Research Log Three

          Hey guys, we’re back on video! I’ve finally chosen which primary source I want to research, so I’ll be discussing what source that is, some rough research questions I have about it, and how testing the research waters around the source has gone. In the end, choosing between Disney cartoon Owl House and illustrator Tillie Walden’s graphic novel On a Sunbeam was easier than I thought. On a Sunbeam was published in 2018, and the webcomic was released all throughout 2016 and 2017, while The Owl House was only released at the beginning of 2020 and just ended last month on April 8th, meaning that On a Sunbeam has had more time to be researched and written about.

While you don’t need secondary sources to directly examine your primary source to be useful, there were definitely more explicit mentions of On a Sunbeam in scholarly articles, and this was the turning point I needed to make a decision. After the UCI librarian guest speaker told us that secondary sources don’t need to explicitly mention our primary source to be useful, I thought I’d have doubts about why I chose On a Sunbeam, but I didn’t. The combination of visual and literary mediums in Sunbeam made this a lot more immersive for me than Owl House, and the vivid colors and intricate illustrations seem rich for research and analyzing. 

After that, it was a matter of exploring whether or not there were enough secondary sources out there to conduct a satisfying visual analysis of Sunbeam, but I was also pleasantly surprised at the other lenses through which Sunbeam was analyzed, leading me to some potential research questions. While these aren’t definitive, I hope they shape my final research questions. For example, one of my set of questions is, “How does On a Sunbeam reimagine science-fiction and -opera genres to create a queer utopia? What is the political message of ignoring, reinventing, or subverting science fiction tropes?” 

I’m trying to come up with more specific questions, such as, “How does omitting many sci-fi tropes connect to the graphic novel’s omission of homophobia and male characters? What is the power of omission in queer utopias, and does it demonstrate a naïve attempt to ignore real world problems, or an honorable homage to queer joy?” Like I said, these are definitely not my final research questions, and I want to specify the ones I have now to more closely investigate small details of the illustrations or the free access of the webcomic, but for now, these questions leave me a lot to think about.

Finally, it’s time to talk about the obstacles in researching On a Sunbeam. At first it seemed that there were very little scholarly sources that concerned or even mentioned On a Sunbeam, so I’ve had to widen my search to LGBTQ+ graphic novels, utopias, LGBTQ+ genre reimaginings. I’m anticipating having to read about specific graphic novels, comics, and webcomics I’ve never heard of that scholars deem are relevant to On a Sunbeam, so I’m sure thatI’m going to have to do a lot of background research on the themes, plots, and artwork in these graphic novels that are casually mentioned with little introduction. I’m also concerned that I might not understand enough artistic and comic related jargon, so I’ll have to brush up on scholarly terms and means of analysis for graphic novels and comics; luckily I should be able to use my notes on the previous analyses for Parable of the Sower graphic novel adaptation and Boxers to guide my understanding. 

That’s about all I have to share about my current place in the research process, but I’d like to say how good it feels to finally have chosen a single primary source and have no second thoughts about it. The question of what I wanted to analyze for my research essay has been on my mind for months, and I’m happy to say that I’ve answered that question satisfactorily with On a Sunbeam. Keep a lookout for upcoming Research Logs concerning my process of analysis with the graphic novel, and until then, thanks for watching!