 Illustrating SLS
There is no denying the popularity of comic books.
According to Diamond Comics, the top comics distributor in North America, September comic book sales topped 7.05 million. Total comic book sales to-date in 2009 exceed 55 million copies.
Comic books and comic characters have a huge appeal to kids and adults as well. What better way to teach students the four stages of The Strategizer Learning Series than with comic illustrations?
Among other things, comic books provide readers with recognizable characters. It is this concept that we chose to use in developing the Strategizer Learning Series so that it will appeal to children and adolescents.
The Characters
Anna and Nikko are the two main comic characters that grow up throughout the four levels of the Strategizer Learning Series. Their friend Sascha joins them as a Strategizer in S3.
   
The Art Form
The art form behind Anna, Nikko and Sascha is called Manga. Manga is a style of Japanese comic book and cartoon illustrations developed in Japan in the late 20th century. Experts have called this the decade of Manga in the comic book industry. Its meteoric rise in popularity cannot be denied.
MSNBC wrote on its website in a 2006 feature story that one of the largest gains in the comic book audience in the last few years was in Japanese animé and Manga. Publishers Weekly, an industry magazine, wrote in a feature story on its website in 2003 that Manga has grown at such a phenomenal rate that it is transforming the landscape of American comics publishing. Manga art represents a huge part of the publishing industry in Japan equal to approximately $3.6 billion U.S. dollars a year on average for sales of Manga comic books.
In the last ten years, Manga art has exploded in popularity worldwide, especially in the United States. The 2008 market in North America for Manga comic book sales exceeded $175 million. In the United States, people refer to Manga-like comics as Amerimanga. Anna, Nikko and Sascha are drawn in Amerimanga style.
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