Local comic creators create book for bullied youth | Arts & Culture

Imagine a world in which bullied teens are protected by muscled superheroes.

It sounds fantastic, but this is exactly the world Zan Christensen and Mark Brill have created in a new comic intended to help teens cope with bullying and harassment in school.

The idea for “The Power Within” was born last September during 24-Hour Comic Day in Tacoma.

Christensen, who lives in Seattle, and Brill, of Tacoma, were disturbed over recent news reports of bullied gay teenagers committing suicide – the same reports that inspired Seattle’s Dan Savage to start the It Gets Better Project – and decided to create a comic dealing with that issue.

“Really it was the Tyler Clementi story that just got to me, it just pushed me over the edge,” Brill said. “There was just something about that that just particularly bothered me, maybe because he was a musician he played the violin .. and I always wanted to play the violin, it just seems like a waste of that talent.”

So Brill and Christensen set to work. Christensen writing, Brill illustrating.

“It’s about a kid … who gets picked on at school a lot because he’s just kind of different,” Brill said. “He kind of escapes from that in his own mind by pretending to be a superhero.”

The adults in his life aren’t much help, telling him life will be easier if he can just fit in.

“In the end he ends up having to sort of rely on himself and that’s where the superhero thing kicks in,” says Brill. Ultimately he decides to stick it out and survive.

Christensen reached out to friends in the industry, and secured additional art and pinups for special contributor pages at the end of the book. Contributors include Greg Rucka, Gail Simone, Phil Jimenez and more.

Brill and Christensen are publishing the book through Christensen’s publishing company Northwest Press. Through donations they’ve raised almost enough money to offset printing costs, but need more to help them get copies into the hands of kids who need them most “to get them inspired to stand up for themselves.”

A number of the copies will go to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a group working to affect change in schools and serving as a resource for teens having a tough time.

Christensen also learned this week that comics distribution giant Diamond Distributors will offer The Power Within in their next catalogue. Want to help the cause? Call your local comic book store and ask them to order the book next month, he says.

You can also donate to the project’s Kickstarter page until 7:15 p.m. Friday evening.