Week 14 Comic: Show and Tell

This week you read about how words and pictures may be used in different combinations in comics (Chapter 6, Scott McCloud, “Understanding Comics”). For your Week 14 comic, create a work that uses some interdependent word-picture combinations. This is when “words and pictures go hand in hand to convey an idea that neither could convey alone” (McCloud, 155). Of course, you may also use word-picture combinations that may be considered word specific, picture specific, duo-specific, additive, parallel and/or montage.

  1. Creative Goal: Make a comic that uses some interdependent word-picture combinations and be ready to explain why you feel they fit that definition, according to Scott McCloud.
  2. Tools & Techniques: The tools and techniques we use when we write or type words affect how they may be interpreted. This is similar to how our choices about making lines and shapes affect the expressive potential of our images (see Chapter 5: Living in Line). Think carefully this week about how your choice of tools and techniques will affect the viewer/reader’s understanding of the linguistic components of your comic.

More on Tools & Techniques:

If you are using Illustrator or other computer software: Your most obvious choice may be whether you use the type tool or whether your words look like they have been hand-written. Within each of these choices, however, there are many smaller choices to make! If you are using a font or fonts, what font style have you chosen? Are you using more than one font to create contrast? Likewise, if your words look hand-written, are they printed or in cursive, drawn with a fat brush or a skinny pencil, etc.? The choices are endless, so make them carefully. How do your choices reinforce your images?

If you are trying a materials-based, hands-on method: As with the Week 13 Comic, you are welcome to be as inventive as you wish with the tools and materials you find around your house. However, focus on how these affect the expressive potential of your language in addition to your images, since both are equally important this week. Will your words be hand-written in giant balloon letters with colorful marker? Written in soft pencil and then smudged until they are hard to read? Squirted in ketchup and mustard? Cut out of magazines? Your choice of materials should be appropriate for your message.

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What you will hand in by class time on Tuesday, 4/21:

  1. On Class Blog: You will post your comic on the class blog and write about your work using the prompt for Blog 8 Weekly Comic: Show and Tell. If you are working in Illustrator, you will need to export a JPG. Follow the instructions at the end of this page.
  2. Via Your Shared OneDrive Folder: Place your file in your shared OneDrive folder. Name the file “yourlastname-yourfirstname-week14-comic”. If you are working in Illustrator, turn in both the AI file and a high resolution, high quality JPG. If you are working by hand, turn in a photograph or scan of the comic you made, saved as a JPG or PDF.

To Export a JPG from Illustrator:

  1. With your file open in Illustrator, choose: “File > Export > Export As”
  2. In the first dialog box that appears, choose “Format: JPG,” and have “Use Artboards” checked.
  3. Hit “Export” button
  4. In the next dialog box that appears, choose “Maximum Image Quality” and “Resolution: High (300 ppi)”. Hit “OK.”
  5. Open your JPG in Photoshop to check how many pixels you have total. Go to “Image>Image Size”. Reduce for class blog post if needed.