Nine PBS and Lion Forge Animation (LFA) have brought in the best of the best for the comic book adaptation of the new hit Nine PBS TV show “Drawn In.”
Dave Steward II, Oscar-winning creator of “Hair Love” and owner of LFA is a leading Black-owned, full-service animation studio that sources, acquires, develops, and produces authentic diverse content for global distribution.
LFA is a self-financed flexible media platform with an established content library. The studio is uniquely equipped to create, drive, and deliver genuine, diverse stories to meet an increasing audience. Steward is joined by local comic book author and illustrator David Gorden, and Ike Reed, of the writing and development team behind the Drawn In comic book.
The partnership between the organizations is creating new and innovative ways for a new multi-media initiative designed to positively represent kids of color and help close the literacy gap. The adventure stories are shared through animated video shorts, and print and digital comic books.
The animated series and comic book website have educational games for kids along with resources for educators and families that will support the initiative’s literacy goals.
“Providing learning and entertainment is the greatest intersection,” said Steward.
According to Nine PBS, the initiative is designed to address theeducational objectives for English Language Arts (ELA) for 6 to 8-year-old learners. The curriculum is intertwined into every Drawn In story which empowers learners and their families to explore reading in a new and exciting way.
This interactive curriculum is based on National and Missouri/Illinois Common Core State Standards. The team uses research-based best practices, including English Language Arts (ELA) and Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) fundamentals. Early learning lesson plans and playful learning activities support the framework of Drawn In videos, comic books, and website content.
Steward says that the numbers representing the literacy gap after the Covid-19 pandemic were alarming especially for Black and brown children. He addressed the digital divide as one of the reasons so many Black and brown students fell behind in reading and spelling over the last two years. According to Steward, between 30,000 and 50,000 students in St. Louis Public School District did not have access to the internet, he said, “This negatively impacts our children’s education.” “The digital divide disproportionately affects our community.”
According to data from the city of St. Louis, White students are more than twice as likely as black students to demonstrate reading proficiency in the third grade. The report also shows St. Louis scores a 37 on racial disparities in early reading amongst Black and white students. A score of 100 represents racial equity, meaning there are no racial disparities in outcomes between black and white populations. The lower the Equity Score, the greater the disparity.
The analysis of the data shows that white third graders are the most likely to demonstrate reading proficiency at 64.5%, followed by Asian third graders at 54.5%. Hispanic third graders are reading at 32.1%, Black third graders are the least likely to demonstrate reading proficiency at 25.7%. If proficiency rates were equitable, 873 more black third graders would have met state standards in English.
“With that type of information, we decided to go after bridging the literacy gap in Black and Brown communities,” said Steward. Partnering with Nine PBS and the research they had conducted and the expertise of the artist Drawn In will surely make a difference, he said.
Gorden, says that comic book reading has high retention in young readers, it sparks their interest to encourage them to read other books. The idea of Drawn In hit right into the wheelhouse of Lion Forge Animations, everything from the storyline to the design of the characters was an on-the-money idea.
Ike Reed, who is a part of the development team and wrote some of the stories says that in each episode and comic book, the storyline is based on sight words for viewers and readers to learn. The idea is repetition, the young readers will see, hear, read and the sight word and its definition.
Drawn In is a series of epic comic adventure stories following the adventures of four midwest kids who unabashedly love comic books. In every episode, their real world collides with the comic world when colorful heroes, villains, robots, and other fanciful creatures escape from the comic book’s pages. The Drawn In crew must analyze how to save their city from cartoon mayhem.
Together Tyler, Nevaeh, Jadyn, and Grace, must come up with a plan on how to catch and restore the characters back to the comic book if they hope to save their city. from cartoon mayhem! As they pursue the renegade characters, the kids use problem-solving and literacy skills in each story to set their world right again.
The plus is all the characters are people of color, Tyler and Jayden are Black, Grace is Asian American, and Nevaeh is multicultural.
The goal of the TV series and comic book is for Black and brown kids to see themselves positively represented in every story through the diverse ethnicities of the characters, their socio-economic circumstances, and different life experiences. The initiative is unique in that it was created with deep input from the communities it is designed to serve. The creative team intently listened to a panel of community advisors before any content was written, drawn, or produced to make sure the stories, setting and characters authentically represent the needs voiced by the community advisors.
Gorden says that approach was done on purpose, Steward follows behind Gorden’s comment with, “It’s the first led African American led show that’s on a public media platform.”
All agree that, they feel it’s very important that children of color see themselves in a positive light but also as readers. “We, Black creators, don’t have to hide our characters behind animals anymore, that’s an old way of thinking, and things are changing, things have already changed,” said Reed.
He says that seeing faces that look like you and other backgrounds is always positive.
Based on the research conducted by both organizations, the community wanted to positively represent and celebrate Black and brown kids. So they created stories about smart, fun, multidimensional kids who love reading and reflect some of the many identities of kids in our communities. All children benefit when exposed to authentic, non-stereotypical characters who may be different from the viewer’s own identity.
“We want to make sure we are truly representing the community we are serving,” said Steward.
The trio says that using diverse characters it’s an opportunity for all children to learn something and those opportunities are powerful. Goren says growing up he didn’t see a lot of characters that look like him, the neighborhoods didn’t look like his, and as a child, he thought to himself, ‘well why can’t that happen to me or in my neighborhood’?
“Why can’t the kids look like me,” he said. Both Steward and Reed second that emotion saying that many of the Black characters on TV back then were one-dimensional and stereotypical.
Gorden says the three of them have the opportunity to bring so much diversity to the masses now being a part of Drawn In.
“We have a diverse group creating diverse characters,” said Reed.
Gorden says that kids are positively responding to the comic books, he says one kid told him that he is interested in reading other books now. He admitted that he was a little worried about how the book would be received in the community, but he’s glad they are enjoying it.
Reed says that he was one of those kids who didn’t get into reading until he started reading comic books. “It [comic books] made me want to become a creator, and hopefully it does the same for this generation that it did for mine,” said Reed.
To watch or learn more about Drawn In, check your local PBS station showtimes and visit drawnin.org for educational games, digital comics, animated shorts, and supportive materials.
Ashley Winters is the Report For America reporter for the St. Louis American
