The Secret Language of Comics

Literacy Narrative Part 2 – Reflection

Having finished this entire process, I feel relieved. Not because the assignment is over or that I did not enjoy the process, but because making a comic is a long and arduous process that, though tiring, is an extremely gratifying thing to accomplish.

              Completing this assignment helped me reach the learning outcome pertaining to practicing writing as a process. The comic was preceded by a full-length narrative that was the backbone of this comic. The first Literacy Narrative assignment allowed me to put my ideas to paper and pen and revise them as I saw fit. That process in itself required many steps that built off of each other and this assignment was only a furthering of those steps. Making these many iterations of my essay in every step of the process benefitted my comic greatly.

              Going back to the difficulty of making a comic, one thing I heavily underestimated was the visual aspect. As obvious as it was, I did not give much thinking to the details of my drawings. The biggest problem about the visual aspect of my comic was choosing what I wanted to put on paper. I had a million ideas for how to show eight years passing by or what scene from my favorite comics I wanted to depict to demonstrate their sneaky complexity. I was trying to do something profound on every page but I think realizing it was probably better keeping everything simple was the right choice. The storyboard assignment helped slightly with this but even then, I was not entirely happy with my decisions and felt they were made too hastily.

              With this in mind we can take a look at my comic and see why I kept in what I did. The first page is highlighted by three comics I used to read early on in my childhood. The first panel consists of three covers of each comic that I distinctly remember from my head. I did not search up images to prompt my memory, I took what I vaguely remembered and drew them out. I did the same thing for the next three panels on the first page with scenes that stuck out to me from each series. On the second page, I decided to show eight years passing by through the height markers from every year in our family room wall; again keeping with the theme of simplicity. The last panel on the last page was the one that involved the most brainstorming. I wanted to end my comic with a visual that aptly summarized my experience with texts from high school and my childhood and shedding it in a positive light. I did this by drawing characters or symbols that represent the texts that I have read (To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies, and Amar Chitra Katha to name a few) and surrounded them around a comical version of myself with a light switch substituted for my brain. I wanted to really capture what it felt like for me when that switch “flicked” in my head.

Literacy Narrative Part 2 – Reflection

Having finished this entire process, I feel relieved. Not because the assignment is over or that I did not enjoy the process, but because making a comic is a long and arduous process that, though tiring, is an extremely gratifying thing to accomplish.

              Completing this assignment helped me reach the learning outcome pertaining to practicing writing as a process. The comic was preceded by a full-length narrative that was the backbone of this comic. The first Literacy Narrative assignment allowed me to put my ideas to paper and pen and revise them as I saw fit. That process in itself required many steps that built off of each other and this assignment was only a furthering of those steps. Making these many iterations of my essay in every step of the process benefitted my comic greatly.

              Going back to the difficulty of making a comic, one thing I heavily underestimated was the visual aspect. As obvious as it was, I did not give much thinking to the details of my drawings. The biggest problem about the visual aspect of my comic was choosing what I wanted to put on paper. I had a million ideas for how to show eight years passing by or what scene from my favorite comics I wanted to depict to demonstrate their sneaky complexity. I was trying to do something profound on every page but I think realizing it was probably better keeping everything simple was the right choice. The storyboard assignment helped slightly with this but even then, I was not entirely happy with my decisions and felt they were made too hastily.

              With this in mind we can take a look at my comic and see why I kept in what I did. The first page is highlighted by three comics I used to read early on in my childhood. The first panel consists of three covers of each comic that I distinctly remember from my head. I did not search up images to prompt my memory, I took what I vaguely remembered and drew them out. I did the same thing for the next three panels on the first page with scenes that stuck out to me from each series. On the second page, I decided to show eight years passing by through the height markers from every year in our family room wall; again keeping with the theme of simplicity. The last panel on the last page was the one that involved the most brainstorming. I wanted to end my comic with a visual that aptly summarized my experience with texts from high school and my childhood and shedding it in a positive light. I did this by drawing characters or symbols that represent the texts that I have read (To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies, and Amar Chitra Katha to name a few) and surrounded them around a comical version of myself with a light switch substituted for my brain. I wanted to really capture what it felt like for me when that switch “flicked” in my head.

Babbling Balkans

Over the course of the past few days, I have had more work than time to do work which is why I had to put this Sunday sketch off for a little. When I finally sat down in front of my sketchbook, which I recently ordered on Amazon as I figured it would come in handy for this class, I found that my mind had been completely drained of all creative inclinations. I had no idea what I wanted to draw or what story I wanted to tell, I think the fact that I was only limited to four squares made it more difficult. So I sat in front of a blank page for 30-45 minutes pretty much just thinking. I have no clue why I decided to take the route that I did (it likely has something to do with eastern Europe being in the news quite a bit lately), but I am happy with the result. I’m not sure if the joke is self-evident. Despite the fact that Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia are nations with significant cultural overlap and nearly mutually intelligible languages, they have a long violent history of infighting and genocide. The punchline is supposed to be ironic, though I am sure if I had more time I could have found a better way to deliver the same joke.

Sketch 7: Quadriptych

Bush Cricket Always has a Plan

Whether it is Quadriptych or Triptych, I prefer short comics to have a clear purpose such as making people laugh or giving a lesson. Hence, I wanted to make a funny piece and meanwhile remembered what my friend told me months ago about the reality of bush cricket in the novel. I did not know that bush crickets were carnivorous and expected others to be the same. I utilized the unexpected information in giving a twist at the end.

There were fewer challenges in making the Quadriptych than in the Triptych. I don’t think that it is because one’s easier than the other. I think the prior experience in making the Triptych actually facilitated the process of making a plot and drawing the characters for the Quadriptych.

For the extra space, rather than stretching the middle act, I was able to utilize it as a separate scene where the character Bush Cricket interacts with the reader rather than in the plot. At the same time, it combined with narration gives an unexpected information -a twist – making the comic much more interesting.

Pink Magnolia

For this assignment, I decided to practice this particular drawing style that I’m not familiar with: relying on fine black lines and trying to keep the drawing as simple as possible without any extra lines, thus creating a sense of aloofness. Over the weekend, I binge-watched several Japanese movies out of stress, and I guess the melancholic ambiance of these movies is somehow reflected in my work. The main idea of my quadriptych is a feeling I had ever since I was a child, that happiness never lasts very long, which is why whenever I felt unusually tranquil and lucky, I began to worry about its inevitable end and began to think: what if time could just stop at this moment.

Overall, I found drawing a quadriptych to be easier than a triptych, since having the extra panel allows me to create a more natural transition to a plot twist.

Home Sweet Home

It took me way longer than I expected to have an idea of what to draw, so I decided to make it simple. Given that I know my inability to draw something meaningful, apart from the typical house, human, and the usual painting, I decided to challenge myself and draw an airplane. The outcome was not as good as I anticipated, but I am happy with the improvement regardless.

I struggle a lot when it comes to having a story to tell. The challenging mainly lies in creating a story. The additional layer in my opinion made it easier for me to create two pictures and their opposites. I chose this story because it relates to me more than others.

Reward Upcoming

After looking at the instructions, I immediately thought of drawing a comic about the stressful schedule that I have since the 24th of February and until the 3rd of March. Unlike other assignments, this wasn’t challenging in terms of thinking about an idea. I believe crafting this sort of comic is different from the triptych in terms of delivering a more profound story as it had the middle act stretch across two panels. I made this story to stay motivated for the devastating week coming up and encourage students to have their heads up as spring break is coming.

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