The Secret Language of Comics

Author: Chris

The Progression of a Comfort Zone

Student Posts

As a rising middle schooler, I was terrified at the idea of playing football. Baseball is a much safer sport comparitively and it was all I had known to that point. But when my school forced me to play either football or cross country, I decided I could handle it for middle school. In middle school I was still scared most of time, but I noticed how the constant facing of my fears was changing me little by little. Due to this realisation and the friendships that were involved I decided to continue into high school. The photo on the right is me and my senior teammate sitting on our logo our we lost in the post season. It was an amazing opportunity to reflect on how a sport that I was so scared to play ended up being one of the biggest blessings of my life.

Left are right photos are mine. Middle photo- @billbiggsphotography via instagram. The middle photo was actually from freshman year, but it is the oldest football picture I have.

We Have Liftoff

Student Posts

This was a surprisingly difficult Sunday sketch to think of for me. My humor and creativity usually revolve around puns and simple comparisons, but the images by Mcmennamy did not seem to have any rhyme or reason. He simply replaced a certain object with another that had a similar form, and my mind had trouble deciding on anything specific to edit. The fascinating similarity between an actual airplane and a paper plane is how they fly using the same physics. The lift that keeps a few-ounce piece of paper in the air also keeps a hundred-ton hunk of metal in the air. I loved building these as a kid and throwing them off balconies, and a fascination with gaining this type of liftoff has been common throughout mankind’s history.

runway photo- by Just Planes via Flickr https://flic.kr/p/wJ5kYj

paper airplane photo- by Wadleigh Memorial Library, “Airplanes 44” via Flickr https://flic.kr/p/6M2UMi

Literacy Narrative Reflection

Student Posts
My Literacy Narrative part 1

Photo Credit: HaphazardPanda via Flickr https://flic.kr/p/29ARys9

In my literacy narrative, I dove into my pattern of being fascinated by ordinary people like me who do extraordinary things. This was fostered in my childhood through books like Percy Jackson and Harry Potter, then evolved into a lens through which I see the world. One of the most interesting parts about writing this literacy narrative was looking at my own life as if it were a novel itself. I have never before thought specifically about the ways reading has molded me in this way, and the longitudinal approach was a great way to dissect it. The connection that I was able to make at the end of my narrative between my earliest childhood memories and my recent athletic experiences was very surprising to me. I think my sentence dissecting The Matrix could be seen as the most interesting because of its applicability to everyday life, especially for those who feel like they are trapped in a corner that society has placed them in.

Kinematics Sketch

Student Posts

The universe is infinitely complex. But, one of the first things we learned this semester in physics was that all free motion can be described by 2 simple equations. Final velocity = initial velocity + (acceleration x time), Displacement = (initial velocity x time) + (.5 x acceleration x time^2). The issue on the surface level with these equations is that most motion in the real world happens in 3 dimensions. For example, if a ball is thrown through the air, it is moving in both the x direction and y direction due to the force of the throw and gravity.

I had trouble picturing this at first, but my sketches represent the real-life examples that my professor showed to display these phenomena. In the ball rolling example to the left, the acceleration of the bottom ball displays how force in the y direction affects motion at an angle. On the example to the right, our professor proved to us that a 45-degree angle is the most efficient for launch distance due to the best utilization of force in both directions. I am always told by my professors that if I can teach the lesson to a friend then I truly know it, and I feel like sketching this assignment helped solidify in my mind the concepts we have gone over in class.

The Tasty Duck

Student Posts

This sketch is a flashback to my childhood. I’m from Nashville, and college football probably could not have been a bigger spectacle among my friends and family. One big issue for me was that my parents both went to Furman for college, so I didn’t have a team to rout for. As a kid, Oregon’s flashy jerseys and electric play style captured my attention, and by the age of 6 or 7 I was hooked. People would always question me about my fandom of a team so far away, but I honestly didn’t care. Even the duck itself became one of my favorite animals, so of course I had to be the kid that tried to imitate one using two Pringles as a beak. They are also a great casual snack to eat while relaxing on a fall Saturday, watching Oregon’s dominant offense. Weirdly enough, my former high school teammate is now one of their star running backs. Go Ducks!

All Photos are Creative Commons:

Duck – https://flic.kr/p/9wwAHm

Pringles Can – https://flic.kr/p/9arzt6

Oregon Logo – https://flic.kr/p/ezYgiR

Pringle Beak – https://flic.kr/p/4RR6YY

Avatar

Student Posts

My avatar represents a sort of rift or “canyon” that sometimes feels present in my life. I have passions in both academics and athletics that each require 100% of my time, energy, and focus. One of the biggest steps I have taken so far in my college journey is putting each of these passions in their respective place at the appropriate time. I am striving to be able to prioritize learning during most of the day, while also having the ability to flip the switch and leave everything on the field for practice and games. My decision to transfer to Emory was a symbolic one that represented my deepest affinity shifting to left side of my avatar.

Danielle Proulx @dlproductionss (baseball picture), https://pixabay.com/vectors/swords-battle-blades-medieval-296741/ (sword, Creative Commons), “This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA.” (Canyon).

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