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Students learn STEM through app building to Minecraft at Code Wiz

Monica Sager

Special to Worcester Telegram & Gazette USA TODAY NETWORK

Cousins Avintha and Nihitha are hoping to build a mental health app to support their community, specifically driving the technology toward high school students and teenagers.

The high schoolers, who are a part of the technologically-focused Code Wiz of Westborough, realized that with the stress of the pandemic in addition to their own mental illnesses – there is a need for such support.

“They decided they want to help their community because they did a lot of research and found there’s not any mental health apps specifically targeted to teenagers,” Code Wiz Director Madison Ducote said. “They’re normally for everybody or targeted to adults.”

Avintha and Nihitha will present their creations and work through Code Wiz at Technovation Girls, a competition for girls around the world to learn and apply technology to real-world situations. while one is working remotely from Texas,

Code Wiz, which has locations across Massachusetts and in New Jersey, allows children to expand on their interests in robotics, technology, game development, and programming through classes.

“I’m just so happy with these two very, very smart, driven high school students,” Ducote said. “We meet with them twice a week. They’re so driven and they want to help their community, and I love that they’re taking these themes and concepts and helping out the community.”

The Westborough branch of Code Wiz, which opened right before the onset of the pandemic, encourages all of its students to strengthen their team building and problem solving skills as they work both collectively and individually on projects.

“One of our students made a PokeDeck,” Ducote said. “He made a robot that when you put a picture in a slot, it could identify what Pokemon it was and give a description of it.”

Students complete projects in hopes that their work may later lead to world-changing technologies. Coaches are trained for the specific courses they teach.

“A lot of times they get to come in and they say what they want to do today,” Ducote said. “The coach figures out how to let the student dictate the class even though the coach is still having them hit those curriculum points.”

Ducote added that the skills the students are inevitably learning are transferable into other fields and areas within the kids’ lives.

The Westborough Code Wiz branch plans to compete in more robotics competitions, specifically the First LEGO League, a competition meant to introduce the STEM field to kids between the ages of 4 and 16 through hands-on real world problem-solving experiences.

Four students recently competed at the organization’s first excursion to First LEGO League. They worked together for four months to build a robot that would go through obstacles. Ducote said they also had to present a project.

“It was a lot of fun,” Ducote said. “We’ll be doing that every year … We’d love to enter as many competitions as we could. It’s so fun to see the students so motivated and see them excel in the competitions.”

Students become so engaged and immersed in the programs. Some, such as Ari Johnson have gone on to now become coaches for other students.

Johnson originally started as a student at Code Wiz in 2018. He joined the branch in Westford, where he is from, to expand on his passion for gaming.

“I wanted to make video games,” Johnson said. “I started to learn Java and then Unity, which is like a big gaming software.”

The Westborough branch of Code Wiz encourages students to strengthen their team building and problem solving skills. SUBMITTED PHOTOS One Code Wiz student made a robot that can identify Pokémon cards.

All That Remains is set to perform at the Palladium. PROMOTIONAL PHOTO

All That Remains brings ‘Fall of Ideals’ 15th anniversar y show to Palladium

Robert Duguay

Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

Since their beginnings in Springfield during the late ‘90s, All That Remains have become one of the biggest metal bands to ever come out of Massachusetts. They’ve sold millions of records, toured all over the world and have a dedicated following both in their home region of New England and way beyond their original footprint. Their blend of hard-core, heavy metal and hard rock is versatile and malleable with an intense vibe flowing through every song.

In celebration of the 15th anniversary of their third album, “The Fall Of Ideals,” All That Remains are going to be taking the stage at The Palladium on 261 Main Street in Worcester on March 12. Pennsylvania metalcore act Tallah, fellow Pennsylvania punks Varials and Troy, Ohio, thrashers Miss May I will be opening things up.

Led by lead vocalist Philip Labonte, who is the current sole original member of the band, All That Remains started out during a special time in the Massachusetts metal and

The Westborough Code Wiz branch plans to compete in more robotics competitions, specifically the First LEGO League. SUBMITTED

Code Wiz

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At 13 years old, Johnson started volunteering, and now, at just 14 years old, Johnson is a mentor at the Westborough branch of Code Wiz.

“Code Wiz was really helpful for me in learning how to code,” Johnson said. “I wanted to be able to help other kids learn too.”

Johnson teaches remotely, but students can still interact with different visual coding and game programming courses as they complete creative and independent projects.

Sometimes the classes are one-on-one, but more often there is a group of students, over their computers, working with Johnson. He has each student share their screen so that they can show what they’re working on but also brainstorm and work together.

He teaches Roblox, which allows users to create their own games, as well as Minecraft, a 3D video game where players choose how they’d like to play the game.

“Kids still love Minecraft. It’s kind of an ageless game,” Johnson said. “Anyone can like Minecraft. It remains so popular for so long.”

Johnson said that Minecraft was the game that inspired him to get into coding.

“Seeing their eyes light up for when something works for the first time or when they’ve been doing all of this work and working through all of these problems or they’ve been working on a problem and then all of a sudden figure it out,” Ducote said, “that’s just the absolute best.”

With the virtual option, the Westborough branch of Code Wiz has been able to host students from across the country. On Tuesdays, classes are offered online. Wednesdays are in person at 30 Lyman St. in Westborough.

To sign up for classes, visit https://thecodewiz.com/westborough-ma.

Anniversary

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hardcore scene. They were coming up with the likes of Labonte’s former band, Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engage, Unearth, Diecast, Converge and many others. This amount of talented acts in a concentrated area made for a memorable era during the late ‘90s and early 2000s.

“There was a little bit of the idea that we might be doing something special and when I say ‘we,’ I don’t specifically mean All That Remains, I mean people that were going to shows in that time frame,” Labonte reflects. “They’re people who are no longer in bands that did their turn with their band and went on to do other things and stuff. But at the time, in Western Massachusetts, we kind of messed around with the thought that maybe New England is to metal what Seattle was to the grunge scene. We didn’t know how big it was going to get. We didn’t think that we had the next Metallica, but we knew that there was something special about the music scene that was happening. It was cool, it was very energetic and there were a lot of shows all the time. Wherever Scott Lee went, that’s where the shows kind of were because he was such a key figure as a promoter of metal shows and stuff.”

“It was a really cool, special time to have all those talented people and people like Scott working behind the scenes to put together a scene that allowed for bands to display their talent on a national level,” he adds.

Labonte has a wide range of musical influences he brings to the band such as ‘80s glam metal, death metal acts like Cannibal Corpse & Grave and even pop star Justin Timberlake. When it comes to working on new material with bassist Matt Deis, rhythm guitarist Mike Martin, drummer Jason Costa and lead guitarist Jason Richardson, they all approach it with an open mind while expanding what they can do within their genre of music.

“A lot of it is vibe, a lot of it is, ‘Hey, do you want to do a song like that?’ and we would be like ‘Yeah, cool’ or ‘no,’” he says. “Very rarely do we say no, it’s not something that’s really in our repertoire as musicians and as a band. We kind of know we’re going to be a heavy metal band, then we can mess around with what that is and how far away from that we can go. When it comes to writing stuff, we just want to create music that people dig and remember. It’s the kind of stuff that hits people and stays with them.

“We try not to approach writing as a competition so much as writing in a way that’s going to get people’s toes tapping, their head bobbing, which lyrics are going to stay with them and what melodies are they going to walk away with and still be humming later,” Labonte says. “Some people say that it’s bad when bands rely on hooks, but hooks aren’t just vocal hooks. A cool breakdown is cool because of the hook, everyone from Western Massachusetts knows the Unearth riff because it’s the hook so we just try to make hooks that people are going to love and get connected to.”

While performing on stage, Labonte often likes to get close to the audience and feeds off their energy. With that approach, he also likes to gauge how the people are reacting to All That Remains’ music in a live setting before planning a course of action.

“It all depends on the crowd,” he says. “If they’re a singing crowd — and you can tell a singing crowd from other types of crowds — I’ll get down there and I’ll sing with them. If they’re a moshing crowd or a crowd-surfing crowd, I’m probably not going to get down there because I don’t want to get kicked in the face. I retired from the pit a long time ago so yeah if they’re singing a lot, I love getting down there so we can sing together. That’s literally my favorite thing to do when it comes to being in a band, playing shows.

“If they’re crowd surfing and stuff then I’m super happy they’re having a good time but I want to stay on stage and not get kicked in the face,” Labonte adds. “I like having my teeth.”

It’s been a few years since All That Remains released its most recent album, “Victim of the New Disease,” back in 2018. This year the band hopes to release some new music, and going forward they plan on changing up how they do releases and business as a whole to keep up with current industry trends.

“We are working on new music and we’ve got demos that we’ve been working on, we’re working with Dan Laskiewicz again and he’s also the new singer of Bad Wolves now,” Labonte says about possibly releasing a new album in 2022. “There’s other people we want to work with to finish writing these songs and Dan’s schedule has been crazy, to be accurate, because of being in Bad Wolves and producing our record so we hope we can get it out this year even though I’m not 100% sure. One of the good things is that even if the record doesn’t come out this year, it’s the last one we have with our current label and we’re changing our whole business model afterwards. I don’t see the point in releasing entire records anymore every couple of years, I want to release a new single every two weeks or every other month or something like that and control our releases. I also want it to be a little more consistent as opposed to putting out a record, going on tour and then not doing anything for six months or whatever.

“I’d much prefer a release schedule that’s more consistent,” he adds. “We’ll see what the future brings but we hope to have a record out this year. If not, early next year but there’s a lot of stuff we have planned right now. We’re building a content studio in Chicopee so we can produce streams on Twitch and YouTube content as part of changing the business model from releasing records every two years to doing more consistent releases.”

Despite COVID-19 challenges, Great Stories is on the rise

Veer Mudambi

Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

Comics and hobby store Great Stories Inc., formerly of Uxbridge and now of Whitinsville, came out of the pandemic stronger than ever, expanding to a new bigger space and gathering a larger customer base.

While many small businesses became economic casualties of the pandemic, that was not the case for Great Stories. “Coming out of the COVID restrictions, our numbers just exploded in early 2021,” said owner Christopher Mills. At first Mills and his team thought it was an aberration — with customers just excited to be out and about again. “But it kind of sustained itself through the whole year,” he said.

As it became clear this was the new normal by the end of 2021, they realized the shop’s 1,600-square-foot location in Uxbridge was not big enough to accommodate the rapidly expanding community. So, they began the hunt for new digs toward the end of the year in November.

Sitting comfortably at their present 5,000 square feet, Great Stories Inc. is now positioned to use its newfound space to become not only a store but a community hub as in-person events make a comeback. “As we get settled, we will launch more tournaments and regather our community,” said Mills. Card table seats have tripled to 90 — making space for about 45 games — along with six tables for miniature gaming.

Most comics stores eventually expand into the games and hobby sector

SeeSTORIES,Page11D

A wide selection of Marvel, DC and other comics GREAT STORIES COMICS AND GAMING

Along comes (Poison) Mary: ‘Batwoman’s’ Nicole Kang to appear at Northeast Comic Con

Craig S. Semon

Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

As loyal fans of The CW series “Batwoman” know, Nicole Kang plays Dr. Mary Hamilton, who makes it her mission in life to provide aid to Gotham City’s underserved communities.

After she discovers the identity of Batwoman, Hamilton joins her crusade and becomes a key and crucial (but often undervalued and ignored) member of the Bat Team.

In season three, which just wrapped up on March 2, Mary, who seemed destined for superhero grooming, was pricked by one of Poison Ivy’s vines that caused her to be corrupted and become a new Poison Ivy (referred to as Poison Mary) when exposed to sunlight.

After Batwoman’s attempts to cure her fails, Mary went full-fledged Uma Thurman supervillain, sporting a sexy green outfit with a constricting corset, long red hair and a killer connection with one of Gotham’s most infamous femme fatales, as well as the forces of nature.

Kang — who is one of the celebrity guest Friday through Sunday, March 1113, at the NorthEast Comic Con Collectible Extravaganza in Boxborough — was absolutely floored when she found out that her “Batwoman” character was slated for a nefarious transformation as Poison Ivy/Pamela Isley’s protegee Poison Mary.

The daughter of Korean immigrants and MIT graduates, Kang was born in Boston and grew up in Lexington before the family packed up their belongings and moved to Virginia when she was 7.

“It was a tough house, being the dumbest one in the family,” Kang jokes.

In her adult life, Kang, who has been living in Los Angeles for only the last month and a half, was living in Canada during the filming of “Batwoman” the last few years. Prior to that, she called New York her home, so much so that she considers the New York Knicks to be her sports team.

At least she didn’t say the Yankees. If she did, I would have cut the conversation short.

Kang — who is very articulate, personable and passionate about her craft — has an infectious personality and likable demeanor that instantly draws you in whether you know the difference between Bruce Wayne and Wayne Brady or have ever seen an episode of “Batwoman.”

After the initial shock of the plot twist that turned her socially conscience and caring character into a botanical badass and the femme fatale equivalent to a bouquet of razor blades, Kang — a New York University BFAtrained actress and a Helen Hayes Award recipient for “Sense and Sensibility” — couldn’t help but think about one of her acting heroes, Uma Thurman, who played Poison Ivy in 1994’s “Batman & Robin.”

“I was like, are you sure? Me? How? I had a lot of questions about the function of it, like that doesn’t make sense? That hasn’t been done before because I am not Pamela Isley,” Kang recalled. “My favorite movie of all time is ‘Kill Bill.’ Uma Thurman to me is a great and I have her Poison Ivy version in my head and I really couldn’t believe it.”

But, at the same time, Kang points out her Poison Mary is so different than Thurman’s Poison Ivy.

“I’m a host. Poison Ivy is a plant. You get bitten. So I’m just it’s new host. So how it’s going to manifest through Mary Hamilton is a different way than it’s going to manifest through Pamela Isley, who’s a scientist,” Kang explained. “And I feel that Mary Hamilton was the perfect host because she was vulnerable. She was overlooked. And she has a huge heart for advocating for those who can’t advocate for themselves. Oh my gosh, plants. Mother Nature, she can’t speak for herself. It’s like the perfect match and I feel like Poison Ivy was searching for her. So, in a way, it releases me from having to be derivative, having to copy anything of Uma Thurman’s version of Pamela Isley/Poison Ivy.”

Still, Kang is such a big Uma Thurman fan that her dream job would be cast as Lucy Lui’s daughter in the often rumored but far from being green-lighted “Kill Bill Vol. 3,” in which the daughter of Vivica A. Fox’s character, Vernita Green, sets out to avenge her mother’s death by killing Uma Thurman’s Beatrix Kiddo, aka “The Bride.”

“I could definitely be Lucy Liu’s kid,” Kang enthusiastically said, “Yeah, Let’s go!”

Kang said Batman is her favorite comic book superhero of all time because it’s the one that she and her father bonded over when she was a kid. She said she has fond memories of family movie night on Fridays and watching various incarnations of Batman with her dad.

When she saw herself in the mirror in her Poison Mary costume for the first time, Kang said her first reaction was “Where are my ribs?” Then she got emotional.

“I was stunned,” Kang said. “It wasn’t me. It felt like an-out-of-body experience.”

As for her character’s backstory and the original source material, Kang insists that nobody can come up to her and tell her that they know more about

Nicole Kang, who was transformed from Dr. Mary Hamilton into the supervillain Poison Mary on “Batwoman” this season, is one of the guests at the NorthEast Comic Con Collectible Extravaganza in Boxborough March 11-13. JUSTINA MINTZ/THE

CW

Kang

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Poison Ivy than she does.

“I do my homework. I feel that comes through and that’s why she was really well received. I was really nervous because it’s for the fans. It’s for the fandom. Everything is,” Kang said. “My favorite part is this immediate relationship with this fan base. And they know. They can smell it if your performance is grounded into what exists or if it’s formula or if it feels right to the character or if it’s not.”

Although Mary Hamilton’s transformation into Poison Mary is all make-believe, Kang can’t help imagining the magnitude of having her super powers and having control of all of Mother Nature.

“You know how the trees communicate with each other through their roots? I imagine that this Earth is her brain. And she can communicate with all of it,” Kang said. “I don’t know if I would want power that great. With great power comes great responsibility, I suppose (Wrong universe). But I think about that and how the power runs through her veins and transformed her body were some of my favorite parts.”

On “Batwoman,” Bridget Regan — who plays Pamela Isley (whose nefarious alter-ego is “Poison Ivy”) — became a mother figure for Kang, she said.

“I called her Mama Poison,” Kang said of Regan. “She’s really lovely and generous as an actor and I’m always amazed by people’s kindness. And she stepped in and her performance made me feel supported. She has a way of being so present and having this huge presence while also reminding you that I’m here to support your story and be, like, I’ve seen what you’ve done and you’re incredible and then she asks me what is the nature of your Poison Ivy? (And I told her) ‘When I strangle someone in roots that’s from below the ground. When I get vines, I pull them down from above.’ And she’s like, cool and we both agreed on the physicality and she really was, like, I want to learn ... And when somebody comes in like that, you have that opportunity to create something even larger than one person.”

Episode 10, which was titled “Toxic,” is Kang’s favorite episode for the entire season.

“It’s epic. It’s large scale. We spent the most money on it, actually, with all the CGI and all the locations. We went to a dam,” Kang said. “Looking down at a dam and you’re on a bridge is the scariest but most exhilarating feeling in the world. It was undeniable the power of nature.”

As for playing an Asian villain that isn’t two-dimensional or a bad racial stereotype, Kang says, “It feels like it’s time.”

“Mary Hamilton is undeniably an Asian woman living in Gotham City. That’s going to inform her and her life and feeling overlooked, feeling like an outsider, we accept that as the audience,” Kang said. “There are a lot of communities that I would like to see represented in this scene because it’s time.”

Kang said she loves how her “Batwoman” character has developed over three seasons.

“I feel Mary Hamilton’s story has been developing since day one, planting those seeds of Mary always wanting to be loved, always feeling overlooked, never being chosen, still doing the right thing, always trying, trying, trying, losing a parent, losing another parent, having a step-sister that’s a villain and having a step-sister that disappears but is her hero, then readjusting to this new person who she takes in and recognizes herself in, and they become really close,” Kang explained. “And, meanwhile, she’s in her life. She’s graduating med school. Things go wrong. The Mad Hatter takes over and suddenly her step-sister, who’s a villain, they have never been closer because they’re all each other have in the world. What a great social experiment. It’s what we wanted to see.”

Kang said she caught the acting bug because she always felt like an outsider.

“I grew up in Virginia, for the most part, and I felt like I was always observing because I was always so different than everybody else. So I was raised in this country as an outsider in a place where I didn’t really see people who looked like me and then I love stories,” Kang recalled. “I love storytelling and I would find any way to do it. I love performing, I would sing. I would dance. I would act … I love characters. I would try out accents. I’m an annoying person to watch a movie with because I’m always repeating (the lines) after them (the actors). It’s almost like I want to try it out in my own mouth, in my own brain. And I was always like that … Now looking back, it seems like acting was the only career choice I have really.”

Kang credits Heather Anderson Boll — a visiting professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio that Kang met in her freshman year when she was studying accounting — for changing her life.

“One day, she (Boll) said, ‘You know, you are allowed to want to do this (acting) as your job. It doesn’t just have to be something that you do for fun.’ And that really blew my mind. I never considered it,” Kang said. “I went to New York and the rest is history. I think, if I’m really specific, my love of acting happened before I was even aware of what that was.”

Seeing the premiere of “The Batman”

Nicole Kang as Dr. Mary Hamilton on

“Batwoman.” FRANK OCKENFELS 3/THE CW WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM | MARCH 11 - 17, 2022 | 9 the other night in New York, Kang said she would love it if her Poison Ivy-inspired Poison Mary character would cross over into the Robert Pattinson universe. “I would love to team up with Zoë (Zoë Kravitz, who plays Catwoman) and make something happen,” Kang said. “And, Rob, I think is an incredible actor and an incredible artist. I love his journey. I would love to get in the ring a little bit, throw a couple of punches, see what happens.” “Batwoman” just wrapped up its third season on the CW. The show is on hiatus with the cast and crew waiting to see if they get the order for another season. “As for Mary Hamilton’s future, I hope there is one and I’m ready to take it on,” Kang said. “I love the time that we can take to reflect back on her huge journey that just ended a few days ago with the last moment in her journey thus far.” The NorthEast Comic Con and Collectible Extravaganza features celebrity guests Nicole Kang, Tara Reid, John Wesley Shipp, Vernon Wells, Candy Clark, The Harp Twins, as well as many comic book artists and writers and vendors. For ticket information, log on to https://necomiccons.com/ticket-page/.

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REFLECTING CURRENT ANXIETIES

ArtsWorcester announces 18th Annual College Show winners

Veer Mudambi

Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

A squid climbing out of a park fountain. A seven-foot-long mural of endangered animals on parade. A beautiful portrait painted over literal trash. The artworks on display in ArtsWorcester’s 18th Annual College Show are at once eclectic and unified in their message.

“The diversity of media and subjects were exciting, and many works approached our current anxieties in varied and surprising ways,” said Jessica Roscio, director and curator of the Danforth Art Museum at Framingham State University and this year’s guest juror.

Every year, students from colleges in the Worcester area submit their work to be displayed online by the organization and be evaluated by the guest juror, who picks four prize winners. This year, the winning pieces will also be on display at the ArtsWorcester gallery at 44 Portland St.

Wynne Dromey, a freshman at Clark University, was initially concerned she would not have time to paint at school. These worries proved unfounded however, when a few weeks into her first semester, she began work on her prizewinning piece, “Place of Repose,” on the floor of her dorm room.

“Back at home, I would always paint in my room on the floor,” said Dromey, “so I’m used to painting in non-studio spaces.” Her roommate, she said, generally took it in stride and enjoyed seeing the process.

“Place of Repose,” a portrait of Dromey’s cousin, is acrylic paint and mixed media on canvas, with the mixed media being recycled paper and food wrappers.

“It gives the items a second life,” she explained, and is a way to incorporate a message of sustainability into her art. “Now whenever I have small trash pieces like receipts, chip bags or clothing tags, I think, I can throw it away … or I can paint with it.”

Dromey’s previous work focused solely on color. However now that color can be enhanced by the unique texture — through the material pasted on the canvas and the extra layers of paint.

“Fragments of Myself,” by Shea O’Scannlain, Holy Cross ‘22, one of the other four prize winners, also uses mixed media, though of a slightly more traditional sort — combining oil painting and a photo collage of the artist. The piece, as explained by the artist in her accompanying write-up, “attempts to get viewers to consider how we remember small moments and the ways they are blurred, fragmented or broken down with time.”

The photos are, as the name suggests, fragmented — an eye there, a smiling mouth here, a hand in the center. To Roscio, both Fragments and Repose are similar in that they take a classic medium — acrylics and oils — and combine them with mixed media, or “through the manipulation of form they make traditional, contemporary.” What’s old is new seems to be a common theme in the last few years, but these pieces are far more interesting than any reboot.

“Procession for the White Rhino” by Juri Dudzikowski, Clark ‘21, was the biggest winner — literally — measuring over seven feet long. Inspired by her lifelong love of nature, the mural is painted on cloth and depicts numerous endangered species, including the eponymous rhino. Dudzikowski stated it was a memorial to these animals that have been tragically failed. “Artists have an absolute responsibility to be political,” she said in her written statement, and the work represents the erosion of the natural world through how the piece itself will degrade and break down over time.

“Flying Glitter” by Mariam Soas, Holy Cross ‘22, was the one full photography piece of the four winners, depicting a woman blowing glitter at the camera. On first glance, it seems to be a fairly uplifting piece, but the artist’s write-up draws attention to the illustrated irony. Through the subject’s red rimmed eyes and unenthused expression, the image is a literal portrayal of covering up our inner turmoil and sadness with a happy facade.

“Mini-mart,” by Clark University senior Nadia Sostek, an honorable mention, uses a mix of wood and polymer clay to create a miniature farmer s market with surprisingly (given its size and material) appetizing produce. Fruits, vegetables, cheese, bread and even poultry are all on offer.

“Most people, when they work with polymer clay, it’s more cutesy than artistic,” said Sostek, describing how other works she’s seen add little eyes or make it bright pink. “Which is great,” she added, “but I try to get it as close to the real thing as I possibly can.”

To achieve this, Sostek says, more than half her time on the project was spent mixing colors to get the perfect fit for each food item. “The translucent glaze was my secret weapon,” she said with a laugh. “Especially for the chicken to get that shiny, raw meat look.”

Though she made the submission as part of a class assignment, Sostek says that she doesn’t consider it complete and after a break, she plans to come back to the project to add further accents like staining the wood and plexiglass for the food displays.

“Unexpected,” also an honorable mention, is a title that doesn’t give much away. The pastel painting by Evelyn Kitchen, a senior at Assumption University, depicts a giant squid making its way out of a park fountain on a sunny day. The absurd, yet terrifying, image is fitting analogy to our current times.

“It perfectly sums up how I am feeling now,” said Roscio. “I have no idea what is coming next, but it will likely not be anything I could have imagined.”

Check out the online gallery at www.artsworcester.org.

“Flying Glitter,” by Mariam Soas, College of the Holy Cross, 2022, Neuroscience. Archival inkjet print, 9” x 12.5”, 2021 - Prize winner

“Fragments of Myself,” by Shea O’Scannlain College of The Holy Cross, 2022, English and Studio Art. Oil paint on masonite, 48” x 72”, 2021 - Prize winner. “Procession for the White Rhino,” by Jori Dudzikowski, Clark University, 2021, Studio Art & Art History. Mixed media on cloth (gouache, acrylic, oil pastel, colored pencil), 87” x 32”, 2021 - Prize winner ARTSWORCESTER PHOTOS

Owner Chris Mills in front of a portion of the store’s extensive comic collection.

Stories

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since comics draw in a large portion of tabletop and card gamers, and in fact the same franchises can straddle both markets. Marvel comic characters can now be collected and painted as detailed miniatures in Marvel Crisis Protocol. “Star Wars” holds multiple comic series, and its Legion tabletop game has a large following. More often than not, when selling tabletop minis (Warhammer, Dungeons and Dragons, Star Wars Legion) or trading card packs (Yu-GiOh, Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering), it helps to give your customers a place to play with them.

Community members are already making use of the vastly increased space, booking the tables for tournaments and hobby nights at the store and finding it much easier to do so. “The new location is great,” said Rob Fossey, who is currently organizing a game night. “Wide open space for gaming with plenty of room for social-distancing and lots of hobbyists. You really can’t ask for a better FLGS (Friendly Local Gaming Store).”

Like many great stories, Great Stories follows a formula. “Comics is where it started for us,” said Mills, when the store first opened in 2015. Whitinsville is actually the fourth location — the first three being in Uxbridge. Beginning with only 400 square feet, the store moved two years later to a space double that size next to the Uxbridge Public Library.

Like this most recent move, community interest necessitated further expansion. “When we started doing bigger tournaments there, it was clear that a 400 to 800 move was not really that substantial,” Mills recalled, as they often had to rent space for larger events. After only 11 months they moved to the location they occupied for the last three years. Mills and his wife had hoped to remain in Uxbridge but agreed that a massive space in the next town over was too good to pass up.

The new location is still in what Mills calls a “soft opening” despite having been open for business since January, as they settle into the new space. “The grand reopening ad campaign is still to come,” he said. “The problem with any move is communicating with the customer base through various platforms since not everyone follows the same social media.”

In the meantime, while the store may have survived COVID, the supply chain issues affected the means of acquiring even structural materials like gridwall, shelving, display cabinets. As Mills quipped, “you want it to look professional, not hodgepodge it.”

He did however have plenty of wellwishers and helpers, both from staff and community as people pitched in with their skills to make his vision a reality. From as basic a thing as moving boxes to helping with construction projects, people with different kinds of expertise showed up. “What we’ve built, not just my wife and I, has happened because the community has been in lockstep with us.”

Customer and tournament organizer Matt Pearson was taken with how inviting the new space seemed. “I have not hosted events here before, but I think the new location will work very well for them. Plenty of space for all the different kinds of gaming they want to do.”

Over the last few months, Mills has been focused on improvements to show off. They closed the old location on Dec. 12 and opened on Jan. 8 in the new one. “We’re still not at full capacity in terms of projects and features, but we will be offering more and more services as we go.”

With its increased space, Great Stories can offer far more seating for gaming events. GREAT STORIES COMICS AND GAMING PHOTOS

Trading card games range from Yu-Gi-Oh to Magic: The Gathering.