The Woodlands High School Comics Club has a super good time at Comicpalooza

THE WOODLANDS, TX – Recently, countless thousands of fans, collectors, cosplayers, characters, and curiosity seekers descended upon the annual Comicpalooza event held in Houston at the George R. Brown Convention Center. While Woodlands Online staff enjoyed attending panel discussions and checking out vendor booths, we were surprised to come across a table featuring a piece of home: The Woodlands High School Comics Club.

Aidan Gerungan, a student at TWHS who was manning the table, said, “This club is one of many clubs we have at the high school. It’s a club where – whether you draw comics or are interested in comics – you have a place here. We meet every Tuesday after school and typically at these meetings we go over the process of comic making. With this project we have set up, we create an anthology where a lot of our members get together and make our own individual comics to put in the anthology, ultimately showcasing the talent we have.”

Leading the club, and also at the convention, was Ben Humeniuk, an English and Creative Writing teacher at The Woodlands High School.

“We created the club starting at our 9th grade campus starting in 2016,” he said. “We actually applied for an innovative education grant through Conroe ISD, which helped fund our first year at Comicpalooza and also purchased digital tablets for us to use in comics creation. We’ve been coming to Comicpalooza every year since then, with the exception of the pandemic years.”

Humeniuk has a vested interest in the comics industry, being an artist and creator of the young adult series The Magnificent Makers. To him, the Comics Club is more than just a run-of-the-mill hobby extracurricular activity.

“The students who are enthusiastic about comics tend to enjoy being in the club. Comics can be a very solitary pursuit; and so when you find ‘your people,’ there’s a very real sense of camaraderie and friendship that helps you develop your material,” he said.

He views conventions such as Comicpalooza as real-world experience for his students. “The goal has been to give students exposure to a comics convention environment, where they can promote their work and also connect with professional creators to get feedback on the type of work they’re making,” he said. “Coming to a convention like this has been a great experience for them. We’ve actually seen some students who are volunteering this year who were members of the club in years past, who now understandComicpalooza and are giving back to the community.”

Humeniuk encourages all TWHS students to consider joining the club when the new school year commences in August.

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