May 26 2017

Agenda

  • Logistics etc
  • Workshop
  • Presentations

Logistics

Presentations:

  • Justin presented his finalized why comics statement. He approaches comics from the side of literary studies. He was drawn to Alan Moore’s books that play with elements of the anti hero, dystopia, etc. McCloud’s theory of the elements of comics meaning making helped unlock the medium.
  • Brandon presented a demonstration about Monstress and its unique technique for storytelling and world building. Each comic ends with a cute, sagely grandmother figure  who fills the audience in on how the origins of the world’s warring races, for example. It offers a productive alternative to smashing exposition into story dialogue
  • Sandra presented her finalized prototype of her nonfiction comic, Skin-Care 101.
  • Celine presented the prototype for her art comic about her sister called Fashionista Chronicles. It reproduces her sister’s outfits and the snarky comments she gets for them, including thought bubbles of her responses. The model is left faceless to focus on the outfits themselves.
    • She then presented her scholarly prototype, called Petie learns about Punctuation, an educational comic about a young penguin who wants to write a letter to Santa. A team of helpful punctuation marks teach Petie how to make his letter both memorable and correct.
  • Mathew W presented his finalized rhetorical analysis of Berserk, a manga running since the late 1980s. His analysis shows how light, darkness, and line style are used to demonstrate character emotion. Matthew draws out the patterns across a bunch of characters, demonstrating this as a unique rhetorical technique of this work.
  • Hanae showed her academic collage on the 2011 tsunami and earthquake in Japan, which demonstrates scientific diagrams and images from the event
    • She then presented her watercolored final version of the comic. It demonstrates the tectonics of the quake, then dhows images from the quake itself, some based on actual footage of the event.
  • Sam presented two elevator pitches. First is his art comic adaptation of The Tao of Wu, about the rise of the Wu Tang Clan.
    • For his academic comic, he wants to examine the history of the blues. He wants it to focus on the technical development of instruments, of the tradition, of the key players.
  • Marcus presented his finalized Why Comics statement. It starts from his first introduction to manga and anime early in life, then to the rise of blockbuster Marvel movies that helped him see the mainstream power of comics.
    • He then presented his elevator pitch for an academic comic about the world of publishing. Rather than a “For Dummies” approach, it would break down the principles for success in getting published–how to follow the rules, how to get success.
  • Keegan presented a pitch for an academic comic about major figures in American civil rights (think Harvey Milk). It would be drawn and presented in the second person, putting you in the action.
  • Jordan gave a pitch for an academic comic about dragqueen superheros who fight personified social injustices.