Indovia Academy • Codex Reconstruction Division
Comic Cadet Training Box
Enter the world of Ladybird Jenkins and the Time Thieves, where knowledge is fragile, records can be altered, and the only real defense is what you can preserve with your own hands. This box is a story you can read, and a mission you can complete.
Why this exists
“Imagination is not play. It is power.”
— Ladybird Jenkins
The real origin
Ladybird Jenkins and the Time Thieves isn’t a “concept,” it’s a world that kept insisting on being built. It grew from years of storywork, art, and research, and then sharpened into something more grounded when I partnered with The Hive, a nonprofit community supporting autistic adults through connection, learning, and creative skill building.
What I’m actually teaching
This box is designed to teach storycraft the way real creators use it, but in a form kids can actually finish. It’s not “busywork.” It’s structured creative thinking: character construction, narrative clarity, scene design, and visual storytelling. The goal is confidence through completion.
Why the mission format matters
Kids don’t need another worksheet. They need a reason to care. Indovia gives them a reason: a missing record, a threatened archive, and a story that must be rebuilt by a cadet. The narrative frame turns skill building into a lived experience, which is where learning actually sticks.
What’s inside the box
This is a two book system: one book you read, one book you complete. Together they form a single experience inside the world of Ladybird Jenkins and the Time Thieves.
1) The Story Zine
Ladybird Jenkins and the Time Thieves, a lightly illustrated storybook zine written from my time and inspiration at The Hive. One of the main characters is Ben, a Hive member, and we’ll be proudly showcasing him as part of the story.
2) The Companion Manual
The Comic Cadet Training Manual, an activity based companion book. This is where the mission happens: prompts, training steps, and all the creative fun that pairs directly with the zine.
The Core Experience
A chapter of the zine has gone missing. Not a metaphor, an actual missing chapter. Your cadet’s job is to reconstruct it by creating a single scene as a comic page. One scene, built correctly, becomes a real piece of the archive.
Storycraft Tools
Character identity building, story shaping, scene planning, panel design, and visual clarity, taught in a way that feels like an Indovian field assignment.
Finish Line Built In
The box is designed so completion is achievable. Cadets finish with a constructed character, a designed scene, and a finished comic page they can be proud of.
Made with The Hive
Built with real community collaboration. This isn’t a “theme,” it’s a practice: meaningful creative work, fair participation, and visible credit.
The Missing Chapter Mission
In the companion manual, the cadet discovers that a chapter of Ladybird Jenkins and the Time Thieves is missing. The cadet does not have to write an entire comic book. The goal is more focused and more teachable: create one scene as a comic page, built with real story structure.
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1
Construct the character
Name, codename, role, strengths, weaknesses, and the “why” behind the character.
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2
Shape the scene
Where are we, what’s at stake, what changes by the end, and why this moment matters.
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3
Write the beat
A clear, simple story beat that can be translated into panels.
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4
Design the panels
Turn the beat into images. What does the reader see, in what order, and how does it read.
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5
Complete the reconstruction
Finish the scene and file it back into the archive as the cadet’s recovered chapter page.
Important clarification
When I say “one page,” I mean one scene. That scene might live on a single page, or it might take more space depending on the cadet’s style. The mission is scene clarity, not page counting.
Made for Geeks by Geeks
This box was built with The Hive’s game club crew, a group of makers who love worlds, systems, stories, and builds. Their fingerprints are all over this project, and they deserve to be visible.
Nathan Taulbee
Core Crew • Writer and Illustrator • Game Club
Noah Thomas
Core Crew • Graphic Designer (Canva) • Game Club
Mitchel Gentry
Core Crew • Build Support • Game Club
What’s true about this project
This started as a labor of love, and it still is. The difference is that I’m now building it with long term sustainability in mind. That means clear credit, clear collaboration, and a commitment to making the work real and finishable for kids.
I’m not interested in “performative inclusion.” I want creative work that is collaborative, dignified, and built with the people it celebrates.