Pole to Pole cover

A climate change graphic novel

By Alan J. Hesse / February 26, 2021

The Adventures of Captain Polo: Pole to Pole is the 4th book of the series, and like it’s predecessors, it explores different aspects of our era’s most critical existential crisis. However, Pole to Pole is much more than just another children’s book about climate change: it is also a story about courage, desperation, tenacity, exploration,…

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Paul Lafferty interview

An interview by Paul Lafferty

By Alan J. Hesse / December 29, 2020

An interview by Paul Lafferty from #32alltheway means having an informal chat, a rich dialogue rather than an interview as such. There are no superfluous, silly questions here. This is all about an exchange of thoughts and experiences focused on the topic of what authors write about, and also who they are. In this particular…

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Weird fish lady

An afternoon chat with The Weird Fish Lady

By Alan J. Hesse / November 21, 2020

I first met Gloria Barnett, aka The Weird Fish Lady, at the annual conference of the Association for Science Education where I launched my first comic book about climate change in 2019. I’ve since tracked her down and we had a fascinating chat all about the oceans and why they’re important. Gloria is a sailor,…

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carbon choices Neil Kitching

Solutions for the Climate Crisis: an interview with the author of Carbon Choices

By Alan J. Hesse / October 30, 2020

Solutions for the climate crisis is a topic that is deservedly growing in importance, and urgency. My friend Neil Kitching, Geographer and Energy Specialist, has published Carbon Choices, a book that homes in on the common-sense solutions to our climate and nature crises.   As an author of educational books about climate change myself, I just…

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Wisdom of the Ages podcast

Wisdom of the Ages podcast interview

By Alan J. Hesse / October 11, 2020

I recently had the wonderful opportunity to do a Wisdom of the Ages podcast interview. Hosted by best-selling and award-winning author Ayn Cates Sullivan, Wisdom of the Ages is a show that taps into the many expressions of universal, ancestral and personal wisdom to ignite evolutionary consciousness. The interview, titled Solutions: Actions for a Healthy…

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Guy Walton

Interview: behind the scenes with meteorologist and children’s book author Guy Walton

By Alan J. Hesse / September 18, 2020

I recently had the privilege of interviewing Guy Walton, aka @climateguyw on Twitter, about his journey as both a professional meteorologist and children’s book author. Guy shares my passion for education and creating characters that bring home the message about our era’s environmental and climate crisis. Guy, how did you go from climate science to…

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Bears in rubbish

Behind the scenes with Captain Polo: the black and white experiment

By Alan J. Hesse / July 9, 2020

Normally when I create a comic book I first finish all the artwork right up to the final, fully colored frames. I then switch over to Adobe Indesign to lay out each frame in comic-style boxes, page after page, adding in the speech bubbles, narratives and texts, and thus create the book. Quite a process.…

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Pole to Pole

A new name for Polo, and a new adventure

By Alan J. Hesse / June 22, 2020

My character Polo the Bear, climate change messenger and globetrotter extraordinaire has some important news! He is now officially Captain Polo: concerned polar bear, world citizen, adventurer, explorer and climate change educator. Captain Polo recently went through an Inuit initiation ceremony by special invitation from his Inuit friends. Polo completed the initiation following ancient Inuit…

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cairo souk

Behind the scenes with Captain Polo: using surprise to reach the reader

By Alan J. Hesse / May 21, 2020

My mission is to bring environmentally oriented educational facts and inspiration to kids of all ages all the way up to 99 years old. For this to work, I need to be very careful to shake things up all the time. I create comic books, but even a comic book can be boring. At the…

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plane ticket

Behind the scenes with Captain Polo: using humour to address complex issues

By Alan J. Hesse / May 1, 2020

As the story unfolds in my educational comic book, The Adventures of Polo the Bear, Polo’s character evolves. Starting out as just another hungry bear, he gradually takes on the role of a celebrity and an activist for climate action. Using humour, often through nameless supporting characters, I get to address technical or complex subjects…

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