Spring Branch ISD Featured News

Marvel comics author and illustrator Chis Eliopoulos taught a cafeteria filled with Wilchester Elementary School students a lesson about line drawing and ordinary heroes during a campus visit Tuesday.

Eliopoulos, who has now worked with Marvel Comics authors for 30 years, is the illustrator behind Brad Meltzer’s well-liked biography series, Ordinary People Change the World. Through images on the page, historical figures are brought to life, from older figures like Gandhi and Harriet Tubman to recent history makers like Albert Einstein, Rosa Parks and Neil Armstrong.

His visit to Wilchester Elementary and Houston was supported by Blue Willow Bookshop, and included a book signing. He has written a recently released new graphic novel for middle school-level readers, too, titled Cosmic Commandos.

Eliopoulos’s new book features a pair of twins (he has twin 19-year-old sons himself) who suddenly find themselves living a video game storyline in real life, the website Brightly reports.

A highly dedicated Peanuts comic book reader as a young child, he joined the Marvel Comics team after studying graphic arts and illustration at New York City’s Fashion Institute of Technology.

“I grew up on comic strips and then comic books,” Eliopoulos told Brightly. “I’ve seen a lot of places where graphic novels are looked down upon. I have found that, if we really want children to be excited to read, we must understand that there are reluctant readers and we need to give them a toe-hold to reading. That toe-hold can be graphic novels.”

“Making it fun to read will create lifelong readers. And that’s the ultimate goal. Mixing art with writing will help that new reader learn to love books and reading, just as it did for me,” he also said.

We spoke to Eliopoulos briefly at Wilchester Elementary School after his group exercise and talk in the school cafeteria and a book signing session in the library.

He shared his thoughts on teachers who inspired him, using art as a counterbalance to violence, the power of truly believing in yourself, and the importance of raising ordinary kids – kids who might grow up one day and do great things!