GB & W: Walter Kostner’s Comic Strips Online

They’ve been seen on television, bookshelves, bookstores and especially on notepads, calendars and greeting cards for young and old. Now they have come to the web.

GB & W have opened a site on the web where we can all go to find a place to think serene thoughts thanks to the writings of the author, games and songs, letters and experiences of educators, teenagers and children. But the most important thing you will find there are the comic strips, windows into the innocent and humorous world of GB & W that allow us to walk along a wonderful path which is within the reach of all.

GB & W were born in the mind of a teacher who was looking for a way to reach out to a young teenager who was going through a difficult moment in his life. How could he reach out to him without being paternalistic? Having a gift for drawing, the idea came to him that he could put down on paper a series of conversations and adventures of a pair of clowns. Through these characters he would be able to transmit hope and help the boy to find a meaning in life. The rest is history.

Because of their educational value, GB & W became the main characters of several projects in Italian schools and in the schools of other countries. Thanks to Honegger Fresco, one of the most expert authors in the field of education,

in 2006 GB & W were also published in her “Quaderni Montessori” (Montessori Journal). She states: “They are very effective. . . There is spirituality and entertainment in them, there is the joy of living. . . They are greatly enriching for people.”

Just like the best cinematic films betray their age only because they are in black and white, so too these characters who have come out of the pen of Walter Kostner have grown over the years without ever growing up. They carry their years and their stories well, thanks to the wisdom they offer us, but also the healthy laughter that being in their company brings to those who have met them and know them through their comic strips.

With a balanced dose of word and silence this pair of clowns can sometimes make us feel uncomfortable. With their blank sincerity and mild irony, GB & W overturn our quite lives and push us to draw close to our neighbor in concrete ways and to find the positive in all of life’s predicaments.