Students get through college every year not knowing what they want to do next, but senior graphic design major Heath Kleinke not only knows what he wants, he has a;ready self-published his first children’s book.The book, “A Boy and His Shadow,” is the first book Kleinke has both written and illustrated.
“It was inspired by the Tool song ’46 and 2,'” Kleinke said. “It’s about your past becoming a part of you.”
The book is about a boy who goes to play with his shadow and ends up having to deal with his fear.
“I got into trouble and went to jail for about six years and eight months. That’s where I came up with the idea for this book,” he said. “I had to deal with my past. I learned about myself and had to be self-motivated.”
Oktibbeha county sheriff Dolph Bryan was one of the many people who helped Kleinke.
“The sheriff kept me around as a trustee and I got into a drug rehab sort of thing,” Kleinke said.
Along with the sheriff, he said many MSU professors like Ben Harvey and Jamie Runnells helped him with his art along the way.
“They just kind of pushed me and gave me information,” Kleinke said.
Harvey said he and his two-year-old son both enjoy Kleinke’s book.
“Although I’ve obviously seen Heath mature as an artist, he’s always been impressive in this respect,” Harvey said. “What’s most striking is his desire to pursue his art, often despite the odds, and to find an audience for it. He’s always publishing some project or other, and if it’s not in the form of a book, it’ll be in newsprint or online.”
MSU art professor Brent Funderburk said he has had Kleinke in four of his classes. While in advanced classes, Funderburk said he gets more one-on-one time with the students.
“They may not be the best for MSU, but if we didn’t have one-on-one time, we wouldn’t have students like Heath Kleinke,” he said.
Funderburk said that Kleinke has studied comic strips and has a strong background in design.
“It’s easy to help Heath Kleinke because he’s a super-talented guy who works harder than anyone else. He’s like an avalanche. He’s an intense researcher. When he says he’s going to have a syndicated strip one day, my answer is some day soon,” Funderburk said.
“A Boy and His Shadow” is not just about a boy having fun,” Funderburk said.
“It’s autobiographical. Even though it seems to be a children’s book, it’s about initiation and transformation,” he said.
The book cost about $5,000 to publish. Kleinke was backed by Contessa “Tes” Williams-Vaugn.
“After I sell about 800 copies I’m going to take it to a distributor,” Kleinke said. “The distributor will market it to 60 major retailers. The goal is to get into a chain rather than local.”
After Kleinke sees how the book sells, he said he may try to write and publish two more children’s books. The money Kleinke makes on the book he wants to put back into making graphic novels, he said.
“It’s worth remembering that, for most children’s books, the illustrator is not also the writer, but Heath’s doing it all,” Harvey said.
Kleinke will graduate in the spring and he plans to attend MSU for graduate school in the college of architecture.
“When I go to grad school, what I want to do is graphic novels or sequential art,” he said. “It’s telling a story with art. It’s visual language.”
The architecture department at MSU has a graduate program where students can learn design regardless of what field they come from.
“We try to go the direction the student wants to go,” said Sarah Pittman, manager of the graduate studies program in the department of architecture. “Design covers a large area. Everything is design and architecture.”
She said she is working with Steve Taylor and the Franklin Furniture Institute on some design projects.
“On the funding projects we work with new economic development, and that is what Heath is working on for us. He will continue that as a graduate student,” she said.
Kleinke has a comic strip that regularly publishes in The Reflector called “Tod Marvel the Cosmic Socialist” and “Eduard in Chains.”
“The characters in [Tod Marvel] will be the characters in my graphic novel,” Kleinke said.
Chris Ware and George Herriman are two comic illustrators that serve as inspirations to him, he said.
“I wanted to do comics since I was a little kid. I used to read Pogo comics,” Kleinke said. “Roger Brinegar, he’s the one who used to let me borrow his Pogo comics when I was eight.”
Previously, Kleinke illustrated two other children’s books, “Go, Mommy, Go” by Corey Martin and “But Why” by C.J. Coleman.