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Poetter Hall was purchased by the SCAD founders in March 1979. Classes began in September of that year.  
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Trivial Pursuits

Trivial Pursuits
 
Student illustrates fantasy trilogy

'Magic Coin' cover
 
Illustration student Patrick McWhorter created full-color cover art as well as interior illustrations for the “Magic Coin” trilogy, written by Charles K. Campbell.

By Monique Bos
Published: Friday, March 31, 2006

A chance conversation — in which Savannah College of Art and Design student Patrick McWhorter revealed that he liked drawing monsters — led to a publication credit, a new friendship and an understanding of another culture.

McWhorter, a senior illustration major from Allentown, Pa., created full-color cover artwork for the “Magic Coin” trilogy, written by Charles K. Campbell, and also contributed 35-40 black-and-white interior drawings.

The collaboration resulted from a more or less random encounter in July 2004. McWhorter, who was working as a freelance illustrator for the Savannah Snitch, dressed up to attend a promotional crime awareness fair that the publication was sponsoring at Daffin Park.

“I dressed up in this bizarre yellow pin-striped Zoot suit,” he said. “I caught Charles’ eye because of the flamboyant attire.”

Campbell, who lived in Atlanta at the time, was seeking an illustrator for his Savannah-based fantasy trilogy, which chronicles the adventures of a young black orphan named Walter Jones.

At the beginning of the stories, Jones is a bully and a thief. “He’s basically an anti-hero at first,” McWhorter said. One day while he’s sitting in Forsyth Park, Jones discovers a magic coin that transports him out of his surroundings and takes him “on all these wild adventures. He saves America, goes all over the galaxy, saves the universe,” said McWhorter.

As Campbell explained the project, the illustration student became interested.

“He described the monsters, and they sounded awesome,” said McWhorter. “We had a good creative rapport right away.”

Although they communicated mostly through e-mail, the two soon developed a strong creative partnership.

“Initially, it was hard corresponding through e-mail,” said McWhorter. “Eventually, he trusted me with the design and let me run with it.”

Soon, Campbell was staying with McWhorter when he visited Savannah, and he even enlisted the help of McWhorter’s girlfriend, Master of Fine Arts in illustration candidate Mary Sullivan, who contributed six images to the trilogy.

McWhorter said his involvement on the project, which spanned more than a year and a half, taught him a number of things.

“I honed my skills,” he said. “It allowed me to be creative and expressive, and it gave me a chance to have fun and do what I want to do. It made me feel good about myself — that I could do it.”

Not least of all, McWhorter said the project gave him a new perspective on what some people face in life.

“Growing up a fairly well-to-do white boy, I never really got to explore the whole culture this is aimed at,” he explained. “I think ‘Magic Coin’ is a very timely book. To paraphrase another great Campbell, Joseph, a culture without heroes and mythology is a culture that’s dead. White kids have Harry Potter and Luke Skywalker, but I don’t think there are any heroes in urban black culture today, much to its detriment.”

Creating heroes for black children and endowing them with a sense of self-worth is one of Campbell’s goals in the trilogy, according to his Web site, www.unmistakablyckc.com. “Even … as a young man I recognized a fundamental handicap that children of color struggled with low self-esteem and the capacity to read and write at acceptable levels,” Campbell said in his biography on the site. “I feel that God has given me this rare gift to help rectify these horrendous abnormalities.”

Campbell self-published the “Magic Coin” trilogy in one volume, with a print run of 100 copies. The book launched at the Sentient Bean in January, with a reading by Campbell and a demonstration by McWhorter of some of his illustration techniques.

“It was really neat,” McWhorter said. “It was a great experience seeing the children’s reactions to the illustrations. It filled me with enthusiasm for it. They’re so curious.”

Copies of the trilogy are available through Campbell’s Web site. He has moved to Los Angeles, where he is marketing the “Magic Coin” trilogy to commercial publishers. In addition, he has created a film adaptation of the story and is pitching ancillary products, such as video games, a television tie-in and toys.

McWhorter is finishing his coursework at SCAD and hopes to forge a career in role-playing illustration or as a creature designer for the film industry. “I want to do so many things,” he said.