The Secret Language of Comics

link to https://sarahshao04.wordpress.com/literacy-narrative-comic/

Delving into the realm of comics to articulate my literacy narrative was an enlightening and transformative experience that not only reshaped my perception of storytelling but also redefined my understanding of literary articulation.

Shifting from an alphabetic narrative to a comic format was admittedly challenging at first. While textual narratives offer depth and detail, comics introduce an added dimension: the visual. This transition forced me to think beyond mere words and focus on how visuals could be harmonized with text to create a coherent, compelling story. Integrating visuals was not about mere aesthetic appeal but about amplifying the emotional resonance of the narrative. Every line, shade, and color scheme became a tool to evoke specific emotions and sentiments. I found myself contemplating not just what the story was but how it felt. The visuals allowed the narrative to transcend textual limitations, providing a richer, multi-sensory experience. For example, my initial draft were mostly black and white, but I felt that the emotion cannot be expressed vividly. Inspiring from Spinning, I used much grey color at the begging of the story and used a variety of vibrant colors in the latter part of my comic to show the transformation and colorfulness that social media has brought to my life. On the last page of this comic, I filled in the memory bubbles with different colors to represent how these memories shape my reading and writing journey.

The challenge was not only in drafting but in analyzing how each visual element aligned with the narrative’s core message. Decisions regarding which portions needed visualization versus textual elucidation required a different kind of analytical approach. It became crucial to strike a balance, ensuring neither the text nor the visuals overshadowed the other. When working on a traditional writing, the analysis was predominantly about the content, ensuring coherence, flow, and relevance. Now, it extended to include the design aspect—how to best represent a feeling, an idea, or an event visually without overcrowding the panel or losing its essence. Would a close-up of a face capture the emotion better, or a full-body shot to showcase the surroundings? These were the new questions I found myself grappling with. I have simplified my text twice in order to emphasize the visual elements, but I still have difficulty in putting the text into perfect concise text since it is really hard for me to simply show the images without explaining sufficient background information.

This project encourages me to take a huge step towards my learning outcomes for this semester.Crafting this comic epitomized composing texts using multiple modes. The intertwining of text and visuals affirmed the power of multimodal storytelling. In addition, this project was a testament to the iterative nature of writing, from initial sketches to final drafts, emphasizing the importance of revision and reflection. Peer reviews and classroom discussions were instrumental in refining my comic. Collaborative insights enriched the final product. Crafting a digital comic underscored the importance of using technology responsibly. It honed my skills in digital storytelling, ensuring the narrative was both engaging and ethically crafted.

Turning the literacy narrative into a comic really made me question how much the reader could deduce from images. I did not want to have to explain everything and write out everything but am worried that I overestimated the reader’s ability to understand what I am trying to say just through images.

Once the visual component was added, I reconsidered what the dialogue of the literacy narrative should follow. It was really difficult to reflect the writing style of my literacy narrative in the comic because it was already very jumbled and eclectic, so trying to maintain that tone in the literacy narrative was difficult.

Color became a lot more important in the final comic because I really considered what using red pen and warm colors meant compared to blue, cool-toned colors. My mom used to never let me use red pen to write my name or wear red, so I have always associated the color red with negative emotions and judgement.

I appreciated the alphabetic literacy narrative a lot more because my familiarity with writing alphabetically allows me to control my pacing and point-of-view a lot more. I think I could better express my thoughts and feelings through words, but with practice, I could see a comic becoming a really unique way to express my thoughts.

If I had a lot more time and resources, I would have loved to make a digital product of this comic. I think if I had the skills to draw humans, I would definitely do that because it would make the piece a lot more expressive. This was definitely part of the reason why I liked my alphabetical literacy narrative more; I felt like I was better able to describe and express details that I did not really have the skills to draw or articulate in the comics.

My favorite part of the comic was also probably the most unnecessary one. I really liked the random jump to the Raising Cane’s drive-through because it was just fun to draw and think about. If I had more resources, skills, and time, I definitely would have made this longer, so the Raising Cane’s scene felt more like a brief pause rather than four panels of talking about chicken.

I knew I wanted to change the conclusion of the first literacy narrative, and I thought the Amy Tan block quite was a better way to do it. When I was writing the literacy narrative, I wanted to sum up my identity as a writer in the final paragraph, but I really didn’t think that was necessary in the comic. I just thought the Amy Tan quote would be a better conclusion for it.

And the bears? I just really cannot draw human faces, so bears seemed like the next best thing. If I had more time, I think I would play around with the facial expressions of the bears and making them more distinct, like with colors or clothing.

Writing my literacy narrative as a comic was much easier since my illustrations can make up for the words. That being said, accurately drawing what I wanted to convey was not an easy task, and took much longer than I planned for. However, a big time saver was my storyboard, which I had planned out in advance. It allowed me to move from one panel to the next without having to think of a transition to the next panel.

One doubt when making this comic was “Is this comicy enough?” I thought this because I was using text to describe my transitions and thoughts in almost every single panel. However, I realized for this purpose, it is necessary to have text.

I believe I have met many of the learning goals while preparing this project. Some of the goals include Writing as a Process and Visual Thinking. I believe I have met these goals since through project, I have revised and reflected much on my narrative at many steps such as going to the writing center, having peer feedback on my storyboard, and my own revisions to my work. Additionally, I have planned out my comic in a way so that it visually makes sense even without the text.

Once I added the visuals, my narrative felt much more expressive because the images were right there for the reader to visualize my life instead of them having to use their imagination. Moreover, I personally felt it was much easier to read sense the panels would convey paragraphs of information.

My process for creating this comic actually started at a writing center appointment. From there, I developed a thesis which broke down the 3 main sections I wanted to tell the audience. After, I went back to my literacy narrative and filled in information for those 3 sections. I also kept in mind how I wanted to display that information visually.

If I could go back to change something, I think I would spend more time on detailing the drawings so that it accurately reflects my memories. Since I am not that good of an artist, it was difficult to get the perspectives correct and especially drawing body proportions and faces. I believe if those things were fixed, my comic would have a better flow to it. I also had to scrap ideas when drawing because they were too difficult to convey.

After reading several comics in class and interpreting these pieces of works in a brand new perspective, it was refreshing and interesting to create my own comic.

When I was planning my own comic, I wanted to try out different types of panels just like Stitches and Spinning did, so my readers would comprehend rather than simply read. Though in the end, I did not try out as many as I anticipated, I do think the change in style of panels gave the comic a different rhythm that helped the reading process. Another aspect I tried to include was the “choice of moment.” Since there were barely any actions or actual events that required me to use several panels to explain, I used “moment to moment” for most of my panels. In my opinion, these intentional choices has helped my ability in writing through revisions and editing. The more revisions and edits I made to my comic, the more details I was able to add to the final product. I no longer only cared about the words; I paid more attention to the drawings themselves, adding more information that words could not describe.

After finishing the comic, I realized that the process was distinct from writing my literacy narrative. First, the focus and details emphasized on each were not the same. The literacy narrative required me to include details with words. I only had one way to express my ideas, which was to describe with vocabulary. However, with the comic, except for words, I could include drawings. Instead of trying my best to narrate a situation, I simply drew the situation. With this change, I even saw my own story with a different perspective. I was able to identify the key moments in my life that influenced my writing. I composed some of the events in the essay to a few panels in the comic. Every time my writing style changed, it was under the influence of a teacher: my third-grade English teacher, 10th grade chemistry teacher, and my senior year English teacher.

The one thing I wanted to do in my comic was expressions, however, due to my lack of drawing skills, I was unable to translate the pictures in my mind to my comic. The first thing I would ask an illustrator to do is to draw out the expressions on my characters. I did not include expressions because I thought the original drawings I had were too misleading and did not match with my purpose. Thus, the characters did not have expressions. Also, I would want the illustrator to make my drawings easier to understand. For example, on the last page, there was one panel that I intended to draw a shadow of myself. However, I do not think it is easy for the readers to interpret this panel because of the drawing. With these changes, I believe it would make my comic more complete.

Link to literacy comic

In the graphic novels Spinning by Tillie Walden and Stitches by David Small, the authors reflect on their struggles as an adolescent, and in doing so captivates the reader and offers relatability. On page 93 of Stitches, there are five panels that display David’s grandmother taking control of David’s body, and forcing his hands under scalding water. The repeated image throughout the panels is the grandmother’s strong grip of David’s flailing arms, signifying the power dynamic between David and his grandmother. Similarly, on page 297 of Spinning, Tillie is illustrated struggling under the strong grasp of her tutor. Tillie appears to have no control over her own body, and is subject to a violent assault from her tutor. Both of these scenes stuck with me as the reader, provoking emotions of sympathy for the authors and anger towards the perpetrator. The drastic size differences between David and his grandmother, and Tillie and her tutor, illustrates the authors as helpless victims. These powerful illustrations may make the reader uncomfortable, yet this discomfort is memorable and may even captivate the reader.

Overall, Spinning had significantly more text than Stitches, which was one of the biggest differences that I noticed between between the two graphic novels. On page 297 of Spinning, two of the four panels are solely text, while the remaining two portray Tillie’s struggle to fight back her tutor. In contrast, on page 93 of Stitches, there is only dialogue in one of the panels, and it comes from David’s grandmother. In addition to the the dialogue, however, there is the sound effect “sssss” that appears in three out of the five panels to imitate the sound of the hot water seeping from the faucet. David Small uses more dialogue and sound effects throughout his novel, as opposed to Tillie Walden who consistently utilizes narration in order to tell her story. While Walden’s illustrates were descriptive and powerful, her narration was the more significant aspect of her storytelling. In contrast, Small included less narration and utilized his illustrations to leave the reader to interpret his story. Oftentimes, Small would have an extensive number of pages with solely illustrations, and no text or dialogue. These two different styles of presenting information alters the way the reader interprets the story.

The graphic novels Stitches by David Small and Spinning by Tillie Walden both tackle difficult topics but with different storytelling styles, therefore the impact on the reader may vary depending on the reader’s preference and interpretation. The combination of the illustrations, dialogue, and narration has a more dramatic impact on the reader as opposed to a regular novel. The reader can sympathize more with the author, as graphic novels oftentimes feel more interactive. Hillary Chute discusses the evolution of comics in her essay “Comics for Grownups?”, and touches upon a comic’s ability to navigate deep topics. She indicates that “comics could tackle head-on what most would consider the realm of the absolutely interior and private”, in a way that regular novels may not (Chute 15). Comics have the ability to approach these topics in a multitude of ways, with different illustrative style, spacing, dialogue, or the input of sound effects. Different readers will have different preferences regarding the style of storytelling, and sometimes the comics “can feel less directive and linear than reading most prose narrative”(Chute 21). There are limitless options for presenting a storyline in comics, which allows the authors to use their creativity to captivate readers in nonconventional ways. While these two graphic novels utilize different styles to reach their audience, both are effective in communicating the story of their struggles throughout adolescence.

Works Cited:

Chute, Hillary. Comics for Grownups?, New York: Harper, 2017, reserves.library.emory.edu/Shib/ares.dll?Action=10&Type=14&Value=16615E21.