When we were first assigned this project, I immediately thought of camaraderie. I’m not quite sure why I did, but it was apparent to me that I wanted to do my project on it. I felt that the subject was very present in my life, along with other people lives. I thought more about the subject to try to find a more specific topic, which soon came to me. Any fire department is known for being like a second family to all of its members. For this reason, I wanted to write about my experiences with the fire department.
I decided that it’d be a better idea not to write about myself directly, so I created a new character. I did, however, use the same experiences that I have been through. This made my life easy because I had all of the pictures I needed from my personal ventures.
I did further research on the topic to see what others had to say about it. Many fire fighters were very strong on the idea of camaraderie and creating a brotherhood. The only problem was that I needed to get all of my information from interviews. This was bad because it really zeroed in on specific people. I could use the information because everyone all had the same thing to say.
I began creating the project in school and learned that comiclife really isn’t the best program. I found myself using other programs to crop pictures and change the look of them. It had a large learning curve, but I began finally picking it up towards the end. This may have been too late, though.
Overall, I think my project came out decent. A lot of the pictures bring back stories to me, since they were all experiences. I think that other people may not like the project as much because the pictures do not look too impressive, but oh well. This was definitely a nice substitution to having a final exam, though.
The English final that I had to complete was a graphic novel that dealt with a current issue. The issue I chose for this project was the misunderstanding of Islamic extremists. I chose this topic because in my belief it is the one issue that is resolved could solve most of the world’s problems at this very moment. Throughout my life I have heard people tell me that they are the bad ones, and after doing research I found that neither side is evil. In writing this I wanted to teach people about the Muslim world a little but yet at the same time show them how similar soldiers on both sides are. I dramatized the soldiers on both sides a little to make he connection more obvious for the average citizen. The pictures I chose in my opinion help me compare the two sides to the best of my ability without actually following both an American soldier and an Islamic fundamentalist around and taking pictures of each’s life. The pictures although they are ones found online and do not match work well together when combined with the filter I used in the program; the filter allows the pictures to all look similar and allow the reader to follow the story better because he or she isn’t worrying about the difference in appearance of characters.
The process of developing this project was one that was surprisingly fun, considering we had little time to do it. The comic life program is an interesting program that can be really awesome when you get past the surface of it. The ability to filter all your pictures to get a desired effect was one that was very helpful. The research before the actual comic work started was in my opinion fruitless. I believe this because kids would chose something they are interested in any way and therefore by liking the topic they chose they would do research on their own. Also the notes taken were basic ones that were not of much use to the story element of my novel, therefore I think it was an unnecessary aspect of the final. Overall though I thought the project was very fun and one of the best finals I have ever done, I hope you continue it with other years because I know they will enjoy it as much as we have.
After weeks of work, I produced a graphic novel about the Maasai tribe in Africa and the transition of a warrior from boyhood to senior warrior. The novel included many pictures that were “comicified” to portray the journey. The captions and speech bubbles were used to explain the processes and the ceremonies surrounding the transition and coming of age of these warriors. Overall, I feel that my project was a success and that the Comic Life program helped to portray my research.
One of the most challenging parts of this project was trying to find pictures to use. The problem was that my topic seemed to be rarely photographed, especially the different ceremonies and rituals that I included. I borrowed one very helpful oversized book from the library, The Last of the Maasai, which was full of large pictures. Then I took pictures of these pictures and used them in my novel. These were very helpful because they had captions next to them and portrayed many of the different aspects of Maasai life, which I needed.
In addition to these pictures, I also needed to find pictures on the Internet. I could find a great deal of the pictures that I needed on the Internet but in some cases I had to stretch both mine and hopefully the readers imagination. For example, on page four there is a box about the boys taking a cold shower to cleanse themselves. I could not find a picture of a Maasai actually doing this so I found a picture of penguins jumping off of ice into the water instead. Also, there were instances where I needed a certain configuration of Maasai people. This was near impossible to find. One instance of this was when I needed to find a picture of an elder addressing a group of Maasai boys or warriors. I would find a group of Maasai boys and them have them talking and then in the next box have a picture of an elder talking. This solved the problem and still made sense in the novel.
When I was only finished with a few pages of the novel, I was not satisfied with the outcome. I had intended to have a story line following one character. However, throughout the construction process the goal changed to creating a documentary-type comic. After placing all of the pictures and text I was still not satisfied. This time my un-satisfaction was due to the layouts and color schemes that I had used. I felt that it looked messy and unorganized. After an hour or two of editing colors and layouts I ended up with my finished project that I absolutely love. It was not my original vision but I think that it still looks great and definitely conveys my research to the reader.
Finally, the length was a problem. If I had more time and more pictures I would have included more ceremonies after the transition to senior warrior. My graphic novel exceeds the requirements as it is but I would have loved to add even more.
I am extremely satisfied with the outcome of my graphic novel, “The Journey of a Maasai Warrior: Africa’s Fiercest.” It accurately conveys my research to the reader and uses the perfect amount of images, some which even require the reader to think a little.
The mostly recent phenomenon of social networking websites becoming globally popular has always interested me a great deal. It is the reason I choose this topic. The growth of technology has literally changed the way humans communicate and network together. People can now make contacts thousands of miles away and see friends who they could not have arranged a meeting with otherwise, The creation of these websites has not only sculpted our usage of networking, especially for teens, but it has also allowed a creative outlet for the youth and the young-at-heart, of America.
Stating my comic, I wanted to create a feeling of a satirical comedy, having a child so young want to be a part of the networking community. This child wants a social networking website because of its popularity and probably does not even know the real reason or why it was created in the first place.
Going into the first pages, I wanted to state some facts and statistics that readers could comprehend, for example, 70% of all teenage girls use these sites and over half of teenage men do. I also wanted people to see the relationship between the proper name for these sites and the usage, for example social networking website = facebook/myspace/or webpage.
Although many people use these sites some do not know what they are really for. After looking at a survey of 935 teenagers posted by Pew Internet Research, it was discovered that these sites are to keep in touch with friends near or far, as well as make new ones. They are not simply for flirting or making one's page beautified.
Moving on through the comic, I wanted to address why these sites have become so popular in accordance with why teens use them, I discovered it had to do with 'online popularity.' It is having the most aesthetically pleasing page, the most friends, and the biggest network. I also tried to approach this in a comedic fashion. I decided to use MAST students to keep the appeal of the reader who will most likely know who they are.
The next issue I wanted to cover was that these sites are not only incorporating a popularity contest but also a unity of strength for the issues our world is facing today. For example, facebook has added an application called "Causes" where one can access a group joined in effort to be aware and fundraise for causes such as Save Darfur, Animal rights ,etc. These groups allow you to access a bigger website where you can donate money and recruit more people for the cause. This was a main component I wanted to stress in particular with a whole page of comic. I used pictures gathered from Google Images to show what these organizations look like.
Bringing my comic back to its focus I wanted the last page to be a fact page as well as a closing. I felt it was successful in getting my point across as well as teaching people what a social networking website really was. I tried to use a character that most of us are familiar with, the man who represents a very large network, the Verizon guy. He is best known for his lines "Can you hear me now? Good." By using him I hope that people will realize networking is always advertised and is part of our daily routine.
The colors I used I hope helped in the fact that they were attractive and bright for the most part. Also although there may exist too much text for a reader to completely want to read through, I felt it was necessary and I tried to make it as simple as possible. I greatly enjoyed making this product and felt my topic completely relevant to what we have been studying.
As this project was announced the dread inside me began to build immediately. However, this view quickly changed. After I realized that I could choose a topic of my liking, I realized that the possibilities could be endless. I quickly began to narrow down the subjects to several that I found very interesting and would like to have known more about. I finally choose the rise and development of the metal genre. I choose this topic because I am very interested in this form of music and have recently begun to learn how to play electric guitar. I began by delving right into Wikipedia to gain a basic knowledge on the subject, and later found out more information on other websites regarding the subject matter. Afterward, I began to collect pictures of bands and album covers of bands that were related to the development of heavy metal. Next, I began to lay out a plan on how to turn the information and pictures into a graphic novel. I decided on a documentary format in which just the straight facts and history of the development and metal because I believed this would best portray my information. I than put all of the information and pictures into the comic life program and created my graphic novel.
I believe that my graphic novel came out well and I am pleased with it. After listening to feedback from classmates of mine, I believe that they liked the result as much as I did. I found that this project took more effort than I expected but in turn I created something that I liked and am proud to call my work. Overall, this project was fun and enjoyable to work on despite my initial dread.
I chose the topic of Prejudice against Muslims in America after 9/11 because I felt it is an issue that almost every American deals with either consciously or subconsciously. This includes both the receiving and the committing ends. I wanted to show that not all Muslims are terrorists or even radicals; that is a group of individuals that do not follow the true teachings of Islam that promote peaceful ways, but a radical form that unfortunately out shadows the correct practice. This twisted and corrupted form is the one that most people associate with the terrorists and innocent practitioners alike. This form of “Islamic McCarthyism” is dangerous and can have results ranging from common name-calling and verbal attacks to dangerous crimes, such as the ending of my comic.
The first pictures I chose based on an average white American family. There was no bias against Islam in the pictures at all. I wanted to show that just because people do not look the part of a prejudice person, they still might be one. The next set is of a Muslim family and young man and a mosque. These are also pictures of a normal family and under normal circumstances, and that is what I wanted to convey; there is nothing odd or wrong or suspicious about them. The final set of pictures includes chaos and tragedy. These portray scenes of a mob attacking a young Muslim man, dragging him to the ground, and beating him. I knew these would invoke sadness and sorrow on the part of the reader. After that I inserted images of a woman crying out in anguish and then an image of a Muslim burial. These are dark images to show that what has transpired was evil and not good. The last two pages are also black to show the same thing. Finally, I wrap up the piece with “The End” written in Arabic to give a multi-national sense to the paper.
Overall, I was pleased with the end result. I had a few fellow students read it and they told me they liked the message I was putting across because it was different and refreshing to see that point of view instead of the average ignorant American. I tried hard to make it an effective short summary of the way some people view the Islamic presence in our country after 9/11, even though most Muslims in the world are not radicalized.