Elementary school students across the region will be going on adventures with a young warrior lizard named Dizzy Doom as they open newly donated graphic novels.
The books in the Digital Lizards of Doom series tell the story of a warrior who is searching for answers after his universe was trapped in a video game world.
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The books are going out to students through Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8, Colorado Springs School District 11 and nonprofits that serve the military community after Comic Books for Troops recently donated 20,000 books in the series to Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center.
The comic book series’ author, Gabriel Valentin, who grew up in a military home, hopes deployed parents can read the same stories as their children while they are apart, and the books will allow them to connect, even if parents have to be without their electronic devices.
Mt. Carmel was one of five sites across the country to receive a portion of the 100,000 books that have been donated to military families. The books are intended to promote literacy among the students who move frequently and change schools often.
The books have proved popular with kids since the first one was published in 2021.
Tens of thousands of books in the Digital Lizards of Doom series have been donated to military families in the Colorado Springs region. (Courtesy of Ryan Joseph, Dizzy Doom Media)
Since then, teachers in the San Diego Unified School District have designed a curriculum around the books to build on students’ enthusiasm for the series written in a format that mimics modern online gaming chats and text messages.
Valentin heard from those teachers: “We just solved this engagement problem that we have been trying to solve in our classroom.”
A Johns Hopkins University evaluation of the curriculum also found it helped teachers discuss emotions with their students.
In addition to local school districts, Mt. Carmel is distributing the books to local nonprofits such as the Homefront Military Network, said Paul Price, director of operations.
“The books are entertaining and educational,” Price said.
Mt. Carmel has also done some direct distribution. Some of the very first families to receive books attended Mt. Carmel’s Patriot Day celebration on Sept. 11, where Valentin and Dan Brozo, cowriter of Digital Lizards of Doom and voice of Dizzy Doom, signed graphic novels.