chemistry comic strip assignment

Advertisement

• Publications

This site uses cookies to enhance your user experience. By continuing to use this site you are agreeing to our COOKIE POLICY .

Grab your lab coat. Let's get started

Create an account below to get 6 c&en articles per month, receive newsletters and more - all free., it seems this is your first time logging in online. please enter the following information to continue., as an acs member you automatically get access to this site. all we need is few more details to create your reading experience., not you sign in with a different account..

Password and Confirm password must match.

If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)

ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.

Already have an ACS ID? Log in here

The key to knowledge is in your (nitrile-gloved) hands

Access more articles now. choose the acs option that’s right for you..

Already an ACS Member? Log in here  

$0 Community Associate

ACS’s Basic Package keeps you connected with C&EN and ACS.

• Access to 6 digital C&EN articles per month on cen.acs.org
• Weekly delivery of the C&EN Essential newsletter

$80 Regular Members & Society Affiliates

ACS’s Standard Package lets you stay up to date with C&EN, stay active in ACS, and save.

• Access to 10 digital C&EN articles per month on cen.acs.org
• Weekly delivery of the digital C&EN Magazine
• Access to our Chemistry News by C&EN mobile app

$160 Regular Members & Society Affiliates $55 Graduate Students $25 Undergraduate Students

ACS’s Premium Package gives you full access to C&EN and everything the ACS Community has to offer.

• Unlimited access to C&EN’s daily news coverage on cen.acs.org
• Weekly delivery of the C&EN Magazine in print or digital format
• Significant discounts on registration for most ACS-sponsored meetings

Your account has been created successfully, and a confirmation email is on the way.

Your username is now your ACS ID.

Sketch Chemistry

A comic collaboration between c&en and chemscrapes cartoonist brendan burkett.

To see more of Burkett’s chemistry cartoons, go to chemscrapes.net .

Molecular zoo faux pas (Posted October 28, 2022)

Glassware meditation sessions (Posted September 19, 2022)

Molecular road trip (Posted June 28, 2022)

Transition metal apps. (Posted May 23, 2022)

Two flasks walk into a bar (Posted March 21, 2022)

Space-filling invaders (Posted February 7, 2022)

Atomic clock (Posted January 13, 2022)

Glassware doctor (Posted Nov 30, 2021)

Scary campfire stories for sugars (Posted October 28, 2021)

Olympic solubility problems (Posted September 21, 2021)

Museum of chemical horrors (Posted July 16, 2021)

High school chemical literature (Posted June 7, 2021)

Micelle mediator (Posted May 13, 2021)

Polymer déjà vu (Posted April 6, 2021)

Ring stand-up comedy (Posted March 9, 2021)

No one loves an irritant (Posted February 16, 2021)

We updated this cartoon on Feb. 25, 2021, to remove gender stereotypes about dating. In the original cartoon, the molecule on the right had long eyelashes and a drink with an umbrella in it and said, “It’s just not gonna work! All my friends find you very irritating.”

Statin to the rescue (Posted January 19, 2021)

Labware on holiday (Posted December 21, 2020)

State of detergency (Posted November 19, 2020)

Glassware massage therapy (Posted October 12, 2020)

Molecular gym (Posted September 14, 2020)

Electron transport (Posted August 13, 2020)

Unsaturated party crasher (Posted July 16, 2020)

Nucleophilic substitute teacher (Posted June 17, 2020)

Social staggering (Posted May 12, 2020)

Social distancing PSAs for chemists (1 of 4) (Posted April 14, 2020)

Social distancing PSAs for chemists (2 of 4) (Posted April 14, 2020)

Social distancing PSAs for chemists (3of 4) (Posted April 14, 2020)

Social distancing PSAs for chemists (4 of 4) (Posted April 14, 2020)

Glassware bungee (Posted March 10, 2020)

Rebound substitution (Posted February 13, 2020)

A Facebook reader noted that the mechanism depicted in the original cartoon would probably favor elimination of HBr in the presence of ethoxide. We agree. We updated the cartoon on Feb. 24, 2020, to replace the basic ethoxide with ethanol.

Radiodentistry (Posted January 14, 2020)

Entropic irony (Posted December 12, 2019)

Chemical Goodfellas (Posted November 19, 2019)

Enantiomers go golfing (Posted October 2, 2019)

Lord of the carbons (Posted September 9, 2019)

Electrochemical job interview (Posted August 8, 2019)

Adventures in explosive babysitting (Posted July 12, 2019)

Mole-opoly (Posted June 11, 2019)

The perils of machine learning (Posted May 8, 2019)

Shakespearean photochemistry (Posted April 8, 2019)

Welcome to the influenza club (Posted March 8, 2019)

Cell biologists (Posted February 8, 2019)

Knights of the Periodic Table (Posted January 10, 2019)

Chemical lockup (Posted December 11, 2018)

Biofilms 2: North by Northwestern Blot (Posted November 5, 2018)

Halloween for glassware (Posted October 8, 2018)

A precursor goes shopping (Posted September 10, 2018)

Shakespearean Chemistry: Richard III (Posted August 6, 2018)

Synthetic step tracker (Posted July 8, 2018)

The frustration of a mechanistic director (Posted June 11, 2018)

Gossip from the pharma cuticle industry (Posted May 4, 2018)

The birds and the benzenes (Posted April 11, 2018)

Performance chemicals (Posted March 5, 2018)

Biofilms (posted February 6, 2018)

Interfacebook check-in (posted January 12, 2018)

RuPhos the red-nosed catalyst ligand (posted December 11, 2017)

The plight of the NMR spinner (posted November 6, 2017)

Vampyrex (posted October 5, 2017)

Hydrogen bonding (posted September 8, 2017)

Orbital parking lot (posted August 8, 2017)

The Ion Channel (posted July 7, 2017)

Infrared massage studio (posted June 6, 2017)

Molecular status updates (posted May 4, 2017)

Glassware job woes (posted April 11, 2017)

Molecular nightmares (posted March 8, 2017)

Psychoanalytical chemistry (posted February 8, 2017)

NMRs have goals, too (posted January 25, 2017)

Science in School

Science comics and cartoons inspire article.

Author(s): Mico Tatalovic

Comics have generally been considered as nothing more than a cheap pastime. However, Mico Tatalovic suggests some useful comics to help promote and explain science to students.

There is an increasing amount of evidence that comics and still cartoons can be useful when teaching science. Children enjoy reading comics, and both the visual appeal of the artwork and the intriguing narrative (which can be humorous and educational) make comics an excellent medium for conveying scientific concepts in an interesting way.

As scientists have become aware of this novel and appealing form of engaging with young people, a variety of educational science comics and cartoons has been produced and is now available for teachers to ‘spice up’ their science lessons. Some examples of these comics and their associated websites are given here.

They can be used by teachers as a lesson starter, to determine students’ prior knowledge (such as existing scientific vocabulary, preconceptions and misconceptions), to motivate students to ask questions, and to help gauge students’ understanding of science topics by allowing them to produce their own comics and punchlines. With older groups, the comics could be set as preparatory homework for subsequent classroom discussion of the story’s scientific merit and credibility.

Unless indicated otherwise, all of the following resources are free.

General science

Newton and copernicus.

These are short comic strips about two lab rats whose conversations can motivate students to think about science and research: www.newtonandcopernicus.com

A description of how to use these cartoons in the classroom can be found at: www.csun.edu/~jco69120

Indian scientist and science communicator Pradeep Srivastava has created cartoons embedding new research, ideas, data or scientific facts within the caricatures, satirical comments or dialogue: www.scientoon.com

Planet Super Powers

Created by Planet Science, The Battle for the Planet Science comic includes a competition to ‘engineer’ your own superhero. A teacher’s pack and activities are also available: www.planet-science.com/randomise/index.html?page= /psp/home.html&page=/psp/index.html

The Adventures of Archibald Higgins

This adventure series is the brainchild of French astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Petit, and the comics cover many advanced science topics in many languages: www.savoir-sans-frontieres.com

Concept Cartoons

These are single-frame cartoons that depict a single problem, such as ‘Would a snowman melt faster, slower or at the same rate if we put a coat around it?’. Offering no immediate solution, these cartoons make students think about the problem and discuss it. There are a few free examples online and the complete collection can be ordered in English and Welsh, as books, posters, photocopiable cartoons or a CD-ROM, from: www.conceptcartoons.com

The Young Scientists

This comic book magazine, aimed at 5-13-year-olds, communicates science and the life stories of great scientists and promotes creative thinking and practical experimental skills. You can order the books and download sample issues from: www.theyoungscientists.in/products.html

These comics cover a variety of topics from electromagnetism to natural selection and are aimed at students aged 8-14. They feature the superhero Max Axiom who ‘will do whatever it takes to make science super cool and accessible’. Copies can be ordered from: www.capstonepress.com/aspx /pDetail.aspx?EntityGUID=8bd6f56b-a478-44aa-ba47-93b69dce0b27

Jim Ottaviani’s comics and graphic novels

Nuclear engineer Jim Ottaviani’s comics include Dignifying Science (why women are underrepresented in science), Suspended in Language (Niels Bohr’s life and scientific discoveries), Fallout (science and politics of the first atomic bombs), Two-fisted Science (the history of science), Levitation (psychics and psychology of magic), Wire Mothers: Harry Harlow and the Science of Love (the science of love) and Charles R. Knight: Autobiography of an Artist (the story of an artist whose paintings influenced 20th century scientific fact and fiction). The books can be ordered from: www.gt-labs.com

Big Time Attic comics and graphic novels

Zander and Kevin Cannon have illustrated non-fiction graphic novels such as Bone Sharps, Cowboys and Thunder Lizards (scientists who discovered dinosaur fossils), The Stuff of Life (all about DNA) and T-Minus: The Race to the Moon (astronomy). Their books can be ordered from: www.bigtimeattic.com

Biology, health and medicine

Interferon force.

An exciting story about the battle between the immune system’s interferon molecules and flu viruses. Free hard copies are also available from: www.interferonforce.com

Adventures in Synthetic Biology

A good introduction to genetic modification and similar topics, available in English and Spanish: http://openwetware.org/wiki/Adventures

The Conundrum of the Killer Coronavirus

A two-page comic all about severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS): www.biotechinstitute.org/resources /YWarticles/14.1/14.1.3.pdf

World of Viruses

Graphic novels developed by the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA, which each present advanced scientific material about various viruses. You can download a sample and order the books here: worldofviruses.unl.edu/comics/

Friends Forever – A Triumph Over TB

A story illustrated in comic form for patients with tuberculosis, which aim to raise awareness of the disease: www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/tb/tb-patient-comicbook.pdf

Luís Figo and The World Tuberculosis Cup

An educational comic book featuring a celebrity footballer and his support of the Stop TB Partnership to raise awareness of tuberculosis: www.stoptb.org/global/people/ambassadors/figo/world_tb_cup.asp

X-Men Life Lessons

This comic book can be used to help young people who have survived serious burn injuries, and comes with a discussion booklet: www.starlight-digital.org/burns-x-men-comic

A group of five superheroes are followed on a journey around Mediland (the human body) so that young people can learn about medical issues. The books can be ordered via the website, which also provides additional resources for children on medicine: www.medikidz.com

Jay Hossler’s comics and graphic novels

Jay Hossler, Assistant Professor of Biology at Juniata College, Huntington, Pennsylvania, USA, has written and illustrated graphic novels such as Clan Apis (bee behaviour), Sandwalk Adventures (how natural selection works and how it differs from creation stories) and Optical Allusions (eye biology and evolution). You can read some of the shorter comics online and order the graphic novels from his website: www.jayhosler.com

Cardiocomic

In 2009, the Centre d’Investigació Cardiovascular (Cardiovascular Research Centre, CSIC-ICCC) in Barcelona, Spain, ran its first competition for school students to draw cartoons about cardiovascular disease. You can find the cartoons in Spanish and Catalan, as well as details on the 2010 competition, here: cardiocomic.blogspot.de

Menudos corazones

The Spanish ‘Menudos corazones’ foundation for children and young people with cardiopathies has edited three comics on the topic to help these youngsters cope better with their situation: www.menudoscorazones.org/index.php ?option=com_content&task=view&id=295&Itemid=122&lang=es

This chemistry comic series is designed to teach chemistry to pupils aged 7-10. Each issue covers a single subject, has an engaging narrative that explains the science involved, and features a glossary explaining the scientific terms: www.sciencecomics.uwe.ac.uk

Vladimir Prelog

A Croatian chemistry comic: http://prelog.fkit.hr/program/popularizacija/Prelog_strip.pdf

Physics, astronomy and space science

Cassini-huygens: a probe to titan.

On 14 January 2005, the European probe Huygens entered the atmosphere of Titan – one of Saturn’s moons. Based on this major event in space exploration, the European Space Agency (ESA) has developed a comic book with supporting fact sheets for teachers to use in the classroom. They are available in Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Spanish and Swedish. See: www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Education/SEM6ZC9FTLF_0.html

Cindi in Space

A superhero style comic about the ionosphere and satellites, available in English and Spanish: http://cindispace.utdallas.edu/education/cindi_comic.html

The STEL Mangas

The Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory (STEL) of Nagaya University in Japan has produced a series of eight Manga comics on topics such as global warming, solar radiation, geomagnetism and cosmic rays. The comics are freely available in English and Japanese and for translation into other languages: www.stelab.nagoya-u.ac.jp/ste-www1/doce/outreach.html#anc_booklets

Environmental issues and agriculture

Produced by the United Nations Environment Programme, this interactive comic provides information and activities about the ozone layer, environment, climate change and the atmosphere: www.ozzyozone.org

An interactive online comic created by the European Environmental Agency to engage students with topics such as ecology and sustainable energy: http://ecoagents.eea.europa.eu

Science Stories

Comic stories from the Rothamsted Research Institute, an agricultural research centre in Harpenden, UK, depicting researchers from the institute, in cartoon form, describing their areas of research: www.rothamsted.ac.uk/schools/ScienceStories

Water Heroes

A comic story and associated teaching activities produced by Environment Canada to teach students about freshwater ecosystems and conservation: www.on.ec.gc.ca/greatlakeskids/water-heroes-e.html

Using comics in the science classroom

The following articles offer suggestions on how to use comics in the science classroom.

• Keogh B et al. (1998). Concept cartoons: a new perspective on physics education. Physics Education 33 : 219-224
• Tatalovic M (2009) Science comics as tools for science education and communication: a brief, exploratory study. Journal of Science Communication 8 : A02. Free access at: http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/08/04/Jcom0804%282009%29A02 /?searchterm=None
• Vilchez-Gonzales JM, Palacios, FJP (2006) Image of science in cartoons and its relationship with the image in comics. Physics Education 41 : 240-249
• Weitkmap E, Buret F (2007). The Chemedian brings laughter to the chemistry classroom. International Journal of Science Education 29 : 1911-1929

Born in Rijeka, Croatia, Mico Tatalovic did a bachelor’s degree in biology at Oxford University, UK, and then a master’s in zoology at Cambridge University. While working on Cambridge University’s BlueSci magazine, he developed a love for science writing and went on to do a master’s in science communication at Imperial College, London. Mico is currently a freelance science writer.

Download this article as a PDF

Share this article

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Western High School Chemistry

Monday, september 21, 2015, comic strip assignment (1.2), no comments:, post a comment.

Atomic Structure Activity - Atom Comic Project - Fun Assessment

What educators are saying

Also included in.

Description

Students of all ages love comics. In this project, students will create a comic story that takes readers on a fun, but informative, journey to the center of an atom. Throughout their comic, students will teach the properties of protons, neutrons, and electrons. This project blends art and science in a fun and engaging way to help students gain a deeper understanding of atomic structure.

What is included?

★ Student direction page (PDF + Editable PowerPoint Doc)

★ Grading rubric (PDF + Editable PowerPoint Doc)

★ Five different comic strip templates

★ A comic accordion foldable

How can this product be used in your classroom?

✔ As an assessment to end your atoms unit

✔ As a fun alternative to a standard atomic structure worksheet

✔ Extra practice / reinforcement

✔ Homework assignment

✔ As the Evaluate Phase for a 5E science lesson

You might also like the following atoms activities:

Parts of an Atom Foldable

Atoms Doodle Notes

Atoms Color By Number

Atoms Domino Review Game

Counting Atoms - Color by Number

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Let's stay connected!

⭐  Follow My TPT Store

⭐  Instagram

⭐  Pinterest

⭐  Facebook

Copyright © Morpho Science

Questions & Answers

Morpho science.

• We're hiring
• Help & FAQ
• Privacy policy
• Student privacy
• Terms of service
• Tell us what you think

Your browser is not supported

Sorry but it looks as if your browser is out of date. To get the best experience using our site we recommend that you upgrade or switch browsers.

Find a solution

• Skip to main content
• Skip to navigation

• Back to parent navigation item
• Collections
• Sustainability in chemistry
• Simple rules
• Teacher well-being hub
• Women in chemistry
• Global science
• Escape room activities
• Decolonising chemistry teaching
• Teaching science skills
• Post-lockdown teaching support
• Get the print issue
• RSC Education

• More from navigation items

Comic chemistry

By Ben Valsler 2015-03-01T12:31:00+00:00

• No comments

For some it’s the source of their powers, for others their only weakness. Ben Valsler explores the chemical story at the heart of many comic book characters

Source: Shutterstock

Comics are a significant part of our culture. They’ve long since broken out of their paper medium and onto our screens, with blockbuster movies and television franchises mining the rich history of comics for new characters and stories. Take Marvel’s Avengers, for example. Its characters have recently featured in 10 blockbuster movies and two television series, with more on the way. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, which includes all of the Avengers outings alongside Guardians of the Galaxy and hotly anticipated films such as Ant-Man, is now the highest grossing film franchise in US history, having taken nearly $3 billion (£2 billion) in the US box office. Only the Harry Potter franchise comes close, with a box office take of $2.4 billion. Third place in the list belongs to another comic franchise, this time for Detective Comics (DC), whose Batman films have taken $1.9 billion in the US box office so far.

Chemistry has played a role in western comics since their inception, with several characters from the ‘Golden age’ of comics (1930s-1950s) having chemistry in their origin stories. During this period, chemistry was used as a crude narrative device, often as a pseudo-scientific justification for the existence of special powers or abilities. Jay Garrick, the first incarnation of DC’s The Flash, apparently gained the ability to run at super speeds by inhaling vapours of hard water. Although this was later altered to be heavy water, it still reveals a naivety – or perhaps indifference – towards the realities of chemistry.

But should we expect comics to be chemically accurate? After all, comic readers are happy to accept that an alien orphan, ejected from his dying home planet in a kind of cosmic life raft, acquires incredible powers just from being near Earth’s yellow sun. But the depiction of science and technology in comics often mirrors public understanding and concerns about scientific developments. As our understanding of the world around us increases, so must the complexity of our comic book chemistry.

Days of future past

Source: Anton Ivanov/Shutterstock

The fictional comic book universe has a great way of getting around these issues – if a back story no longer fits, it is simply changed, updated for a new audience with a different understanding of the world. This is known as ‘retconning’, or a retroactive continuity change. This technique has allowed comic characters to reflect cultural scientific concerns, and there’s probably no better example than the ‘silver age’ (mid-1950s to 1970) character Spider-man.

Spider-man first appeared in 1962, and marked a significant shift in comic book heroes. For the first time, the hero was roughly the same age as the readers (although modern audiences are much more diverse, superhero comics in the 60s were mostly read by adolescent boys). Peter Parker was a high school student who excelled in the sciences, and was bitten by a radioactive spider at a science exhibit. The bite transferred the spider’s abilities to Parker, who develops superhuman strength and senses, as well as the ability to climb walls. A gifted chemist, he develops new materials for his costume and formulates the compound required to spin his own webs. In the 1960s, America was at the height of the cold war and there was significant paranoia and fear of nuclear attack. Radiation was poorly understood but seen as powerful, terrifying and transformative: exposure to radiation was also at the heart of the origin stories of the Hulk and the Fantastic Four.

Modern-day Spider-man demonstrates a different set of cultural concerns. In the 2002 movie, Peter Parker once again visits a science exhibit, but one about the ‘new’ science of genetic engineering. This time, the bite comes from a genetically modified spider, evoking and reflecting current concerns about the transformative power of genetic modification. By rewriting Spider-man’s history, comic authors continue to tap into our collective scientific subconscious.

Health & safety in the workplace

Just as with Peter Parker, scientific accidents account for a number of well-known comic origin stories. Although the first incarnation of The Flash gained his skills through poor working practice around heavy water, the second incarnation, Barry Allen, was subject to an accident out of his control. Allen was a forensic scientist with a reputation for tardiness, but developed superhuman speed and reflexes when a bolt of lightning struck a crate of chemicals he was working with. He adopts the identity of The Flash, with significant help from his materials-science minded father, who uses his scientific knowledge to make a costume that shrinks down to fit inside a ring (it’s not just superheroes that show scientific genius in the comic world).

Perhaps the best known chemical origin story is that of Batman’s arch nemesis, the Joker. First appearing in print in Batman #1 in 1940, the Joker has seen a number of origin stories and is known as one of the best comic book villains of all time. Eleven years after that first appearance, writer Bill Finger created the Joker’s original backstory, which was then built on by Alan Moore in his 1988 series Batman: the killing joke. The Joker was a failing stand-up comic who had quit his job at a chemical plant and became desperate to support his pregnant wife. Under pressure from local criminals, he breaks into his old workplace where he encounters Batman and ultimately falls into a vat of unidentified chemicals. The exposure bleaches his skin, pulls his face into a tight rictus grin, and drives him insane – in this way, chemistry created one of the finest villains ever written.

Did you know?

Dennis the menace was used in the 1960s to educate children about poisons in the home, in the 1961 public information comic ‘Dennis the menace takes a poke at poison’

My chemical romance

Source: Alisa Ryshchuk/Shutterstock

Although chemical accidents are common origin stories, there are a number of characters who are skilled chemists. The Joker himself, presumably drawing on his experience as a chemical plant worker prior to his descent into crime and madness, develops a number of compounds for devious purposes.

Joker Venom is an aerosol or gas that sends victims into hysterical bouts of laughter – often resulting in paralysis or death. It’s never hinted what this compound might be, but the Joker has been shown creating it from household chemicals, proving himself to be a skilled practitioner. Like many historical chemists, he tests many of his concoctions on himself, leading to a kind of immunity to his own chemical attacks.

Bane, the super-strong villain of the latest Batman movies, is entirely dependent on a different kind of venom – an experimental drug designed to enhance his physical abilities. While this does give Bane incredible strength (enough to nearly kill Batman by breaking his spine), he is dependent on a dose delivered directly to his brain every 12 hours.

The flipside of the experimental drug story can be found in Captain America, who was transformed from a weedy comic book illustrator into patriotic super-soldier by a government-developed experimental drug.

With great power …

There’s no doubt that comics are a rich source of characters and stories, but it’s the format itself that allows them to deliver such a powerful punch. Compared to a novel or movie, comics have a special hold and influence over their audience. By portraying action and narrative as a series of images, with or without text, a reader can progress through the story at their own pace, giving as much or as little attention to the detail as they want. In a novel, skim-reading in this way would cause you to miss important facts, whereas a movie forces you to move at the director’s chosen rate. Because of this, comic readers can invest more of themselves in the story.

Pictures are a static medium, so a comic forces the action to take place in your own mind. Movement, time and even violence all take place in the thin space between the comic frames, a gap known as the ‘gutter’. A reader relies on his or her own imagination to fill the gutter, making comic reading a very personal experience. It’s no coincidence that flat-pack furniture instructions resemble simple comics – it’s an extremely good way to communicate.

In the 1950s, public concern arose about the influence of comics on their audience (still largely teen boys at this point). In his 1954 book Seduction of the innocent, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham argued that comics were a negative influence, a cause of juvenile delinquency, encouraging sex, drug use and violence. Some of Wertham’s more progressive arguments are still relevant today, including the over-sexualisation of female characters and the promotion of violent toys.

… comes great responsibility

The comic book industry, fearful of public backlash and the threat of regulation, created the Comics Code Authority (CCA) – a set of guidelines that became a form of self-regulation. DC writers played down the Joker’s murderous tendencies, Captain America’s drugs were delivered orally rather than intravenously, depictions of extreme violence were essentially banned. As drug use was subject to CCA guidelines, certain forms of chemistry in comics more or less disappeared.

The power of comics, along with their newfound social responsibility, saw them being used in educational and public awareness materials. Superman fought Nick-o-Teen in a series of anti-tobacco comics, Captain America fought a war against drugs and new comics were developed to promote public health campaigns.

Comics are used today to educate and inspire in chemistry. The rise of the internet saw online comic strips such as xkcd and PhD comics communicating science and the daily life of a researcher. The Chemedian, a comic that supports high school chemistry lessons, has been developed by science communicators at the University of West England in Bristol, UK, and Veronica Berns, a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, received over $14,000 in crowd-funded donations to make a comic book version of her own solid-state chemistry doctoral thesis. Far from their naive origins, comics are now seen as an acceptable and effective way to communicate cutting-edge chemistry.

A Japanese professor of biochemistry discovered that students who were shown frames of Manga in biochemistry lectures performed significantly better in tests that those who weren’t

This article was originally published in The Mole

• Medicinal chemistry
• Nuclear chemistry and radioactivity
• Reactions and synthesis

Related articles

Why are some plants poisonous to you and your pets?

2024-05-22T08:16:00Z By Kit Chapman

Dig up the toxic secrets of nature’s blooms

How to teach extraction of metals at 14–16

2024-04-09T07:20:00Z By Niall Begley

Solidify learners’ understanding of extraction processes with these tips, misconception busters and teaching ideas

Paracetamol book | Using thin-layer chromatography to investigate the reactions

In this activity you investigate the purity and identity of your laboratory prepared samples of nitrophenol or paracetamol using thin-layer chromatography

No comments yet

Only registered users can comment on this article., more from feature.

Longer classes: what’s the verdict?

2024-05-20T08:00:00Z By Angeli Mehta

Discover why some schools have switched to fewer, longer lessons in a school day – and how it’s going

Why fermented foods are good for your gut – and your teaching

2024-04-15T05:30:00Z By Emma Davies

From kimchi to kefir, tuck into the complex chemistry of fermentation and its health potential

Sniffing out the science of smells

2024-03-25T04:00:00Z By Hayley Bennett

What makes a bad smell smell bad? Sniff out the chemical culprits behind obnoxious odours

• Contributors
• Print issue
• Email alerts

Site powered by Webvision Cloud

• Mine Storyboards

Chemistry Comic Strip Assignment

Lav dit eget Storyboard

Storyboard tekst.

• Well, even though you are all of that, I am more affordable and I go with every type of clothing.
• I am more luxurious, and shiny than you silver!! Hahaha!
• Yess! That would be amazing! I love the idea! People would love it and we would sell more.
• Ughh! You are right there. But what if we combine, because our properties make a great combination!
• It should be called electrum. This is because we are a shocking combination and shocking is somewhat related to electricity, hence the name.
• Great! So what should we call our combination then?
• Then electrum it is!
• That’s so genius!! It definitely has a ring to it!
• And then they both happily combined to form electrum and lived happily ever after…
• Thank you!!*Bows*

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Don Perlin, Comic Book Artist Who Found Success Late, Dies at 94

His Moon Knight was a hit in the 1970s, 30 years after he began his career. Bloodshot, another popular superhero, followed two decades later.

By George Gene Gustines

Don Perlin, a veteran comic book artist who, after decades in the industry, helped create the popular but nontraditional superheroes Moon Knight and Bloodshot , died on May 14 in Jacksonville, Fla. He was 94.

His death, in a nursing home, was confirmed by his stepson Leslie Blumenfeld.

Mr. Perlin began working in the comic book industry in the late 1940s, but some of his greatest successes came later — first in the 1970s and later in the ’90s.

In 1974, he was recruited by Roy Thomas, an editor at Marvel, to draw the series Werewolf by Night. The next year, as part of that series, he and the writer Doug Moench created Moon Knight, a mercenary armed with silver weaponry to slay supernatural creatures. In 1976, the creative team introduced the idea that Moon Knight had multiple identities, which would eventually be revealed to be a sign of a dissociative identity disorder. In 2022, Oscar Isaac starred as the character in a six-part series on Disney+.

“He appreciated the idea that these characters that he, his colleagues and his friends had created so long ago endured,” said another stepson, the jazz journalist Larry Blumenfeld.

Another enduring character Mr. Perlin worked on was Bloodshot, a hero powered by nanotechnology. The character, created with the writers Bob Layton and Kevin VanHook, first appeared in 1992 in a comic book published by Valiant. Vin Diesel played the character in a 2020 feature film .

The early 1990s were a boom time for the comic book industry. The first issue of Bloodshot sold nearly a million copies. As it happened, it was published on the same day that DC Comics published an issue of Superman depicting that hero’s death. “Stores like Forbidden Planet had a line around the block for Superman and a line going the other way for Bloodshot,” Mr. VanHook said.

Mr. Perlin was recruited as Valiant’s creative director in 1991 by Jim Shooter, a founder of the company, who had worked with Mr. Perlin when he was the editor in chief of Marvel. “Don was steady. He got up, got to the board and worked all day,” Mr. Shooter said in an interview. “He was a master storyteller, and I could ask anything of him.”

Mr. VanHook said that working on Bloodshot with Mr. Perlin gave the artist the recognition he deserved. “I got a big kick out of the fact that this guy who had been around in my eyes forever was having this incredible success,” he said. “He had always been the stalwart, workhorse craftsman, but now, suddenly, there were 12- and 13-year-old kids coming over and clamoring for his autograph.”

Donald David Perlin was born on Aug. 27, 1929, in Brooklyn to Murray and Rebecca Perlin. He grew up in the Canarsie neighborhood and remained there until 1997, when he moved to Jacksonville. His father was a fabric designer but dabbled in painting, and he pushed Don toward art.

Mr. Perlin attended Straubenmuller Textile High School in Manhattan. In 1943, when he was 14, he saw a newspaper advertisement for an art class taught by Burne Hogarth, who illustrated the Tarzan newspaper strip.

“It was at Hogarth’s place, and his classes, where I learned about comics — the fundamentals — and that’s when I realized that I’d found my niche,” Mr. Perlin said in a 2022 interview published in the comics fanzine Alter Ego.

Mr. Hogarth initially held his classes in a loft on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, but in 1947 he turned his endeavor into the Cartoonists and Illustrations School, which nine years later became the School of Visual Arts. “When the class became affiliated with a school,” Mr. Perlin said, “I couldn’t afford it and had to drop out.”

Thanks to a bit of hustling — he would make the rounds of comic book publishers in New York with samples of his work — Mr. Perlin landed one-page assignments, which were often uncredited. Starting in 1951, he was hired to draw longer stories, including romance and horror.

He was drafted into the Army in the spring of 1953 and served domestically for two years while continuing to draw stories after hours. He married Arlene Bon in 1955, and they were together until her death in 1976. He married Rebecca Blumenfeld in 1977.

In addition to his stepsons, Mr. Perlin’s wife survives him, as do his daughters, Mindy Cohen and Elaine Perlin; his son, Howard Perlin; eight grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter.

During a lull in comic book assignments, Mr. Perlin took on odd jobs, including illustration work for technical manuals and a stint at a knitting mill. He also attended night classes at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, but dropped out when his mill shifts went from day to evening work. In 1962, he began an 11-year stint at Charlton Comics, where he also wrote stories.

After starting at Marvel in 1974 with Werewolf by Night, he went on to draw many of the company’s other characters, including Ghost Rider and the Defenders, a team of heroes that included the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner. He was a creator of Moon Knight before the establishment of a royalty system for comic book creators. But he was happy when his work from 1985 to 1987 on a Transformers comic for Marvel sold well and led to royalty payments.

His last published work was an issue of Scooby-Doo in 2000.

Mr. Perlin often appeared at comic book conventions, which his stepson Leslie found to be an eye-opening experience. “There would be 50 to 100 people saying, ‘Oh, my God, there’s Don Perlin,’” he recalled. “It would be like if you went to a Taylor Swift concert.”

An earlier version of this obituary incorrectly attributed a quotation. It was Mr. Perlin’s stepson Leslie Blumenfeld who said, “There would be 50 to 100 people saying, ‘Oh my God, there’s Don Perlin’” — not his stepson Larry Blumenfeld.

How we handle corrections

George Gene Gustines has been writing about comic books for The Times for more than two decades. More about George Gene Gustines