Thibodaux animator and artist seeks to inspire children through comic books
A Thibodaux woman writes, draws, and publishes her own comic books aimed at inspiring children with the tales of a caped inventor.
Kristen Kortright, 24, and her brother, Enrique Kortright Jr., came up with The Black Shadow in 2018 and finished the first 75-page comic in 2020. The comic follows an inventor named Trevor Stirling who inadvertently becomes a superhero when he leaps into action to save people when no one else does. Kristen currently is writing her fourth issue, and a second separate series based in New Orleans, which she isn't ready to release details about yet.
Her first project, The Black Shadow, is an inspirational story aimed at children. She's sold roughly 250 issues since 2022.
"I wanted Black Shadow to be really relatable," she said. "The quote on the back of the book says, 'You always have the power to do the right thing.' He doesn't have much power, and I wanted to show kids, and whoever read it, that even though you might feel powerless, you have the power to do what's right."
Stirling's inventions become his tools for combating crime, and in each issue one tool is illustrated and explained to the reader in a colorful panel. These inventions range from a 3D printer, invisibility cape, a solar powered car and more.
Using gadgets and wearing a dark cowl and cape might be visually reminiscent of Batman, but The Black Shadow is more in line with Spiderman. Stirling is in over his head when he faces down supervillains, sometimes fails, and even tries to talk villains out of their ways.
"He really sees the good in everyone, and he'd rather see the villains mend their ways than beat them up," she said.
Kortright graduated Nicholls State University with a degree in animation, and her father, Enrique Kortright Sr., is funding the venture into comic book creation. The proceeds have gone back into printing more comics.
She was first inspired by John Buscema and Stan Lee's book, How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. She said the book taught her the basics.
"And that really got me started with drawing comics and figuring out how to draw people accurately and make the dramatic poses and camera angles," she said. "So that's probably like my biggest inspiration."
She uses Clip Studio Paint to create her comics. The software allows her to do a layout, panels, speech and thought bubbles. Kortright then was able to order copies of it printed on Comix Wellspring, and is in the process of creating a website through them for her publishing company, Screaming Fish Comics.
The challenge of portraying action in a still image draws her to the medium, and Kortright wanted to change the focus of comics back on children as the target audience.
"I want to bring back comics for kids to read," she said. "There's not many of those being made right now. It used to be for everyone to read, and now it's kind of not so much."
This article originally appeared on The Courier: Thibodaux artist seeks to inspire children through comic books
