Rice student’s latest comic book venture embraces tolerance

Ruchir Shah, a senior at McMurtry College, has produced comic book biographies of a diverse group of people, from Benjamin Franklin to Martin Luther King Jr. to former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III. Now his EZ Comics is collaborating with Rice’s Boniuk Center for Religious Tolerance to sponsor a competition to create a comic book about religious tolerance.

The competition is open to students anywhere in the world who create and upload comic books depicting the importance of religious tolerance. Winners are eligible for prizes that include iPads and iPhones that have been donated specifically for the competition.

“So far there has been significant interest from students around the world, from Austria to Namibia,” Shah said. “The competition is open to college kids and adults as well, with separate age categories.”

In the past, Shah’s EZ Comics have focused on elements of U.S. history, publishing them to national — and international — acclaim. A recent effort focuses on Baker, the honorary chair of Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. Titled “James A. Baker, III: Public Servant Through Six Presidents,” it is described as the authorized comic book biography. He has also produced a comic on the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Last year Shah worked with a group of KIPP Academy students to develop a comic book about the Holocaust and then spoke at the KIPP national conference in Nashville, Tenn., about his experience. Since then, he said, he has completely changed the mission of EZ Comics. “Instead of me creating books, I am working to build an educational comic book Wikipedia — where students and teachers from across the globe can publish educational comic books for other students to read for free. So far, there are about 18 published books on the website, and the Boniuk Center competition is a perfect way to build the site.”

EZ Comics, a nonprofit organization that encourages cultural and historical knowledge through the creation, publication and marketing of educational comic books for children, began as part of a business plan competition back when Shah was in high school in Barrington, R.I. He said he saw comics as a good way to expose reluctant readers to historical figures and events. He wrote and edited books on Franklin, King and the U.S. Civil War before he came to Rice. There are now 10,000 print copies of the books in use in 16 countries, Shah said.

Mike Pardee, executive director of the Boniuk Center, said two things make the collaboration with EZ Comics a game-changer. “First, we are doing this contest in conjunction with a current Rice undergraduate student, so we’re not just reaching out to younger people with the comic book contest; we’re also reaching out with a talented Rice student without whom the whole project wouldn’t exist. Secondly, we anticipate comic book entries in this contest from all over the world — literally. Much of the Boniuk Center’s other recent youth outreach programming has been more local in scope (i.e., geographically bounded to the Greater Houston area). But Ruchir and EZ Comics have fans and followers both all over the U.S. and internationally. So we expect all these contacts of his to yield entrants from much farther afield.

“Promoting religious tolerance is of course a local issue,” Pardee continued. “But it’s an international issue, as well. This collaboration between the Boniuk Center and Ruchir’s EZ Comics will enable us to extend our collective reach worldwide in promoting this very worthy, important cause.”

Shah said he was grateful to the Boniuk Center for its support. “This collaboration is a perfect example of the many opportunities Rice offers to undergraduates,” he said. “Through the Boniuk Center’s incredible resources and donors, I have been able to take an initiative I’ve started to the next level and make it a true success. Throughout my four years at Rice, the university’s outstanding resources and faculty have allowed me to truly make EZ Comics an international success.”

For more on the religious tolerance comic book competition, go to www.ezcomics.com/site/tolerance.