Comic of man’s story will draw you in

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

All I ever really needed to know, I learned from reading comic books.

I was reading at a young age. My mom tells me I was devouring books by age 3, and I assume she means reading them, not eating them. It’s a habit I’ve kept up. Not only does my job require endless hours of reading, but I go through several books a month besides.

It’s safe to say the characters I encountered as a child influenced who I am today. And very few shaped me more than Spider-Man. Peter Parker was like me, unsure of himself and his place in the world, and his adventures taught me that with great power comes great responsibility. (It’s corny, but it’s true.) Heck, I even work for a newspaper now, just like Parker, although I can’t take pictures to save my life.

My point is this: there’s something about comic books that speaks to young people and sticks with them. I’m going to get all comics-theoretical on you now, but people use different parts of their brain to process words and pictures. Comic books bridge the two and can help children ease into reading by engaging the more visual side of the brain.

In fact, when I was a young kid enjoying the adventures of Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, I didn’t even realize I was reading. Books were daunting, comics were cool.

I’m still a pretty big fan of comics as an art form, so you can imagine how interested I was to hear that local businessman Robert Renteria had adapted his acclaimed book, “From the Barrio to the Boardroom,” into a graphic novel. Renteria’s book tells his story — he was born in one of the poorest areas of Los Angeles and overcame those humble beginnings to become a successful businessman in Aurora.

His lessons are universal ones: work hard and believe in yourself, and anything can happen. But while most kids would scoff at those messages, the way they’re conveyed in this book gives them weight. Renteria’s been where the kids who read his book are, and his story is plain-spoken and honestly inspiring.

And his graphic novel, “Mi Barrio?” Well, it’s all that, and even cooler. It’s beautifully drawn by Shane Clester, and he’s able to use pictures to quickly and easily establish things that take pages of description in the book. The first page contains a few panels that depict, with remarkable impact, what Renteria’s childhood was like. One shows him sleeping in a dresser drawer with a blanket over him, and the caption simply reads, “My bed.”

The comics I read as a kid have stayed with me throughout my life. I can only imagine how powerful this graphic novel will be to a young boy or girl growing up in poverty, looking for a role model and a way out. The message is the same, no matter the format, but as a comic book Renteria’s story takes on new resonance.

The best recommendation I can give it is this: my younger self would have loved this book and learned from it.

“Mi Barrio” is available from Smarter Comics now. Visit www.smartercomics.com or www.roundtablepress.com to check it out.