Teacher's Guides for Image Comics

More and more educators agree: Comics are a great resource in the classroom! With that in mind, Image Comics is offering free teacher's guides for some of our most popular children's graphic novels.

HOWTOONS: TOOLS OF MASS CONSTRUCTION by Dr. Saul Griffith and Nick Dragotta

Follow Celine and Tucker as they learn through play! Challenged to make something “other than trouble,” this brother-and-sister pair use everyday objects to invent toys that readers can build. Combining comics and real life science and engineering principles, Howtoons are designed to encourage kids to become active participants in the world around them. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, this remastered collection will contain the “best of” HOWTOONS over those years, along with new material by the creators of the series!

Download the HOWTOONS "Marshmallow Shooter" Teacher's Guide (PDF)

REVIEWS:
"Siblings Tucker and Celine demonstrate how to create dozens of simple inventions and craft projects by using (and reusing) everyday household objects in this high-energy comics collection.... Organized into sections revolving around play, tools, math, science, engineering, and more, the projects typically span just a few pages, with suggestions that include creating marshmallow shooters from PVC pipe, refashioning a turkey baster into a flute, and transforming humble soda bottles in multiple ways—bird feeders, 'jet packs' for a superhero costume, underwater goggles, etc. Nick Dragotta’s cartooning is every bit as imaginative as the projects offered, bringing a larger-than-life comic-book sensibility and sense of adventure to these wisecracking siblings’ investigations and tinkering. Packed with ideas and creative fodder for DIY-minded kids. All ages." —Publishers Weekly

"The comics in Howtoons focus on safety, recycling, and, most important, fun. The bright, somewhat chaotic artwork is designed to capture a kid’s attention and imagination. The projects are not laid out in a staid, step-by-step manner, and several of them will require extra thought or adult assistance, but the variety is hard to beat, as the creators cover art, math, engineering, science, and more. Since this is a revised anniversary edition (with about 100 pages of added content), there is a touch of repetition, but not enough to matter to DIY and maker fans, both young and old. This is a great addition to STEM collections, maker spaces, and elementary- through middle-school graphic-novel collections." —Booklist

I KILL GIANTS by Joe Kelly and Ken Niimura

Celebrating the fifth anniversary of a modern classic, this trade paperback edition of the Eisner-nominated, International Manga Award-winning miniseries includes interviews with the creators, design art, covers, and more.

Read the I KILL GIANTS Teacher's Guide at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund website

REVIEWS:

"After you’ve read this glorious book, you will almost certainly want to find a special place for it on your bookshelf. But I suggest you do something a bit more generous… pass it along to a family member or friend. It needs to be shared. It needs to be discussed. It needs to be experienced by everybody." —Chris Columbus, Producer of the Academy Award nominated The Help and BAFTA Award-winning Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

"I Kill Giants off-handedly accomplished something that, I assert, comics can do better than any other form of entertainment: It set up an intriguing tension between its narrative content and its visual style, and it really lived inside that tension." —Glen Weldon, NPR

"This is graphic storytelling at its zenith: employing fantasy to offer profound insight and take readers on a deeply emotional journey.” —Booklist

"Niimura's art is as impressive as Kelly's writing, and both the script and the panels present fresh thrills on every page." —The Oregonian