Extra Credit - Jordan Posey

I didn't actually think of a title, so how about... "Teenage Closet Story on a School Bus" ???

As far as style goes, Bechdel and Waldman mostly influenced the art for this. I wanted to work with a text from literature in the same way that Bechdel did because I liked that dynamic between text and picture in Fun Home. I also attempted the technique used by Waldman that involved changing the art style for a different narrative function. I am slightly worried the difference is not clear enough, but in the panels that are illustrations of the book I was working with, Maurice by E. M. Forster, I tried to use a wispier, looser style with more pencil and less pen. I originally planned to do a lot more and actually use this as just a template/sketch for a more elaborate digital draft, but I underestimated the time commitment. I planned the panels on a separate paper and then drew all of them before filling them. My initial ideas did change from the original plan to this draft, though. I originally picked different passages from Maurice but I changed them to be more relevant to the pictures I wanted to draw. In general I found words/text falling second to art, although I think it would have been more practical to do it the other way.

The story and the concept were two things that were much more difficult for me to come up with. I wanted to either focus on race or sexuality, or both, but I ended up choosing only sexuality because of the book I wanted to work with, Maurice, which is a book about sexuality and class. This is not autobiographical, but instead I wanted to convey feelings I have felt before. Reading a book about homosexuality on a school bus is something that would have caused me great anxiety in high school, and even now. I wanted my character to be so enthralled with the book that they would read it in public, and I wanted it to be sort of ambiguous as to whether he was embarrassed or not. The passages I chose are actually out of order by a few pages, but it made more sense the way I did it. The first is Maurice finally telling his former lover, a man who chose to live a heterosexual life, he is done with him. The second is Maurice embracing his new lover. I wanted the second scene paralleled with the current narrative, of my character shyly telling someone (possibly a romantic interest, who knows), that he is reading a book about homosexuality. This is essentially a story about being in the closet, or not being in the closet. Maurice and his lovers are certainly in the closet so I wanted that contrast, and I wanted it to be ambiguous as to whether my characters were in the closet or not. Whether he is or not, my point was that its always hard to put yourself out there, especially with sexuality.

If anything, I wish I could have differentiated the two styles more so that effect could have been more impactful. I really enjoyed making this though.