When I was a kid, my dad used to read me Calvin & Hobbes as a bedtime story. He even changed the inflection in his voice when the twosome argued about who deserved to be the lucky red ball in croquet. Every Christmas would find a new C&H treasury under the tree. I would annotate the comics I liked best with a smiley face or a thumbs-up sign, much like I still do with recipes:
C&H ruined most other comic strips for me at a tender young age. I owe it a lot for helping me be and stay imaginative, expand my vocabulary, and discover and love reading. (There are few other reading materials that are as enjoyable to peruse while eating a snack.)
Cut to sixth grade, when my fellow peers and I had to create our own English textbook, explaining the basic parts of speech. We needed illustrations and examples! Even now this sounds like too much work. It didn’t come close to the hell that seventh grade would bring, when we were expected to go around identifying trees and plants and assembling our own nature tomes. School has the habit of making learning a completely joyless experience.
At any rate, I chose to elicit the help of Calvin and Hobbes when teaching about nouns, verbs, et al. Take a look to see the beginnings of my burgeoning editing and writing career, complete with mistakes and teacher notes and all without the help of Adobe InDesign! We all start somewhere, eh?
In conclusion, gots to give props when props be due:
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