Somewhere in the Twin Cities, there are two young men working on the next big thing. And they credit the story of their collaboration to a Patrick Henry High School teacher – Alex Conover.
I met Marshawn Ambers as he walked home through the neighborhood. It is always nice to meet the younger neighbors and hear about their lives. Little did I know what a motivated man he is!
Marshawn graduated from Henry High in May 2023. He was able to pursue his interests there, covering the areas of engineering, art and design.
In an engineering class that Marshawn took during his third year of high school, he met a valued friend that he has continued to stay in touch with. During their high school conversations, Marshawn showed his interest in writing manga and comics, and this prompted the friend to introduce Marshawn to his friend for drawing assistance. This friend’s name is Sky Vang. Upon meeting Sky, Marshawn fell in love with his art style and Sky enjoyed Marshawn’s creative storytelling. These two students then began a project to create a comic, with Marshawn as writer and Sky as artist.
One day, during Conover’s Photoshop class, Marshawn shared the project with the teacher. Conover fell in love with the idea and wanted to help his students achieve their dream. From that point, he became a guide and helped with the production of the comic. Inspiring both Sky and Marshawn, they formed a team and worked on making Destintale.
The process to this collaboration was that Marshawn would provide a simple line drawing and the written story of that drawing to Sky. Sky drew multiple graphics to tell Marshawn’s story. This process was repeated to create the graphic novel. Sky’s pictures are presented in black and white, with incredible shading and great facial expressions on the characters. The dramatic imagery tells most of the story, with only a few words or lines of dialogue added where needed.
When I asked Sky how he finds the inspiration for the pictures, Sky modestly said, “I just did what Marshawn told me to.” (I related this to a movie with Marshawn being the author/screen writer and Sky the director/camera man.)
Their first book is titled Destintale. The first print run was 80 books, all pre-sold before going to the printer. Alex Conover is on staff with Minneapolis Public Schools and was at Henry High while Destintale was being developed. Alex took the initiative to work with Marshawn and Sky to bring their creativity to a published book.
Marshawn’s plan is to pursue a career in the graphic novel area. (For those that are from the days of comic books, graphic novels are a step into the 21st Century.) He wants to cover the spectrum of graphic novel publishing from story idea to the written story as well as designing the story boards. This involves a good deal of pre-work for layout, design, and setting the direction of the novel.
Sky wants to have a career in animation, with the long-term goal of having his own studio with a staff of creative geniuses [author’s creative license to abbreviate a longer conversation]. Sky is attending Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) to take college courses while finishing at Henry High School. Marshawn is attending the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.