Cartoon kids, hermit crabs long on fun in 'Shortcuts'

Advertiser Staff

Or is that informative entertainment?

"Shortcuts," created by Jeff Harris and distributed by United Media, stars five distinctly different cartoon kids and two identical hermit crabs who present a wealth of information in the form of facts, riddles, jokes and games. The full-color feature replaces "Uncle Art's Funland" in our comics pages.

Each weekly feature revolves around a single theme, like birds, basketball or buffalo soldiers.

Harris' five baggy-jeaned creations include: K., a precocious kid with a neo-feminist attitude; Roland, a spiky-haired Internet surfer; James, a little boy who's wary of new things; Juanita, a bookworm; and Junior, who, as the advance materials state, "wants to surf, eat and sleep, and not necessarily in that order."

The kids are joined on the page by Duke and Duke, two wise-cracking crabs.

In developing "Shortcuts," the Guam-born Harris drew on his experiences studying elementary education at the University of Guam and visual communication at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.

"I've always wanted to use my design and communication skills to create something that would encourage kids to read and learn about the world around them," Harris said.

Each week, the newspaper feature is complemented by an online teaching guide (www.comics.com/shortcuts). The guides are designed for grades 3 and 4, but can be adapted for other uses. They include questions for discussion and further study, suggestions for activities, a "use the newspaper" feature, and a quiz.

"Shortcuts" first appeared in the Washington, Pa., Observer-Reporter in 1998 and is now carried by more than 650 newspapers.

In addition to creating "Shortcuts," Harris teaches computer animation at the Art Institute in Pittsburgh and works as a visual artist for Guam-based manufacturing company Yorker International.