Comic Final

I've finally completed my comic final project! As you can see I took some inspiration from The Photographer in terms of layout and organization. The photos were all taken previously and combined here to create a new amalgamation. I was trying to show several sides of the same person on this single cramped (but still fit) page that will print in the back of my comics. I never really write about myself, and don't even have many photos of myself so this took me far longer than it should have. I never fit in with the "selfie" crowd. But anyway I wanted to keep the thought in mind that the image you see and the text that is written should combine to create a new meaning. Or at the very least create a significantly deeper understanding of the material, which The Photographer utilized constantly. Anyway I hope you guys enjoy it, and thank you all for a great semester! Good luck to those who are graduating as well! (And yes, the moose was absolutely imperative) Though I intended to show myself in each panel (which was very difficult already) the moose needed his own panel.

Free comics at the public library!

I was at the Cincinnati public library, down on Ludlow, picking up books and saw this flyer! So I wanted to pass it on to you all if you're interested!

Final Paper Reminder--Due May 1st via email; Also: What do I mean by research?

A few of you have emailed to ask for guidance about what sorts of research I'm looking for you to include in your final papers, so I thought I'd post what I've been writing to them. 

 What I mean by research: That would mean anything from including interviews with the artists in your analysis to searching venues, such as JStor and Project Muse (both accessible if you log in via the library website), for scholarly articles related to your paper.  You might look up articles about a theme you're interested in (eg animals in Maus, gender in comics, the relationship between manga and U.S. comics), for instance, or you might look for specific research on one of the comics you treat in the work.  You could also use a more general resource on comics, such as a book of comics theory a la McCloud.
 
Here are the books I posted links to early in the semester:



Hillary Chute's Graphic Women

A Comics Studies Reader, Ed. Jeet Heer and Ken Worcester

Michael Chaney's Graphic Subjects

Jared Gardner's Projections: Comics and The History of 21st Century Storytelling

Charles Hatfield's Alternative Comics

Frederick Aldama's Multicultural Comics

Douglas Wolk's Reading Comics

Thierry Groensteen's The System of Comics

Will Eisner's Comics and Sequential Art

Neil Cohn's The Visual Language of Comics

Randy Duncan's The Power of Comics

Stitches

Sorry for the delay. Graduating makes life crazy.

Stitches, for me, stylistically, was like many mediums in one. The story read for me like an old silent movie; actually, if you go to David Small’s website for Stitches, he has instrumental music that is eerie and goes nicely with Small’s art. Respond with your thoughts on art, music, and mediums and how it influences/aids adolescents, and Small’s adolescence specifically, in how they respond to pain and powerlessness.

With young adult novels trending towards darker themes as of late (Hunger Games, Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars), how do you think Stitches compares to these popular works of fiction?

What did you think of how the memoir ended? (“I didn’t”) How did it affect you? How do you think it affected/affects small?

Comic Extra Credit

I'm not exactly a fantastic artist but I do want to do this for a living some day, and this gave me some good practice. I expect I'll be continuing this comic in the comments if anyone happens to be interested.

It is kind of influenced by the sorts of things I've been watching lately, coming to the end of Falling Skies and having just started Helix.

I hope this is interesting to you guys.

Stitches, Part 1

I have to begin this with an apology for the lateness. 

1. A title card is a lead in to an episode which usually tells a person a little bit about the story that they are about to receive. Small uses this technique throughout his story either to break up the action or to provide insight into the way each part of the story will play out. What do you feel his intent in using the title cards is? Do you think that his application was effective?

2. Small uses a relatively realistic style of drawing to portray himself and the other characters throughout the story. If Scott McCloud is to be believed, this should make it more difficult to place yourself in the character's positions. Do you find this to be true? If not, explain your experience.

3. Pages 61 and 62 show small slipping into a paper and into what seems to be a stomach. What do you feel is the significance of this? What do you feel the stomach is meant to represent? What is the significance of the characters residing in the stomach?

Graphic Novel Extra Credit

            I wrote the short graphic novel The Path as a sort of journey for someone who feels alone. It shows a man gradually becoming distant and alone then eventually becoming stone even though people are there for him. He is being pushed along by this “crown” that increases his mental state and transforms him into a troll like creature. I love stories that are mystical and have a deeper meaning than what they truly show. I love stories that are weird and interesting. The graphic novels that I pulled from for this piece were American Born Chinese’s supernatural and play with nature and Fun Home’s artistic style mixed with some of the works of Jeff Lemire.

            I really love art. Most of my projects these days are sculptures of dinosaurs or movie characters. The change to actual drawing was hard, but I really feel like I pulled it off. The layout of this piece is sort of erratic. I wanted to create a few centers of attention. Those centers being the faces on both the second and third pages taking up most of the pages themselves. I switched between artistic styles throughout. Closer up you are to the objects, the more detailed they look. I love to follow that’s style closely since it makes the drawing process much quicker.

            The writing process took some time. I wasn’t completely sure how I wanted to go with it. I just started drawing and hoped that the story would flow along with it. I’m hoping that the story makes sense. I really enjoyed this course more than any other course this semester. It was on a topic I have so much respect for. Getting to write a short story like this was a dream that I never pursued. I really look forward to checking out other student work.