Eben E.B. Burgoon is 916 Ink’s weapon of mass instruction

A hush falls over the Oak Park bungalow classroom. The whispers of third, fourth and fifth graders at Aspire Capitol Heights Academy barely register over the hum of air conditioners fighting the heat of late spring in a room packed with elementary-school students and adults.

Eben E.B. Burgoon, resident comic for 916 Ink, a Sacramento-based youth-literacy nonprofit, stands front and center sporting his trademark beard—the kind that would make Thor drop his hammer—and wears a T-shirt that depicts Abraham Lincoln fighting three bears. His blue eyes light up behind Clark Kent glasses.

“Welcome to Pitch Day!”

A roar of excited applause crackles among 30 8- to 10-year-olds, several parent volunteers, and 21 grown-up artists gripping pencils and sketchbooks. Burgoon, the 34-year-old comic-book author best known for self-publishing B-Squad: Soldiers of Misfortune and Eben07: Covert Custodian, joined 916 Ink earlier this year to teach young students his favorite medium. By that summer, the class would produce the only student-written, professionally illustrated comic book on the market.

But first, the origin story.

Burgoon grew up in San Luis Obispo, loving Tintin, Calvin and Hobbes, and James Bond novels more than caped superhero comics.

“I’m definitely a nerd, but comic books weren’t initially how I got my nerd off,” he says.

Later, he spent much of his time at California State University, Chico learning Arabic, Russian and international relations. But after September 11 left him disillusioned, he abandoned dreams of espionage work in favor of creative writing.

Then in 2007, Burgoon reconnected with a friend from San Luis Obispo, Dan Bethel, to collaborate on an animated version of Eben07. The pair quickly realized, however, that Web and print comics were a more cost-conscious way to build an audience.

After experiencing the thrill of seeing early drafts of his first comic on the page, Burgoon never looked back––the radioactive bite of artistic collaboration left him feeling supercharged with great power and great responsibility to share his storytelling passion.

Since 916 Ink’s 2011 launch, founder Katie McCleary dreamed her organization would reach children and teens via its workshops. Now, three years later, its library boasts 33 publications of essays, poems, short stories and creative nonfiction featuring 849 young authors ages 4-18.

Burgoon became McCleary’s secret weapon of mass instruction when he agreed to design a 12-session comic-book curriculum. After meeting McCleary earlier this year, Burgoon quit his grocery-store day job to mentor the next generation of Sacramento’s comic-book creators.

“He was a perfect fit,” McCleary says. “We gave him the reins and the idea, and it’s really his brainchild now.”

McCleary and Burgoon built the 916 Ink Makes Comics program with a grant from Golden 1 Credit Union, a library of donated comic books from IDW Publishing and Big Brother Comics, and a squad of local volunteer artists. With Burgoon’s industry connections and passion, he launched the program into the literary scene like Colossus and Wolverine serving up a “fastball special.”

Burgoon says the journey so far has been creatively rewarding.

“I did take a pay cut to do something more amazing,” he says, “something that I believe in and could grow with. I get to do what I love, make the community better, work with good people and enjoy every day. I’d make that decision every time over money.”

Stories written by children obey no boundaries or storytelling conventions, only the fizzing engine of limitless imagination.

After weeks of preparation, the 916 Ink student authors have gathered for Pitch Day, which marks the chance to present story ideas to a bullpen of professional artists to bring their literary dreams to life on the page via an anthology. Burgoon’s next step will be to collect the handwritten stories, translate them into industry-standard scripts, and distribute the works to the artists.

Teams of students pitch their stories to the class, with several winks to Burgoon and his creations. Jasmine sends Eben to Mars, where he’s raised by aliens before returning to Earth in “Destination Montana: Population Zero,” only to be jailed by the government. Ja’lyn pitches “B-Squad Goes to China,” a one-page homage to Burgoon’s comic that kills his characters in a big kaboom! Ja’kel riffs with “Ja Squad Saves the Moon,” featuring a warrior bunny and lunar puns.

In the front row, artists Melissa Pagluica and Jeremy Rathbone listen to the pitches while scribbling and sketching away. Waist-high packs of student authors roam the room as Burgoon circulates from one team to the next, youngsters orbiting, asking questions and following him like he’s a rock star.

During the pitch session, volunteer artist Sean K. Sutter, sitting cross-legged on a carpet depicting a map of the United States, works through The Chronicles of Zoom, by fifth graders Acsah and Gleniesha. Zoom, a wind manipulator, faces off with his fire-powered archnemesis Flame, who breaks out of space jail, kidnaps Zoom’s family and is split into evil and good halves. Naturally, Good Flame and Zoom team up to defeat Evil Flame. Acsah’s natural storytelling ability thrives in the comic-book program, fed by a steady diet of Greek mythology and Marvel Comics.

Sutter, who views the comic-book industry through the lens of a feminist father to a 3-year-old daughter, gently questions Acsah and Gleniesha’s initial impression that both Zoom and Flame are white men. The girls’ eyes light up with realization. Zoom’s identity changes from Toby to Tori, and Sutter gives her a caramel skin tone closer to that of her creators.

“I just wish we had more pages,” says Sutter. “This could be a whole movie, a complete story that’s so cool.”

In early June, students, parents and artists gathered at The Brickhouse Gallery to mingle, nosh on cookies and snacks, and look at a copy of 916 Ink Makes Comics Issue No. 1, an item precious beyond valuation to its student authors. Burgoon glows with just as much pride as his young writers.

“This is so far beyond what I expected. It doesn’t get better,” he says.

Desiray, a 9-year-old, is delighted with how Jared Konopitski’s sugar-rush artwork animated her work in “My Little Friends.” She plans to keep up her writing career.

“What I like about writing is it’s fun, it’s entertaining, and you can put your own ideas onto paper,” she says.

Desiray’s grandmother Mary Gary admires how Burgoon has coaxed magic from the minds of these kids.

“I have to say, I’m a little bit of a snob, because I have avoided comics after I became an adult,” says Gary. “I absolutely have gone full circle—I have an appreciation for comics again.”

To McCleary and Burgoon, that’s mission accomplished on both counts: supercharging a kid’s passion for storytelling and defeating adult prejudice.

“These kids are going to read for the rest of their lives, and to be a writer you have to be a reader,” says Burgoon. “Comic books are definitely literature.”

This fall, McCleary and Burgoon will bring the 916 Ink Makes Comics program back to Capitol Heights Academy for a gardening and farm-to-fork themed book, supported by a California Endowment grant.

Ultimately, Burgoon says he hopes to grow enough to make a 72-page trade paperback featuring more artists and longer stories. They might eventually bring in high-school age artists to gain experience, too.

“I want the kids to feel like they have a real credit under their belt,” he says.

Before that, however, Burgoon will launch into the next phase of his career with a more personal project via a Kickstarter campaign in August. The goal: Finance a six-issue trade paperback of B-Squad, with hopes of commanding an audience large enough to grab the attention of a cartoon outlet such as Hulu or Adult Swim.

Burgoon looks forward to supercharging his own stories by collaborating with his Sacramento squad of illustrators.

“For me, when it turns into art and you get the page back for the first time, it feels like someone reached into your head and pulled out this amazing thing. It’s an overwhelming feeling, and this [Makes Comics program] is beyond that in so many ways.”