These zine teens at Henry High have a tale to tell

Henry students Sky Vang and Marshawn Ambers are the authors of Destin Tale.
Photo by David Pierini

By David Pierini, Editor

When the Minneapolis Public Schools strike ended in March, students griped when administrators extended the school year into the summer.

Marshawn Ambers and Sky Vang did no complain. Instead, the two Henry High School students used the time to create the first volume of a comic zine that by next Spring is on track to get released as part of a four-volume book.

Already, Ambers and Vang have published two volumes of Destin Tale, a story that starts when villages chase away a young person who then falls down a hole into a magical forest monsters and other village castoffs.

Monsters and humans fight and the main character’s journey through the forest is one of self-discovery as they try to get monsters and humans to stop fighting. Ambers wrote a non-gender specific character to give the reader the opportunity to give them their own identity, sort of how a video games allows the player to create their own character.

“They’re trying to figure out how to get people together to love each other,” said Ambers, a senior. “Part of the storyline is based on racism and people disrespecting each other. That’s where problems come from.

“To me, comics and stories do this well to have some kind of message and to tell people to look at these things and come together.”

Ambers and Vang came together earlier this year through a mutual friend. Their friend had seen Vang draw characters in a Japanese black-and-white comic style known as Manga and introduced them at lunch. Ambers loves Manga and is often seen walking the halls with colorful shirts adorned with whimsical Japanese comic characters. He was already playing with a story and knew he wanted someone to illustrate it.

Panels from the second volume of Destin Tale.

When Vang showed some drawing to Ambers in the cafeteria, the two clicked.

Vang is a self-taught artists who never thought his “comic doodling” would beyond idle time at home. Ambers’ writing provides Vang the direction to draw, he said. Vang likes to sit with the story before lightly sketching his ideas of characters’ looks and actions before turning to Ambers for creative input.

“Drawing for me is inspired from things I liked as a kid,” Vang said. “I love video games, I love space, things like that. I didn’t really know how to express this other than to draw. As I got older and inspired by other things, I continued. I’ve developed a habit of just drawing.”

To grain an audience for the Destin Tale series, the young authors got a big assist from digital art teacher Alex Conover, who was able to use printing privileges at an art college to produce a small batch of each zine. The second volume dropped in October.

Conover was always instrigued when he saw Ambers walk the halls in his colorful shirts and came to appreciate his creativity and organizing skills when he finally had him in class.

Vang would show up to see Ambers and Conover found himself arrested when looking over Vang’s shoulder to watch him draw.

“It stopped me in my tracks,” Conover said. “I had never seen anything like it. He was making the best art I’d ever seen from a student at the school.”

During last school year’s 10-day extension, they made printing the zine a projects. Vang learned how to digitize his drawings and with the first printing, a path, not so different than the one of self-discovery in Destin Tale, unfolded before them.

Both are interested in some sort of art program after high school. Ambers would like to study art and creative writing. Vang says he would love to one day run a production company that produces animation.

Volume three of Destin Tale is in the works and the hope is to have a fourth completed before Ambers graduates and have all four volumes bound in one book. This could take some fundraising, but as they try to give away their zines, people want to pay for them, Ambers said.

“You never want to underestimate a project like this,” Conover said. “I tell kids that you can do this thing out in the real world and get paid to do it.

“I know they have the interest and the talent. Art school could genuinely be a good fit for them. They’re kind of built for it.”