COMIC FROM THE KIDS VALLEY TEEN ILLUSTRATES IMPORTANT LESSONS.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

Anthony Rodriguez knows how not to be a bully. Shefali Goel knows the do's and don'ts of growing up. And Olivia Cobain knows she'd be a fool to skip school.

Each young artist penned wisdom for ``Tales from the Kids No. 6: Do You Dare to Read?'' a city-sponsored comic book that will be unveiled Sunday at the Canoga Park Youth Art Center at 7222 Remmet Ave.

The 16-page booklet, to be used this summer to promote teen literacy by the Los Angeles Public Library, was created by 16 San Fernando Valley comic book artists and honed by award-winning ``L.A. Phoenix'' cartoonist David G. Brown.

``It's cool,'' said Rodriguez, 17, of Reseda, looking at the comic book for the first time this week. ``Hopefully, I'll bring something good to the world.''

The comic book, funded by a $12,000 grant from the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, includes life lessons from children ages 9 to 17 on such issues as gang violence, health, racism, classroom decorum and drugs. Included is a recommended reading guide for summer.

``Tales from the Kids'' will be distributed to each Los Angeles library to be used in conjunction with its Summer Reading Club.

``We're very pleased with it,'' said Georgette Todd, manager for Young Adult Services at the Los Angeles Public Library. ``We're challenging kids to literacy in the community and come out and read.''

Now in its ninth year, ``Tales from the Kids'' workshops have introduced children from Watts to East Los Angeles to Canoga Park to potential careers in arts and animation, according to Brown, its founder.

``It's my life mission,'' said Brown, 51, a freelance artist, educator and political cartoonist who teaches comics classes at the Canoga Park center. ``I want to help kids better my community.''

It was Brown who, while watching TV from his mid-Wilshire home during the 1992 Rodney King riots, saw looters pillage his grocery store and dry cleaners.

He vowed to create an African-American superhero, L.A. Phoenix, a winged crusader who would rise from the riots' ashes to show young adults how to better handle conflict - and heal the city of Los Angeles.

``The riots were an awakening to me,'' said Brown, a New Jersey native. ``Prior to that, I was involved with my career, making money, my ego. During the riots, I saw the looks on the kids' faces - confused, frustrated, hopeless.

``I resolved to change it.''

Brown found teens had their own stories to tell.

So in 1996, he conceived ``Tales from the Kids,'' in which children, such as 10-year-old Olivia Cobain, now pen such lessons as ``Don't judge people by the color of their skin: Read about other cultures.''

For Rodriguez, who wrote the leading ``lesson'' in this year's ``Tales,'' it was about how to deal with a big bully who tries to extract class answers by tossing a scrawny classmate headfirst into a trash can.

``It's about this guy who gets bullied regularly and his friend comes up and says, `You gonna do anything about it?''' said Rodriguez, a student at Los Angeles Baptist High School who dreams of a career in animation and video-game design.

``Instead of getting revenge, he decides to teach him a lesson - by helping him with his schoolwork.''

Dana Bartholomew, [phone]

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) Anthony Rodriguez, 17, left, and Olivia Cobain, 10, right, contributed art and stories to the comic book ``Tales From the Kids No. 6'' with the help of David G. Brown, center.

(2) A page from ``Tales from the Kids No. 6,'' drawn by Anthony Rodriguez, 17.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer