NEWS

WIRES

OTHER

Art House 7: Promoting Literacy Through The Use Of The Imagination

Who knew that a simple form of four-colour expression invented during the Great Depression and known for sound effects like "Biff! Bam! Boom!" would eventually evolve into a respected medium sharing shelf space with literary works that have stood the test of time?

Graphic novelist Kaja Blackley, for one. "I recognized from a very early age that sequential art provides an artist with limitless avenues for expression." Blackley is Chief Creative Director of Art House 7, a publisher of highly imaginative graphic novels. He started the company with his wife, Christina, and business partner, company President Peter Howard.

Now Art House 7 is producing a series of dynamic all-ages books that promotes literacy by inspiring young readers who are primarily visual learners. Art House 7's inaugural title, "Kid K-OS: The Agents of Doom," has met with great success. Upon Kid's release, School Library Journal - the world's largest reviewer of books, multimedia, and technology for children and teens, chose the book as their all ages pick of the week. It has been distributed to Chapters/Indigo bookstores in Canada and throughout the English-speaking world.

The graphic novel is a work of fiction composed equally of words and pictures. Today it's common for teachers to use graphic novels in the classroom and for libraries stock them in plenty. Why? Because kids are reading them, adults are reading them, and the cerebral cortex of an entire generation is being stimulated to undertake old problems in new ways.

In capable hands, graphic novels become works of wonder that powerfully affect the young and old alike. Maus, Art Spiegelman's very personal work about the Holocaust, is one such example. It was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1992.

It's a far cry from a parents' world where in a prudish 1950s America, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, author of "Seduction of the Innocent," accused comics of leading children to a life of debauchery. "Then again," laughed Kaja, "this is the guy who also argued that Superman was a fascist, Batman and Robin was a gay man's fantasy, and that Wonder Woman was a dominatrix who promoted lesbian ideals."

"Reading is reading," states Peter Howard passionately. "If some kids are more visual and choose to pick up a graphic novel over a prose novel, and then another, and another, they're on their way to a literate future. Bottom line? We should celebrate any medium that excites a person to read."

Look for "The Lightskipper Chronicles," a terrifying, time traveling monster-filled mystery, and, "Tibetan Joe," a two-fisted, spiritual-adventure series set during WW11, to join Kid K-OS on bookshelves and comic racks in 2012.

Art House 7 is found online at http://www.arthouse7.com. For more information, contact Peter Howard by phone at (416) 534-4352 or by email at ph@arthouse7.com.

HTML: http://www.eworldwire.com/pressreleases/212397

PDF: http://www.eworldwire.com/pdf/212397.pdf

ONLINE NEWSROOM: http://www.eworldwire.com/newsroom/317569

Art House 7 Inc.
1-110 Cumberland Street
Suite 240
Toronto, Ontario M5R 3V5
PHONE. 4165344352
EMAIL: info@arthouse7.com
http://arthouse7.com