By Madison Greenly Fanfiction, or fan-created stories based on books, movies, TV, etc., has become increasingly popular on the internet. Creators use it to explore new media, to share ideas, and to connect with stories on a personal level. But fanfiction can be used...

What makes a monster? This topic was part of 19th century Gothic fiction when Robert Louis Stevenson put pen to paper, but if you ask a fan of Marvel Comics, they may instead respond, “gamma radiation.” Eventually, such a fan might get to the question that is the...

We are all storytellers! And yet, many people—young and old alike—feel intimidated at the prospect of sitting down and writing a short story, novel, or comic book script. That’s understandable! Writing is fun, but it’s also undeniably hard work. After all, there’s a...

The Pop Culture Classroom Kids’ Lab is back and better than ever for Denver Pop Culture Con 2019 (May 31-June 2, 2019), and we are excited to announce that the application for the PCC Kids’ Lab exhibitors is now live! Apply now through December 10, 2018 for the chance...

Son of Hitler Published by: Image Comics Written by: Anthony Del Col, Geoff Moore Illustrated by: Jeff McComsey Format: HC, Color, 192 pages, $24.99 ISBN: 9781534302242 Ages: 16+   Review Did Adolf Hitler have a son? Based in some of the most engaging rumors...

Teaching writing is more than stringing together words. Stories have a structure. Good stories have a beginning, middle, and end. Great stories teach us something about life and ourselves. Timeless stories; those that affect generations and change how the world...

Visual literacy—the ability to interpret and create visual images—is an important 21st century skill. Kids are exposed to imagery from the internet, video games, television, film, and advertisements every day, and it is important that they are able to think critically...

In the 1930’s, when American comics first made the jump from newspaper strips to comic books, they were a smash success with young readers.  The synthesis of images and text in a juxtaposed narrative was accessible, engaging, and entertaining. However, early comics...

    Teaching math is an art. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I’ve been doing it for 31 years, and I’m here to tell you that if you’re in front of a classroom in the old-fashioned way, the “sage on the stage” as it were, you’d better have a rhythm like a...

By bringing pop culture into our classrooms as educators, we’re all trying to do the same thing - increase student engagement. But there’s another “e” that we need to be worried about as well: empowerment. Those are the two hills that STEM teachers face daily -...

Representation matters! It’s more than just a hashtag—it’s a fact. When children (and adults) fail to see characters who remind them of themselves represented in the media they consume, they often feel unimportant or invisible, a phenomenon sociologists have termed...

If you haven’t already figured it out, this blog is a place for teachers to explore new and innovative ideas about teaching with texts that they might, otherwise, not consider “academic” in a traditional sense. In particular, we talk a lot about teaching with comics...

At Denver Pop Culture Con 2018, we premiered the first issue of our new comic book, which features short stories geared toward children 6 and up! The Greatest Team Ever is about a group of young friends who figure out how to face their real-life problems by imagining...

One of the highlights of attending the educational panels at C2E2 this year was watching my friend Adam interview famed horror author, R.L. Stine. The interview, some of which you can watch here, showed Mr. Stine to be humble, funny, and genuinely endearing. It also...

What’s your favorite Harry Potter book? Do you remember what it felt like when you first read it? Well, at Denver Pop Culture Con this year, Scholastic is hoping to help you feel that magic and excitement all over again, right in our Pop Culture Classroom Kids’...

Join Corellian Droidworks in the Pop Culture Classsroom Kids’ Laboratory this year to learn what goes into creating these real-life technologies from a galaxy far, far away!  What’s Corellian Droidworks? A local Star Wars fan club, it was started by small group of...

Another exciting feature of our 2018 Pop Culture Classroom Kids’ Laboratory are our fun-filled Activity Areas, the STEAM Lab and the Crafts and Experiments Zone. We are so excited to bring these areas back into action for Denver Pop Culture Con attendees in 2018! Be...