Experts wax academic about how comic books, once relegated to childhood entertainment, are really so much more. They study comic books as cultural artifacts — reflections of a society, its values and prejudices, its fears and aspirations. Step through the door at 6822 B El Cajon Blvd., and that description is vividly illustrated by the work at Little Fish Comic Book Studio.

Founded in 2012, the studio became a nonprofit corporation and moved to College Area in 2016. Its mission is to educate youngsters, teens, and adults who are aspiring comic artists.

“All our classes are structured in a way so they are accessible no matter the student’s age or ability,” said the studio’s executive director and founder, Alonso Nunez. “We tend to start classes for 11 and up, but we have one class for 6- to 10-year-olds. We also do a high level camp around Comic-Con. … And we have a project management class,” which guides students through the conception, planning and creation of a comic book project. 

Although Nunez’s love of comics has blossomed into the studio, it began at a young age before eventually wending a circuitous route to the College Area.

“I’m a third-generation San Diegan,” he said, “born at Mercy, and I grew up in North Park —before it was North Park. No breweries then. I grew up reading comics. I always loved comics. As I got older, graduated high school, it was like, ‘Hey, I think this might be art.’ From that point, I was very much — I was like John the Baptist — ‘Hey, this can be art!’”

Nunez then began college at San Diego State, but it wasn’t quite a good fit. After a bit of wanderlust, he landed in New York City and enrolled in the School of Visual Arts, where he earned a degree in comic illustration and began making his way into the comic book profession. Today, though, as much as he is dedicated to the comic art genres, he is also dedicated to comics as a tool for education and self-development.

“We talk about the role comics play,” he explained, “not just as a piece of art, but as a means of instruction and communication, and a second or third pathway to learning. A lot of times, for those kids who think they can’t read, the kind of visuals [in comics] can open that up and allow for processing of the writing. I find it a great tool for education. I go into schools, middle and high school, and I’ll have a pitch prepared — ‘Comics can be art, let me describe why’ — and more and more librarians and teachers already get it. I can scratch out two-thirds of my notes.”

In addition to the studio’s classes and outreach efforts, Nunez also participates in San Diego’s community read program, One Book, One San Diego, which makes an annual selection of books for readers of various age groups, along with a cross-border book.

“We help select the books,” Nunez said, “find appropriate spaces for community events, and then implement curriculum [based on a selected book], doing workshops in middle and high schools. The students develop a two- to three-page comic.”

The 2018 selection might be testament to Little Fish Comic Book Studio’s influence: “March: Book One,” a graphic novel, was the only book chosen for all four reading groups last year. Written by Congressman John Lewis, a 1960s civil rights worker, and Andrew Aydin, and illustrated by Nate Powell, the graphic novel genre made the book accessible well beyond the stereotypical grade school comic book aficionado. But what makes a comic book — or a graphic novel — work? What makes it good?

Nunez had a ready response: “Comics are definitionally words and pictures that together tell a story. For me, a great comic is one in which I feel moved by the story that the creator or creators are telling. And the beautiful thing is, there’s no perfect ratio of art and pictures as long as they are working in harmony and working to their fullest potential. Not just a story with pictures, but something that couldn’t exist without the combination. That to me is a great comic — that and Batman,” he said with a laugh.

Like any art form, comic books can reflect on identities, real and imagined; look to the past with a critical eye; and envision a more humane and equitable future. As a Facebook friend of Nunez’s commented, “Make Comics, Not War!”

For more information about Little Fish Comic Book Studio classes for children and adults, visit lilfish.us. 

—Kit-Bacon Gressitt formerly wrote for the North County Times, and she is the publisher of Writers Resist, a literary journal. She also hosts Fallbrook Library’s monthly Writers Read author series and open mic, and teaches Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in the Cal State system. Reach her at [email protected].