The creation of this assignment was fun to make. I found the black gloves I had used before when the weather was especially cold. I also discovered that I had Clorox wipes that I could have used on a variety of occasions but never actually used them. As for the arrangement of the things, I made it a point to keep everything square. You can see how much I desired a clean shape by my layout of the key chain.
My essay was about how both Allison Bechdel and David Small employ several similar stylistic strategies as well as similar thematic ideas, but have varying ways of depicting such, therefore we can conclude that there is no clear cut best way to express oneself through comics. The two show the weirdness of time as well as all-at-onceness through showing four David’s sliding down a tube, or as Allison depicts showing scenes depicting different moments in time all sanctioned as one. Allison resorts to more word heavy, clear cut observations within each panel, while David takes advantage of the freeing art of abstract expression of real ideas through his panels’ images.
The process of tracing the pages as a brainstorming analysis, was a helpful and rich process for me. It inspired closer reading than most would gather from either page, and the act of comparing one to another made it that much more fruitful, especially implementing the works of Hilary Chute as an argumentative backbone. As I was drawing, I was in close attention to the style of everything: the furniture, the emotions on the faces of the characters, to the flow of the page more literally. This was useful for me, as it forced me to interact closely with the text.
Typically, I have started with theses in the introductory paragraph. Some of my strongest writing has sprouted from me writing the introductory paragraph last, even after the conclusion. Thus, having the last paragraph functionally operate as the typical introduction, this was a very natural writing process for me, that felt much more established.
Although my overall argument was how Allison employs less secret language strategies on the surface level, I was surprised how many intricacies she is able to accomplish through the a semi-typical comic structure, such as the framing and literal drawing elements that help to convey something that otherwise would not be possible under a captured photograph or a written work, in addition to how ever-present Chute’s all-at-onceness as well as fragmenting of time is in the totality of every page and panel: it is truly a conscious and important decision to be implemented into every successful comic.
When crafting my narrative, I decided to come up with something that I can depict in only three panels which lead me to think about the love stories that are corny and show a non-realistic way of how people fall in love. It was challenging to think of the details that I should include to make sure the reader was able to easily follow and understand. Crafting this comic was different from my other work because it required me to put different aspects together such as the flower show and the typical walking off in the sunset so my story made sense. Also it was different having to add text so the pictures didn’t just speak for themselves.
I choose this photo because at first I was going to use a lighthouse to make a different combination but then when I searched up light houses I saw this one and thought the design was similar to a candy cane so I decided to take this route instead. Challenges that I faced when making this photo was trying to get them to line up and while it still looks a mess to me, this was the best I could do lol. Hopefully, my vision is still clear though. My final image convey’s a candy cane lighthouse because while lighthouse are rarely acknowledged, candy canes are know as a Christmas necessity so together they create the perfect balance of purpose in society.
I came up with this comic based on an event that happened in my classroom. There was someone who was not willing to do the work but our group decided to do our respective parts and leave it up to him to complete the project. This was an interesting assignment because it allowed me to actually draw a comic firsthand which was a new experience for me. This post also gave me a chance to see what it’s like to portray a story in the form of a comic even if it was only three panels long. I am more used to writing in an essay format so it was fun to illustrate and show a story through illustration.
The moment when my mom taught me the first character at 4, I, once innocently wandering in the universe of unknowns, tripped down onto the net of meaning weaved by the sounds and shapes of words. All the words I picked up, formless as water yet sharper than the best Katana swords, gradually amalgamated with my experience of everything and pierced my perspective, language, and vision.
My first acquaintance with words is in classical poetry. As a kid, my mom would force me to recite a poem every morning before going to Kindergarten. Though I always tried to resist, the strange imageries flowing on the pages of the likes of Li Bai enticed my fantasy of the Tang dynasty, the chivalrous swordsmen, the hermits, and the palaces; I was introduced to a new world parallel in time to my pre-literate experience living in a modern city.
My best reading experience ever happened on a cool winter night, being alone in my room… I laid on the bed and opened Momo by Michael Ende, a fantasy about a warm-hearted girl fighting with the “bank of time” with help from the “elder of time”.
Soon, I immersed myself completely in the “End of Time” with Momo and lost track of time. Until the red-wood grandfather clock ringed twelve times, I was pulled back to reality. From then on, immersive experience in reading fiction became one of the most enjoyable and precious memories from adolescence.
Meanwhile, I developed a habit of slow reading – I can’t help thinking about the relationships between ideas already covered. For instance, when I’m halfway done with reading Professor Jonathan Spence’s God’s Chinese Son, I had to close the book, take a walk to DCT, and think about how Hong Xiuquan’s policy is/isn’t a primitive form of communism. This habit eventually affected my SAT reading performance, so I had to temporarily give up thinking and do the problems, which was a painful experience.
[One final sketch showing the conflict between what SAT expects of me and how I habitually read]
The moment when my mom taught me the first character at 4, I, once innocently wandering in the universe of unknowns, tripped down onto the net of meaning weaved by the sounds and shapes of words. All the words I picked up, formless as water yet sharper than the best Katana swords, gradually amalgamated with my experience of everything and pierced my perspective, language, and vision.
My first acquaintance with words is in classical poetry. As a kid, my mom would force me to recite a poem every morning before going to Kindergarten. Though I always tried to resist, the strange imageries flowing on the pages of the likes of Li Bai enticed my fantasy of the Tang dynasty, the chivalrous swordsmen, the hermits, and the palaces; I was introduced to a new world parallel in time to my pre-literate experience living in a modern city.
My best reading experience ever happened on a cool winter night, being alone in my room… I laid on the bed and opened Momo by Michael Ende, a fantasy about a warm-hearted girl fighting with the “bank of time” with help from the “elder of time”.
Soon, I immersed myself completely in the “End of Time” with Momo and lost track of time. Until the red-wood grandfather clock ringed twelve times, I was pulled back to reality. From then on, immersive experience in reading fiction became one of the most enjoyable and precious memories from adolescence.
Meanwhile, I developed a habit of slow reading – I can’t help thinking about the relationships between ideas already covered. For instance, when I’m halfway done with reading Professor Jonathan Spence’s God’s Chinese Son, I had to close the book, take a walk to DCT, and think about how Hong Xiuquan’s policy is/isn’t a primitive form of communism. This habit eventually affected my SAT reading performance, so I had to temporarily give up thinking and do the problems, which was a painful experience.
[One final sketch showing the conflict between what SAT expects of me and how I habitually read]
This triptych was very fun to create. Adding some dark humor made this activity enjoyable. The three panels are not so much in the traditional comic style, however, the three panels have a clear storyline and are in my opinion, relatively easy to follow. The story of two slices of bread from their acceptance of their fate, to their reminescence of their origins, ending with their death and union afterward is a comic well titled “From Cradle To Crave”.
After reading the instructions, I thought it would be easy as I considered myself to have more episodes regarding learning languages as a bilingual. I first believed that it could not be harder than the pre-writing task where I had to force myself to narrow down my experiences. However, unlike what I expected, the assignment was difficult. The past memories of learning English were engraved into my brain, making it almost impossible to summarize and filter them out. Hence, I chose 3 major ways that shaped my language and introduced them with the stories of how I obtained them. Starting from the anecdote of when I was illiterate, I explain how I started reading novels in Canada, how I started making vocabulary lists, and how I was able to apply all these – new grammar structure, vocabulary, and phrase – and made them my own in high school.
As some events that shaped my current reading and writing skills have a causal relationship with one another, I wrote in chronological order. The method of storytelling helps a smoother understanding of how and why I obtained the specific methods.
The assignment was an opportunity to think about how I developed my current reading and writing skills. It was interesting to organize the history while remembering the painful but worthful past of learning English. Also, by looking back at the time when I could not fluently express my thoughts, I once again felt the aspect of language that liberates people.
