Your chance to participate in a battle of COMIC proportions!
The Clash of the Heroes contest centers around the creation of a comic book. Students will have the opportunity to demonstrate their creative talents in an exercise involving core aspects of literacy, including reading and writing.
The winning characters, along with the accompanying story, is transformed into a special one-page comic by a professional graphic designer. In addition, students have the chance to digitally publish their work and be featured alongside other amazing young artists. Learn more about the contest.
The contest is open to students enrolled in our participating programs. Each program competes within its regions over the Summer, ending with your chance to vote on your favorites and help guide the creation of a comic book! Browse past winners!
Past Contest Winners
About the Contest
The contest involves two primary stages: character design and creative writing. During the character design stage, interested students generate images of superhero characters. Then, in the creative writing phase, the students create a story surrounding their characters (e.g., backstory, conflict, resolution). At the end of the 6-week contest, the submissions are evaluated internally, and the highly rated character-story combinations are posted to the KidZone! website, giving students, family members, and educators opportunities to vote for their favorites. The ‘winner’ each year is the submission with the most votes at the end of the contest. This submission is then redrawn by a graphic designer, and the character, along with the accompanying story, is made into a one-page comic.
Participating Programs
The National Center on Improving Literacy collaborates with and supports organizations and individuals with mutual educational interests. As part of that outreach, since 2018 NCIL has worked with educators at the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) to offer the Clash of the Heroes comic contest to students enrolled in their summer education program. In addition to Florida DJJ, the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services (2020, 2021, 2022) and Boys Town North Florida (2020) have also participated.
The research reported here is funded by awards to the National Center on Improving Literacy from the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, in partnership with the Office of Special Education Programs (Award #: S283D160003). The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of OESE, OSEP, or the U.S. Department of Education. Copyright © 2023 National Center on Improving Literacy. https://improvingliteracy.org
