Group Comic Final Project Reflection

link to Comic: http://davidmorgen.org/comic4/

From our first discussion as a group, talking about the article, I felt I had to step up as one of the leaders in creating this comic because I enjoyed the article so much. As I read the article, I could picture all different scenes in a comic. Once I talked to Chris, however I began to realize how his idea of comparing the new generation and the old generation is more relatable than my initial idea. I reread the article with his idea for the plot of our comic and really enjoyed the article. I took on the responsibility of writing the script, quoting the article occasionally, but mostly letting the characters tell me what they want to say. Writing the script was challenging, but helped me understand the characters we wanted to portray in the comic. I also understood the quotes in the article better, which allowed me to understand the message of the article more as well. I took the message of finding a balance between technology and human interaction to take on a larger role when finishing the script. Instead of organizing the slides by breaking the script down, I organized a read through of the script with the group. Each member read a few lines as the characters. By doing this we could discuss what each other were thinking and collaborate on the characters’ qualities, attitudes, and goals.

I found “The Safety Delusion” Comic interesting because of the authors’ narrative tone. My group’s comic used a plot between two characters, so it was interesting to see a different perspective in a comic. I could see how using a narrative tone emphasizes the message the author is trying to convey in their article about the over-protective parents and restrictions on kids. For my group it is more difficult to convey the message since we left much of the interpretation up to the reader, but with a character narration it is easier to convey emotions and have the reader relate. I will take into consideration both a narrative tone and an emotional tone when thinking about what kind of message I want to convey in my future assignments.

This final project taught me how difficult it is to create a comic. Throughout this semester and all the comics we’ve read in this class, I continued to feel that creating a comic is not too difficult. I figured out that drawing the graphics for a comic is difficult when tracing pages for the Maus Project because of all the details in each panel. I found out that conveying a message through creative framing is difficult when working on the Fun Home Mapping Project when figuring out how to convey an idea through the frame of a panel or the room of a doll house. I still didn’t think it was too difficult to illustrate and display a comic though until doing it. I realized that one of the most important aspects of building a comic is communication. It was difficult to communicate with the rest of my group. It was difficult to decide what message we wanted to convey to the reader, as well as the specific image we wanted to show for each panel. On top of the image, we had to agree on a specific style we wanted to frame the image in. Communication with my group was important, but delving further into understanding comics, it was even more important to communicate with myself the frames, images, words, styles, tones, etc. that I wanted to use. Communicating with myself was one of the most challenging parts I found in not only this comic assignment but also throughout all the projects this semester. I had so many ideas for each project but lacked in understanding the message I wanted to convey. I would just scratch the surface instead of digging up all my potential. A large reason for my lack of depth was due to my lack of communication with myself. I should’ve looked at all the ideas I had when planning the assignment and figured out a common theme between them. The theme that I would have found would have let me dig deep into a valid message with much potential.