Seventh Assignment: Family Story



From Bullied a Family History

For next week, please write a script for a family story. A story from your family, your own experience of your family or a story that is told within your family.  There is an emphasis on risk-taking in this assignment and opening up the confessional possiblity of comics. You may exaggerate or ground your story in genre codes, for example for a family story on Mars....but make sure you ground your story in your own life and experience. A good example of a family story of this time is Alison Bechtel's Fun Home, one of the most successful graphic novels of the last 10 years. Try to make use of sense memory in writing your story, should feel what it was like to see, hear, taste, smell, experience in our skins what it was like to be there for the events of the story you tell.

Here is a link to the assignment on the syllabus.

Mid-Term: Remember that this week is the midterm and all your assignments for the first half of the semester are due.

Here is a link to my family comic, "My Mom in Boot Heel Comics"

Sixth Assignment: A Slice of Life



Still from the TV pilot for The Deep End

For next week, practice your observation and capture skills. Using found dialogue which you have observed or captured by recording it, create a slice of life comic. Try to stay true to what you have observed.

For examples look at the work of Adrian Tomine, Jessica Abel's Art Babe, or Jeff Nicholson's Through the Habitrails.  Try to find an off-campus location in which to observe and capture your "slice of life." This assignment is all about trying to stay as close to reality as possible although some editing and adaptation usually occurs. The main thrust is to not clean the dialogue up or make it "nice." Please post your assignment on your blog before class.

Here is a link to this week's assignment on the syllabus which includes a link to my comic for this week.

Fifth Assignment: Self Portrait

Self-Portrait in Comics

Make a colorwheel of character traits that represent the three main traits of your own character. What is the dominant trait, its opposite in yourself and a complementary trait. Create a one to four page comic that is a character sketch of yourself. Remember that your character should be shown to us by representing signature actions, gestures or bits of dialogue or monologue. Show us, don't tell us these character traits. 

You don't have to worry about a complete story arc for this comic, just make a coherent slice of life self-portrait. This can be framed an a brief anecdote or family story that features yourself and reveals an important aspect of your character. Outline what you intend to do in some brief fashion and then execute and post the comic in at least pencil rough or better level of finish.

In class this Friday we will review the self-portraits, work on a portrait excercise in-class and prepare to make an observed slice-of-life portrait of someone else who is not a close friend or relation.

Fourth Assignment: Archetypal Characters

The assignment for this week is to  keep a dream diary. Choose one of your dreams and create a 1-4 page comic to tell the dream. It can be longer if necessary but pleas complete it as a pencil rough and post it on your blog. Please stay as close as you can to the actual dream, don't try to change it to make it more sensible.

Read Alan Moore's Writing for Comics. Also consider reading Alan Moore's Promethea, one of his most archetypal comics.