By Marley Malenfant/se news editor

SE students who enjoy reading comics have formed the Comic Book Club to study and create their own comics.

The six members discuss the history of comics as well as how to write and draw their own comics.

Royce Garner, SE Campus English instructor, serves as club adviser.

“This comic club is like a writing workshop,” he said. “It’s like a free class.”

Garner said the club plans to publish a comic book.

“The goal is to complete and publish stories,” he said. “We are working on a literary magazine. We hope to have it out in the spring.”

Garner said comics are more than a child’s pastime.

“A comic is a combination of words and pictures that provide a meaning,” he said.

SE student Catherine Shepard said her comic book style comes from her personal life.

“I’ve been writing my own stories and designing my own pictures since I was 12,” she said.

“I mix it with my life and then add this superhero-like character. I create off of emotion.”

Woody Evans, SE public services librarian, said the club is very laid-back.

“The comic club is an exercise with discussion,” he said. “It’s like a class inside a Barnes & Noble.”

Garner hopes to expand the comic club meetings into actual lectures.

“I want to turn this club into a novel criticism class,” he said. “This club is new, but I think it can go from being just that.”

SE student and club member Colby Arrington said the club allows him to have a creative spark.

“It lets me hone my creative energy,” she said.

“I write and draw Stephen King kind of stuff. The comics in the 1980s were really dark, so I base my ideas on that.”

Club member and SE student Jill Dack said she wants people to pay more attention to comics.

“I want to bring comics back,” she said.

“People should take a deeper look at comics because there is a lot of great art in comics.”