Bits ‘n’ Pieces: Couple wins award for kids comic

Aron Nels Steinke was sitting in the audience of the 27th annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards when he realized he and his wife might actually win the Best Publication for Early Readers category, and he didn’t have an acceptance speech.

He started scribbling down some notes on a napkin, but then he realized something else: they might not win.

“I just felt silly,” he said.

Steinke, 34, a Camas High School graduate, did win the Eisner award, the most prestigious award in the comic book industry, for “The Zoo Box,” a comic he illustrated based on a story by his wife, Ariel Cohn. While Steinke was at the award ceremony at Comic-Con in San Diego on July 10, Cohn, 32, stayed home in Portland with their 3-year-old son Marlen, and followed the awards on social media.

“I’m kicking myself for not going now that we won,” she said.

Steinke said his speech went fine and he thanked everyone he had to thank, including the people behind the awards show for adding their category, which honors works designed for readers 7 and younger. This was the fourth year the Eisners handed out the early readers award.

“It’s an important age group we don’t want to leave out,” Steinke said. “One thing I mentioned in my speech is that there are all these great comic publishers that publish arthouse and indie comics, and do a lot of archiving of awesome, amazing classic children’s comics, but are doing little in the way of publishing contemporary children’s comics.”

For both Cohn and Steinke, it’s important to connect with kids in that age group, as both work full-time as educators. Cohn founded the Tree of Life Montessori school in January, and Steinke is an elementary schoolteacher who regularly uses comics in the classroom. He has a large comics library available for students, and he sometimes brings in his own illustrations and lets the students fill in word bubbles, which helps to “demystify the writing process,” he said.

Steinke has illustrated comics for about 10 years, and published a few books of his work. This was the first published book for Cohn, who said she also has an interest in children’s picture books.

The two talked about collaborating on a project for a while, and first brought the idea to a publisher about four years ago. After that publisher passed, Cohn changed the story around, and then the couple had to actually write and illustrate the book while also raising a child, going to school and working.

“We found time to do it,” Cohn said. “Books play a very important role in children’s lives, and the opportunity to create something for children is very special.”

“The Zoo Box” follows two siblings who are left home one night while their parents go out, with Erika put in charge of her younger brother, Patrick. The two find a box in the attic, open it and out pop a bunch of animals, who march out of the house and through the street. The siblings follow them and end up at a zoo, where things flip, with the animals wearing clothes and talking, and the humans on display.

Cohn wanted to write something with a little fright in it.

“Children like to be scared and like a little bit of spookiness,” she said. “I know with my son, I don’t want to hide the world from him. It’s okay to experience emotions like being afraid of something, being sad. Everything just can’t be happy, jolly all the time.”

Besides the Eisner award, the response from readers has been quite positive.

“The book got passed around so much that the dust jacket got ripped at one point,” Steinke said. “I had a student tell me she’s read it 40 times, and feels pride in reporting back every time she reads it again.”

Bits ‘n’ Pieces appears Fridays and Saturdays. If you have a story you’d like to share, email bits@columbian.com