Former legislator writes comic book to explain state government | News

Dorman, chief government officer of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy (OICA), had greater than 20 years of expertise in state government when he left the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 2014 after serving 12 years because the House District 65 consultant. That profession on the Capitol flooring adopted years of expertise behind the scene as a House employees member. Now, the director of an advocacy group for youngsters, Dorman has added one other title to his resume: writer.

Dorman wrote “Mighty Mia and Dyna-Bit Save Democracy,” a comic book that tells the story of two foster youngsters with superpowers who, throughout an outbreak of a abdomen bug on the State Capitol, assist democracy proceed. They additionally handle to educate youngsters touring the Capitol the significance of civics and voting.

Dorman stated he got here up with the thought a number of years in the past, with some prompting from his nephew and robust help from buddies.

“I took some of the lessons I learned with the Page program when I was a House staffer, and applied them to a story,” he stated.

The heroes of the story are OICA’s mascots for its annual banquet, who’re modeled after two younger Oklahomans.

“They were both foster kids who got adopted,” he stated, including the health-related struggles the youngsters went via (one now could be deceased) has particular that means for many who work with OICA. “A lot of kids out there go through a lot of struggles in life. We can inspire some of those kids, through comic books. That’s the whole message of OICA.”

Dorman and different members of OICA have already got expertise guiding youngsters towards state government via Kid Governor. The civics program directed at fifth graders permits faculties to enter one scholar candidate right into a statewide race for governor, with the winner decided by the votes of different fifth graders. It’s these youth that Dorman’s book targets.

“Kids can identify with the characters,” he stated, including he had to tinker a bit to make the format work (in actual life, Pages have to be highschool age). “These kids in the comic book are obviously much younger, but that way we keep it tied to fifth graders, keep the stories on what kids go through, problems they talk about. Hopefully, they’ll see some issues and it will open their minds to recognizing the problems around them and developing solutions.”

Dorman stated he has achieved a number of signings for his comic book, and remembers one younger lady who sat down and skim it proper then.

“She gave me a big smile and a thumbs up,” he stated.

Dorman stated he was lucky he has a background that lent itself to writing the comic book. When he was a House employees member (1994 to 2001), the chief clerk of the House tasked him with placing collectively an academic program for Pagers.

“He didn’t want the kids to come up and not learn something,” Dorman stated, explaining he labored with the employees to create Pageville, which supplies members an opportunity to write payments and take part in all elements of the legislative course of, to embrace presenting a invoice on the House flooring and voting on it. “It’s still one of the most popular aspects of paging.”

And, he’s been lucky to have individuals in his life who helped with the writing course of, to make sure the storyline and artwork work good, and age acceptable for fifth graders. Dorman credited his good friend Charles J. Martin with assuring him “we could do this.”

“It’s crazy that I didn’t think of it first. I collect them,” Dorman stated, estimating he has a comic book assortment shut to 30,000.

He’s hoping the format will immediate an curiosity in studying about state government and — simply possibly — motivating youths to create options to the issues they see. It’s a format he is aware of is profitable: he was a State Senate Page as a youth.

“If they get interested in public service at a young age, they will continue with it,” he stated.