second annual Smudge!:
MICHAEL CAVNA: Congrats on a new Smudge!, Matt. What changes will we most notice over last year, and are there any you’re particularly excited about?
MATT DEMBICKI: This year, instead of having a special guest, we [meaning, myself and collaborator Tina Henry] have focused on an education theme. We have a panel comprising teachers who use comics in their lesson plans, and another panel with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). We also pulled together local artists/writers/publishers to talk about diversity in comics. Another new feature this year is animation and documentaries. These will include “Grickle” cartoons and documentaries on cartoonists John Porcellino and Richard Thompson (“Cul de Sac”).
MC: For folks who’ve never been to Artisphere, how would you describe it, and Smudge’s relationship with the larger event?
MD: Artisphere is a county-funded arts center in the Rosslyn section of Arlington, Va. The building it’s in used to house the Newseum. It’s been able to draw some wonderful performers andartists over the years, and has served as a venue for events such as Smudge! and Grump, a winter holiday arts-and-crafts show that’s also co-run by Tina Henry. Unfortunately, the county plans to stop funding Artisphere at the end of the fiscal year.
The biggest change in Smudge’s relationship with Artisphere is that Tina now works for Artisphere. She has been helping to market events at the center, which has served us to better target our marketing for Smudge! For example, our social-media marketing really took off this year. We’ll see tomorrow at the show how effective it was.
MC: You travel to schools a lot yourself, speaking directly to students about comics. Could you tell us specifically about Smudge’s educational aspects and focus, and what your aim is there?
MD: The goal is to show the value of comics in the education process. It doesn’t matter what tool you use to help students learn—podcasts, iPad, textbooks, comics, etc.—the point is to find what helps students make a connection with content. But I’m not an expert on that. So, this year, we’re bringing in the practioners: teachers who use comics in their classrooms.
I often participate on panels where comics creators tout the educational value of their work. But they don’t know how to integrate it into lesson plans. That’s why it was important for us to have folks who do this for a living show us how they do it. I think this panel in particular will be of interest to librarians and teachers, who often look for an actual application then can use a model to kick start their own lesson plans.
Another panel—the one featuring AAAS—will be a little less technical. AAAS is preparing to launch several comics-related projects designed to make science more appealing and tangible to students. AAAS senior project director Maria Sosa and local comics writer/editor Jason Rodriguez, himself a scientist by trade, will talk about trends in science and science-fiction comics, and how to use comics to get kids interested in science. It will include some hands-on activities.
MC: Speaking of education and comics, I believe you said at last year’s Awesome Con DC that English is not your first language, and that you learned the new language helped largely by comics and words-and-pictures. Could you please tell us about your personal history in this regard, and how it’s influenced and inspired you?
MD: My parents were Polish immigrants. I grew up in Hartford, Conn., in a Polish neighborhood where I didn’t really need to know English. That changed when I went to school. It was hard for me to learn to speak and read English, and I was very intimidated. My mother read an article in the local newspaper that some schools were using comics to teach kids to read. Mind you, this was mid-1970s—talk about cutting edge!
She used to buy me comics at a newsstand and also picked up those three-in-a-pack deals at department stories. I was hooked. Not only did comics help me to read better — it fostered a love for reading. I would eat up short stories, novels, newspapers, magazines, etc. Comics also helped foster a great appreciation for art. It was a springboard to appreciating paintings, sculpture, music, etc. That’s a might tall outcome from a lowly floppy.
MC: You have one panel this year that focuses on diversity, which you and I have spoken about not only in terms of race and gender, but diversity of experience and even personal geo-history. Could you speak to your aim there, as well as to how your recent comics ambassadorship to South America may have enhanced your horizons yet further?
MD: Comics have a diverse readership. Unfortunately, comics themselves aren’t very diverse. But there is a movement. A growing number of comics creators from myriad races and ethnicities are tapping their own experiences and cultures to tell their stories to a broader audience. The panel we scheduled on race in comics features three local creators who have done just that—and they’re just getting started. This will be super-exciting and interesting.
I had the privilege last September to visit Peru to talk about comics and conservationism [and] environmentalism, courtesy of the U.S. Department of State. Lima was to host in the coming months an international conference on climate change, and I just had a comics anthology on ocean conservation published (“Wild Ocean”). Peru faces many of the same environmental challenges as the U.S., such as overfishing, but it also has some unique ones, like illegal logging and mining that is destroying the environment.
While in Peru, I had an opportunity to speak at schools, libraries and English-language centers with teachers, students, fellow artists, journalists and others about using comics to convey the importance of conservationism. There’s always an economic angle to what’s happening—these industries that are causing this havoc also provide jobs in areas where they are hard to come by. There’s not an easy solution by any means, but by raising awareness of these issues, hopefully it will be close to the hearts of the next generation of teachers, politicians and scientists who may find some answers.
MC: What should potential attendees most know about this year’s Smudge? What might entice them? And are there any other artists/comics-makers you’re particularly excited to feature?
MD: There will be plenty to keep folks occupied, We have panel discussions and workshops going on throughout the day, as well as arts stations throughout the exhibitor areas. Though the show is overwhelmingly kid-friendly, there are exhibitors who will also have some really neat cutting-edge comics geared for more mature readers. So there will be something for everyone.
We intentionally bring in a diverse group of creators, to ensure that there’s something for everyone. Personally, I’m really excited to see new works by Robin Ha—who makes Korean food recipes into comics—and Terry Flippo, who recently re-imagined and relaunched a boy-and-his-robot comic-book series (“Axel & Alex”) that he worked on many years ago. I’m really interested to see what my two boys think of it.
MC: What’s on your personal art board right now, and what else do you have coming up?
MD: Well, I just finished a new mini-comic that I collaborated on with Tina Henry called “Stella in Space in Time.” It’s a kids’ comic that Tina wrote and I illustrated. We’ll have our first printed copies at Smudge tomorrow.
On my board right now: I’m continuing to write “They Came to See Me Die!,” which is a collaboration with local comic-booker Andrew Cohen on turn-of-the-century stunt pilot Lincoln Beachey. I’m also starting to finally draw a series that I’ve had in my mind for years: a really weird, surreal story that blends history with the supernatural. I showed some thumbnails to a friend a little while ago. He cringed a little, which made me feel I’m on the right track.
To see today’s full slate of Smudge! programming, click HERE.