This is IT. The home stretch, the final 4 days of the fist D4RT Kickstarter. If you were planning on backing/blogging/tweeting/Facebooking/can-and-stringing about this, the time is now. We’re at $7,233, which means D4RT Yantaló is in good shape! My shopping list is ready, I’m consulting with several child educators, talking to representatives of the Yantaló school, and all other related wheels are in motion. I met with Luis Vaszquez of the Yantaló Peru Foundation over the weekend and am more excited for this adventure than ever before.
I also conducted a Twitter poll asking my readers for recommendations of the best in children’s comics [my own childhood comics experience accidentally began with a discovery of my parents’ racy French comics, then went straight to Sandman – advice was needed], and, if all goes well, will spend a day introducing the concept of sequential art and inviting the class to create their own comics strips. If you have your own kid-safe comics suggestions, please add them in the comments section.
As promised, I’ve uploaded more outtake videos from the original Kickstarter video. Behold:
This was on my Tumblr last week.
This footage of our house was shot as potential filler, but never used.
If you’re just catching up with D4RT, it’s a mobile workshop that aims to bring art education, supplies, and public art projects to impoverished communities worldwide. The first installment will take place in a few weeks in Peru.
Several months ago, I met a small group of filmmakers working on a documentary piece about Yantaló – a Peruvian village in the heart of the Amazon jungle. As I watched their raw footage, I fell in love with Yantaló’s people and the close-knit community they’ve managed to cultivate despite harsh economic strains. I was especially impacted by the struggles of the local kids and learning that there is just one school in Yantalo, offering a bare-bones education with no art programs whatsoever. Children spend their free time working in fields with their parents and finishing their homework, stuck in a mundane routine with no creative outlets to nourish their emotional development. Art education is essential in stimulating cognitive skills as well as vital life skills, such as critical thinking, self-confidence and self-discipline – that’s where D4RT comes in.
We met my original goal of $5,000 within the first few days of the D4RT Kickstarter launch. If we’re able to spread the word and raise another $5,767 in the next 4 days, it will cover a second installment in this Cambodian orphanage.
I’d recommend the “Scary Godmother” stories and “Magic Trixie” by Jill Thompson. Dark Horse just released a big hardcover of lots of Scary Godmother stuff, or you can buy individual comic volumes.
Calvin & Hobbes?
I don’t know if it’s cool enough, but I loved it as a child :) .
Outtakes, yay ^_^ !
And even more yay – the fact that the campaign was a success (and it might be an even bigger one)!
I’d recommend DC’s Tiny Titans and Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade
I’m so exited about this!!!! Good luck!
I was thinking about ‘child-safe’ comics out there. I’m from latin america too, and I think that if you’re going to show them comics, you could try with superhero ones. Here, kids don’t know much about superman or batman and blah, but I think EVERY kid (at least here in Chile) knows spiderman, so you could show them that.
Also.. there’s an Argentinian comic called ‘Mafalda’ which is AWESOME and I think it’s pretty child-safe. I enjoyed them when I was 8, and I still LOVE them now (I’m 20). It’s pretty easy to find in bookstores, at least here in chile (compiled in.. about 8 books, I think). Also, as it’s not a ‘story’ but more of isolated comic strips, you don’t have to explain the kids the whole back-story, the plot, etc. (It criticizes society a lot though. There’s a character who’s a reaaaaally tiny tiny girl called ‘liberty’ haha)
Here’s an example http://blog.espol.edu.ec/paosaltos/files/2011/01/Tira-de-Mafalda2.jpg (they’re very simple). I read somewhere that you can understand some Spanish… if I’m wrong, just say so and I’ll translate it!
You awesome, beautiful human being, you.
Ahh calvin and hobbes is great. I also suggest Tin-Tin (I think he’s British? But I encountered him in the states) Boy goes on traveling adventures with small dog, good things.
Archie Comics! I still love them.
If you should ever need any more child educator imput, let a girl know! I teach preschool-5th grade art class in the summer/3 year olds throughout the school year and my mom teaches 4 year olds! :)
As a kid, I read a lot of Archie comics (I especially loved Veronica, haha). I know there are some cool things like Artemis Fowl comics and Percy Jackson comics.
Not sure if they translate it into English, but you may find it in Russian, but the comic you should check out is Alan Ford. (I believe it’s originally Italian.) Pretty great.
Nice site btw.
Have a blast!
Mafalda is realy great and also a fairly popular comic strip here in latin america.
I’d also recomend Asterix. It is from france and I loved as a child.
I hope you and the students have a great time during you stay in Yantaló.