Join Doc Carter's Truth-To-Power Army: Raise Your Teacher Voice!

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What has Dr. Carter Been Up To Lately? Give a Listen!

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Welcome to the Archive!

From 2006 to 2016, I used this space to discuss issues associated with comics and literacy. The blog was helpful to many -- probably to more than admit it! ;) -- and only after emerging from a few years of feeling silenced do I now reopen the blog as an archive.

Perhaps I'll be moved to start writing here again, but for now, welcome (again or for the first time) and may this space and its decade worth or thoughts inform and inspire your notions on comics and teaching.

Sincerely,

James B. Carter, Ph.D.

Gene Yang "Levels Up," Named Library of Congress Ambassador For Young People's Literature

Yang, pictured here with Level Up co-creator  Thien Pham, is
a long-time advocate of Asian American voices in comics and
other literatures. The multi-talented comics creator now adds
Ambassador as an *official* title, adding to a distinguished career.

Gene Yang is celebrated for his comics, his commitment to responsible diversity within them, and -- of special import to this blog -- his teaching. Yang has K12- and college-level teaching experience and gets the comics-and-literacy connections. I am so pleased he has been granted this honor and opportunity. He's the perfect person to help the rest of the comics-and-education community fight *prejudices* and bigotries associated with oppressive notions of favoritism regarding so many things, the tyranny of the printed word among them. Learn more about his new position *here*.

No Female Action Figures? No Problem! (Sort Of). Is 3D Printing a Maker-Space Solution?

Notice anything interesting about these toy sets? Go ahead, scroll on down for a bit.

They feature characters from blockbuster movie and comics chains, but where are the women characters? There is no Black Widow in the Marvel set, and no Leia in the Star Wars sets. Vision makes it into the Avengers toys, but not Scarlet Witch. If and when The Force Awakens sets are released, will they include Phasma and Rey? You won't find Rey in the new Star Wars Monopoly either, nor in several other toy sets.

Perhaps the toys are on the way, but if they aren't, is there a 21st-century solution waiting to become reality in the realm of maker spaces?

While having the toy companies decide on their own to release female figures would be great, could someone take matters into their own hands and draft some custom parts for the Mashers series via 3D printing?

 I'll bet there's a market for such parts, akin to the market for special-made LEGO sets. And if someone made such plans and wanted to distribute them for free, I am sure the internet hive-mind would approve.

I come from a tradition of unsanctioned action figure customization. Before there were viable X-Men action figures, I would use acrylic paint and markers to turn my wrestling action figures into X-Men. Larry Zybysko made a heck of a Banshee, let me tell you!One of the Fabulous Freebirds had curly hair perfect for Nightcrawler, and I even had a Colossus covered in chrome model car paint, though I do not recall whom I customized to make him. My heroes were mine, of course. I didn't have the means or desire to make them for other kids, and it took some tolerance from the adults in my life to let me mess up my toys with costumes and accessories "no one" had even heard of (yet!).

Surely if I could scrounge materials to make the heroes the toy companies weren't interested in yet, today's savvy makers can help solve the gender problem in action figure sets until some of the toy lines become more inclusive. 

(Thanks to my Facebook friend J.A. for helping this idea long via his posts on gender exclusion in toy sets!)

The right paint and cloth for the "wings" was all
it took for me to have a Banshee action figure!

Happy New Year! Welcome a 2016 Filled With Comics Goodness

May your back issues be found, your bags unyellowed, your boards crisp and straight, and may your passion for comics benefit you and those around you all  the livelong days of this new year, 2016.

Merry Christmas, 1979-style!

Two-year old me wishes you a happy holiday season via this groundbreaking rap from Kurtis Blow, whom I wouldn't know about for at least another 20 years but would have wanted you to know about had I known about it then. ;)

The rap reminds me of the time I accompanied my father on a trucking trip through New York State.  I was in fifth grade, if memory serves. I remember Ithaca, Syracuse, and a town called White Plains (?) or White Falls. I remember a complete white out while we were on the road and a deer jumping in front of the cab so high into the sky it was on level with the 18-wheeler's windshield. Luckily it made  it past us! I recall stopping at a shop and getting a brownie almost as big as my head. I remember flipping of someone in a Camaro who almost ran over me. I remember stopping in a drug store and seeing the Todd McFarlane Marvel  Poster Book! 

Dad purchased a truck-stop cassette tape of Christmas rap songs somewhere along the way, which we listened to for as long as we could before tossing it out the window! We were harsh critics. I don't think Blow's rap was on the tape. 

Anyway, happy holidays and Merry Christmas!