Comic Book U

Ryan Claytor, an assistant professor who teaches the visual narrative class at MSU and U of M-Flint, acknowledges that these emerging hero’s origins don’t come from a bite from a radioactive insect, but a blank sheet of paper.

“These students start out with nothing,” Claytor said. “Over my course, these works are written, illustrated and binded. It’s creation to completion.”

Since he began teaching the course in 2009, Claytor celebrates the end of the semester by giving his students the Comic Con treatment by setting up this in-store appearance. But it’s a long road before the aspiring creators get a glimpse at their celebrity moment.

Students work from the ground up on self-published graphic novels. During the process, Claytor exposes his students to the business’ essential principles and influential works. Although the course offers a brief treatment of the artistic side of comic making, the real focus is on telling stories with visuals, no matter the level of artistic talent.

“It’s all about clear, concise storytelling,” Claytor said. “If you’ve got the gumption to create comics, you can (tell a story).”

So while Claytor’s course clears out the impediment of aspiring creators’ insecurities as artists, it also garners interest from students who overturn preconceived notions of what kind of person it takes to want to create comics. Claytor said this semester’s lineup includes film and English majors. Some may think of this as a load of Hydra-like seduction to the dark side to hesitant creative types, but the numbers don’t lie.

“I’ve had more students than ever before,” Claytor said. “The class usually caps at 15, and this semester I’m almost at 20.”

Claytor also boasts that this semester’s final projects are as varied as its participants. For the most part, comics are still mostly associated with the cape and cowl  crowd, but the work of Claytor’s students stands as a testament to what the medium can accomplish beside superpowered fistfights and feats of derring-do. One student based his opus on drawings he used to make as a kid. Another is documenting her experience at a sorority, a venture potentially more interesting than any alternate reality the Fantastic Four have been.

“The styles are across the board,” said Claytor of this semester’s student work.

“And the influences are wide and varied.”

Claytor said he hopes events like this in-store appearance will prove there’s always room for skilled visual storytellers. With this class, he offers the next generation of graphic novelists, comic book artists, filmmakers and whatever other media come along to enter a biz that is limited only by the human imagination.

And as Charles Xavier fondly looks over his X-Men, Claytor can’t help but gush over the talent he’s seen.

“I hope they keep making art from these experiences,” Claytor said. “I’m really proud of (them).”

MSU’s Comics and Visual Narrative class in-store signing

5-7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 10 FREE Hollow Mountain Comics 611 E. Grand River Ave.