Yesterday, I was guest speaker at my son Ben’s kindergarten class. I spent forty minutes in the morning telling them about how comic books are made and how you read them. I mentioned some of what I’ve worked on (Power Rangers got a good reaction) and what I am working on now (such as the Snoopy book.) I gave them each several take-away items – a copy of a story I’d worked on, a page showing how a collaborative comic book passes through several steps, a coupon for a free comic book from a local shop, and a “blank comic book”, a product I produce that is the size of a standard American comic book, with blank cardstock covers and 24 pages of blank paper inside.

When I picked him up in the afternoon, Ben mentioned that he had heard how I wanted to make a book about Snoopy… and that he had decided to take care of that for me. During his school hours, he had begun work on his own book about Snoopy, using the blank comic book. On the walk home we talked a bit about what I was doing, what he was doing. He explained that he had heard me talk about how inkers went over the pencil art to make it dark and clear, so when he tried something with pencil that was too light, he went over it in crayon.

When we got home, he showed me what he’d done so far, and I showed him The Peanuts Collection, just so he understands a bit better about what Daddy does. Then he set back to work on his book.

He was diligent; this was a project to get done. He’d stop from time to time to call me over, so he could read me all of what he’d done so far. Work continued after supper. Lots of effort in the coloring – the full sky had to be blue. The book had a title page after the cover because he’d notice that that’s what books had. When he had done all he could think of with Snoopy, he started a second story telling the reader about what his life is like (admittedly, mainly a listing of the video games he plays.) By the time the day was done, all 24 pages and four cover pages were full.

If you think I didn’t spend that entire afternoon and evening with my heart melting into a large puddle… I’m not a rock, folks.

I’ve got over a thousand Peanuts and Schulz-related books in my collection. Some I’ve written. Some I’ve acted as publisher on. Some I’ve spent years hunting down a copy of. Do you think that any of them, if all of them together, mean as much as this unlicensed, very-off-model one where my son spent hours trying to help Daddy, to be like Daddy, to make something special for me?

Ladies and gentlemen: Snoopy is the flying ace. (That’s “Woo hoo!” he’s saying.)

(And for those who know more of my comics career: yes, I think this does qualify as a “24 hour comic”.)

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