ion » 2008 » December

Hero H.S.

A lot of families moved to the Bronx just to get their sons into DeWitt Clinton High, an all-boys school, with tough entrance requirements. It was the most competitive school in the city, and it turned out a staggering number of successful intellectuals and artists….. Bronx Kids came of age with armor on their feelings and razors in their brains. They rode the trains south to Manhattan hot with expectations. When the comic book burst suddenly upon New York, they were ready to make it their own. - Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book by Gerard Jones.

I went to DeWitt Clinton and as with any proud alumnus, when the opportunity arises to brag about your school, you do. Notably, this year’s top grossing box office hits, Dark Knight and Iron Man were based on characters created by DeWitt Clinton alumni, Robert Kahn (Bob Kane) and Stanley Lieber (Stan Lee).

Like most of the guys I know who work in creative industries, comics have had a major influence on me. It’s where we learned of story arcs, analogy, symbolism, science fiction, mythology and words such as equinox, endeavor, invulnerable and intangible. Developing characters names, origins and costumes was for many creatives their first foray into the process of research, writing, drawing and design.

Check out some of the comics I collected in high school as well as these two issues of an annual comic created by my peers at Clinton.

Posted on December 19th, 2008 by admin and filed under Collections, Influences | Comments Off