#making comics 1

Dear Making Comics 1 students,

In our class we all go by class names of our choosing rather than our given names.  We’ll use only our class names for the entire semester. You are free to tell each other your given names of course, but in class we will call you by the name you’ve chosen.

You can pick the name of a character that exists in drawn form, in comics or animation. You can choose a character of any gender, from any point in time.  You don’t need to be able to draw the character to use their name.

At the end of the semester your name will be retired. You’ll be able to use it again, but no other student will be able to use it in the future. On the attached sheet are all the names that are retired.  If the name you want to use is already on this list, you’ll have to find a new one.

Please note: If you cannot decide on a class name by our first day of class, you’ll be given the name of an American president and will go by that name for the whole semester.  And you WILL have to be able to draw them. George Washington and John Adams have been used, so next up are Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe. )

Sincerely

Prof. HANTU!

Dear Making Comics 1 Students,

Here you are working together  in the Comics Room on the morning of April 5, 2017, with Lee Scratch Perry playing in the background. Do you know how happy you make me? How wonderful it is to be in a room full of people making comics, taking it seriously, letting one line lead to the next.

What a beautiful way to spend a morning together.

Sincerely,

Professor Mandrake

Dear  Making Comics 1 Students,

Here is your homework -- due Monday.

Note that you’re asked to make four comic strips this week, all of them based on non-fictional stories.  (Like the daily diary assignment you’re doing this week)

I say ‘based on’ because you should feel free to change or embellish some details in service of the story you are draw/writing.

One of the strips has to be a scene from one of these two “One Nation Under A Groove” documentaries about the nature of The Funk. (What IS it? Do you KNOW??) (”swing down sweet chariot stop and let me ride”)

Find a short short clip you like. Something someone is saying that you can break into four panels. It has to be short.  A sentence or two.

Then do four drawings of what is on the screen while that sentence is being said, either directly in an interview or by the narrator or between people who are talking together. 

The idea is to make a four frame scene with dialog. 

This doesn’t have to be a stand-alone comic strip with a punch line and it doesn’t have to make sense.  I’m more interested in what seemed to interest you. Which four ‘frames’ caught your eyes and your ears? You don’t have to know why.  It can be very small. Or as big as the Mothership you didn’t know you had. (”swing down sweet chariot stop and let me ride”)

IN ORDER TO DO THIS ASSIGNMENT....

You must watch THIS from the BBC

And you must watch THIS from Independent Lens

To do the rest of the assignment, the good news is that if you’ve been keeping up your compbook, you’ll find that stories for three of the four assigned subjects for these strips are already written. You can look to your daily diary drawings for a story that happened this semester.  You can look to your X page stories and sister images for something that happened during your childhood.  And you can look to the notes you’ve taken during other classes for a story about something you’re reading or studying.

Remember: whole bodies and whole faces and changing camera angles.

Use a timer. At least five and no more than10 minutes per panel.

I look forward to the reactivation of the Mothership Connection tomorrow on launchpad 6131.

Dear Students,

Dear Students,

I’ve posted todays classwork on our tumblr page. You’ll have to scroll down and find the ‘taking attendance’ video and start there, working your way up to the final video. Please take photos of what you are doing and send them to me so I know you are really in class with me today.  I’ll be taking attendance.

THIS IS NOT A DAY OFF.  I expect to hear from all of you in real time.

I’m very excited to see what you come up with.  

Thank you Mako, Zenyatta, Noqi, Dr. Bronner, Little My, Linus, Tank Girl, Auntie Whispers, Carmen Sandiego, Stevanni and Eliza Thornberry for being the first ones in with your attendance cards.

STILL MISSING: Storm and Ash

Making Comics 1 class on the morning of January 30th, holding up self portraits drawn with both hands at once in about four minutes.

This is something nearly everyone can do.  Most people don’t know about this ‘ordinary super power’ until they give it a try. 

Desktop photo, Making Comics 1 exercise:

a) write what’s on your mind for exactly five minutes

b) draw an animal on the opposite side of the page for exactly five minutes

c) color the animal for exactly five minutes and when you are finished, draw a cartoon speech balloon around the text so that it looks like the animal is saying what you’ve written.