AUBURN - If there is one thing Carmen Liberatore likes to do most, it is using his imagination to conjure up superheroes, then wielding his pencil to make them come to life.

An avid drawer of cartoons and comic strips, Liberatore, 10, of Auburn, doesn't shy away from an opportunity to hone his craft. So when he was given the chance to spend three days with a teaching artist who specializes in cartooning, Liberatore simply couldn't say no.

Sitting in Seymour Library's Reference Room for three days last week with some 15 other children between the ages of 7 and 12, Liberatore was eager to learn something new about the art while also drawing from his natural talent - sketching superheroes.

On a white piece of paper placed before him was Liberatore's most recent character. Invincible Man, a flying man whose skin is impenetrable, stood tall on the page, donning a blue shirt with the letters “I M” stamped across the chest, his legs wrapped in tights.

While Liberatore enjoys drawing superheroes, Marie Tehan, 9, of Auburn, likes conjuring absurd images. Her favorite one was a sketch of a girl placing a cape on a tomato to try to make it fly.

“Sometimes we need to get out of reality and into fantasy,” she said. “Comics can get funny, too. You don't have to draw real all of the time. You can make the craziest things.”

That is what makes art such an interesting medium, cartoonist and teaching artist Jim Brenneman said. Art is never wrong. Rather than tell his students what to draw, he gives them carte blanche to do what they want while offering assistance when asked.

“I want to provide that,” he said of the creative freedom, “because there's a lot of creativity out there that doesn't have a place to go.”

Brenneman understands that point all too well. Growing up on a farm in Borodino, he used his pen and imagination to keep himself entertained. The first image he remembers drawing was a picture of President Richard Nixon with a tree growing out of his nose.

As he got older. Brenneman started drawing his own comics and cartoons, a medium that requires strength in literary skills. Now he is bringing to area children an outlet for creativity while enhancing their reading skills.

“It helps them to get a better perspective on reading,” he said.

That is the point of the three-day class, which ran from Monday through Wednesday last week at the library, said children's librarian Danette Davis.

With a growing emphasis being placed on graphic novels, Davis thought now was as good a time as any to get children more experienced with that format.

“I think more and more kids are familiar with a comic strip as a way of getting information,” she said.

And the cartooning class fit nicely into this year's children's theme for the New York State Library Statewide Summer Reading Program, “Be Creative at Your Library.” The state library system launches a theme annually to bring the fun into reading and strengthen literary skills.

“I think teachers will tell you,” Davis said, “that if kids keep reading in the summer, they will be ahead for the school year.”

Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net