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The importance of staying optimistic when facing the climate crisis
I recently had the pleasure and honour of being a guest on the podcast Feed Me Serotonin, hosted by Alex Knott. We discussed insightful questions about anthropogenic climate change, its causes and effects on global society, and the importance of staying optimistic. I believe that we have no choice but to be optimistic for two…
Read MoreThe why and how behind using graphic novels as teaching tools
Intelligent questions that allow me to divulge the WHY and HOW behind using graphic novels as teaching tools.
Read MorePants On or Off?
Pants On or Off? refers to the creative process of an author deciding how to create a book. Some authors wade right in with no planning, the creative juices flowing. Other authors such as myself will plan it all out beforehand. Graphic novels, cartoons or comics and Nature conservation. An unlikely combination perhaps. Yet there…
Read MoreBehind the scenes with Captain Polo: the black and white experiment
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.…
Read MoreA new name for Polo, and a new adventure
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…
Read MoreBehind the scenes with Captain Polo: using surprise to reach the reader
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…
Read MoreBehind the scenes with Captain Polo: using humour to address complex issues
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…
Read MoreBehind the scenes with Captain Polo: Earth Day 2020 and Climate Action
Earth Day 2020 is being widely and rightly celebrated around the world as I type. This is good, this is great! But its not nearly enough. One could argue that ‘Earth Day‘ is redundant, for the simple reason that every day should be Earth Day. In the same way that every day should be Mother’s Day or Children’s Day. If what we…
Read MoreA conversation with Clare Shakya
I was lucky to have a chat with Clare Shakya for an interview as part of my research for my next comic book, the sequel to The Adventures of Polo the Bear: a Story of Climate Change. Clare is the director of the Climate Change research group at the International Institute of Environment and Development…
Read MoreFables of the Amazon book excerpt: Why poo-loving dung beetles are important
Dung beetles just love the stuff, they do. And its actually quite important, even for you and me! The mysterious reason why is explored in my very first comic book, co authored with Louise Emmons: Fables of the Amazon: Fun Lessons in Ecology. This funny comic book is one of several homeschooling resources for parents…
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