Mission 2: Create Your Own Comic Book Character

Mission 2 is now closed.

For your second mission, it’s time to play Kavalier and Clay by creating your own comic book character!

You could win a $50 Powell's gift card and be entered to win an Apple iPad Air 2!

The Mission

Whether you choose to imagine yourself as a comic book character or create something entirely fictional, in this second mission for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, we would like you to create your own comic book character.

Feel free to craft your comic book character in “real life” through:

  • drawing
  • painting
  • sculpture
  • textiles
  • dressing up and snapping a photo
  • an online character or comic strip generator (some options: Bitstrips, ToonDoo, Make Beliefs Comix, Pixton)
  • or something else entirely!

Mission 2 Prize

One submission from Mission 2 will be chosen at random to win a $50 Powell's gift card, courtesy of BiblioCommons.

Grand Prize

There will be six missions over the course of the reading program.

At the end of the reading program, one submission will be chosen at random from across all six missions to win an Apple iPad Air 2, courtesy of BiblioCommons.

Submission Guidelines

Submit your comic book character by:

We may share your submission on our website and social media too!

Submission Rules

  • You must be a registered Chicago Public Library patron.
  • You must be 13 years or older to enter.
  • Only submissions posted between midnight Monday, February 23 and 11:59 p.m. Sunday, March 15 will be entered for a chance to win the Mission 2 prize.
  • By using the #OBOCMission2 hashtag or submitting to the OBOC Facebook page, you are granting the Chicago Public Library permission to share your submission on the CPL website or on CPL social media accounts.

Background

“I want a character and a twelve-page story by Monday.”—Sheldon Anapol

In the second part of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, titled “A Couple of Boy Geniuses,” the reader witnesses the frenzied creation of Joe and Sam’s comic book character, The Escapist, the further development of their friendship and their personalities, and the introduction of the characters who inhabit Sam Clay’s world, along with a look at the transformation of the American comic book.

Much of the focus on the creation of The Escapist, and the discussion of the explosion of comic book characters now viewed as the greats (such as Superman and Batman), is on Sam Clay’s insistence that their comic book superhero have a clear why to his backstory. The Escapist frees the world of crime -- he doesn’t just fight it.

Want more inspiration for the development and the why of your own comic book character, or on the history of American comic books? We suggest taking a look at our One Book, One Chicago 2014-2015 Further Reading: Nonfiction list, which features a number of books on the history of comic books and the role comics have played in bringing social and political issues to light, such as Frederik Stromberg’s Comic Art Propaganda, as well as books on the world of comics in the United States during Kavalier and Clay’s time like David Hadju’s The Ten-cent Plague.

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