23 September 2019

Ominous Trend for Batman's Future?



Before this past Saturday Morning Cartooning Class a the private Art School where I teach part time, I excitedly prepared activity warm-up sheets and stickers for the 3rd-to-5th-grade students in celebration of the Official Batman Day. I also included a class demo lesson of how to draw Batman for the day's lesson plan. Of all the DC characters, it's no surprise to anyone that Batman is their top super-hero character property. I brought Batman themed Character Encyclopedias and placed a action figure of the Dark Knight next to the activity sheets.

As a educational philosophy, the Art School, the classes of which are held in a Century-plus-old converted house on the main street of one of Chicago area's wealthier suburbs, maintains small class sizes that average approximately six students to a classroom.This particular Class Session, I had six boys enrolled to learn cartooning and comics drawing skills.

As the students entered the classroom and took their places around the table grouping. I mentioned the special occasion and the Batman-themed materials available for them.

There were no takers. They were unimpressed that it was Batman Day. When I had them take a break from working on their individual projects to take part in the "How-to-Draw-Batman" portion of the day's lesson, they were not exactly thrilled.

"Do we have to draw Batman?" more than one of them asked.
"You can make your own character." I told them. "But I will be making the basic sketch form in pencil as you follow along. And as I finish the drawing as Batman, you can draw the character's details to be whomever you'd like."

Some did versions of their own characters. One did a ninja. Another did a parody character called "Calf Man" with exaggerated calf muscles.

I was crest-fallen that none of my students cared much about the Caped Crusader. And I hoped their disinterest was not a sign of declining cultural interest in the iconic figure.

#Batman80 #BatmanDay


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