Comics

What I Learned

As mentioned above, what I found to be most difficult was including enough visual information to get the point across while being bound by a small amount of space. I also struggled with the use of color and still expression - it's a lot easier to make a joke when you're making a video!

Unsurprisingly, these components are all part of Fisher & Frey's (2008) "panel analysis," where students look at "composition (the arrangement of materials within a space), viewing angles and distance, shading (including use of color), use of text, style of drawing, size and shape of panel, and type of border" (p. 97). Trying to pay attention to all these things while creating a comic is not easy. Upon reflection, I realize I was dealing with all of them sort of unconsciously. I didn't set out to put the whales so close together, but they needed to be in order to fit in the frame. The angle of the whales was more "I don't want them to all be at the same angle because it looks weird" than conscious attention to composition. I think that, by and large, dealing with these things is intuitive rather than conscious. An actual artist may disagree with me, but as a neophyte this is what I've found.

Use in the Classroom

When students try to create their own comics, they learn about some of the more obvious aspects of visual literacy, like words vs. image, empty space, and use of color, without help from an instructor. A fun activity for this would be to initially create a short comic about something in the students' lives and then analyze the panel as Fisher & Frey (2008) describe in small groups. Then students could create another comic, this time aware of more things like tone, border, visual perspective, etc., for something they feel passionately about. For example, a student who is politically active might make a political cartoon while a student who volunteers at an animal shelter might create a comic depicting the lonesomeness an animal feels when left at the shelter. These final comics might then be presented to the same group members for panel analysis and revision, then traded with another group to see if the message made it across. If the other group sees the same message, then the student knows they did a good job. If not, then it may be time for some revisions. By going through this process to create an end product with meaning, students will be able to deal first hand with concepts of visual literacy that they probably hadn't considered before. Choosing their own content also gives students more motivation to complete the task.

Finally, once students understand all that creating a comic entails, they can create a comic depicting one of the concepts in the current unit. Alternatively, the process could be shortened by having students create comics for each side of a modern scientific debate instead of their own passion projects.

1. Access
   • Determine what tool you will use to create your comic
   • Alternatively, decide to draw it yourself
2. Analyze & Evaluate
   • Look at single panels from a regular comic strip and do a panel analysis
   • What differences do you notice between types of comics?
   • How do composition, viewing angles, shading, text, style, shape, and border come into play?
   • What types of usage of the components would work best for your comic? Why?
3. Create
   • Draw or create your own comic, paying attention to what you analyzed earlier
4. Reflect
   • Pair and share with another student
   • What message do you get from the other student's comic?
     • Is this the intended message?
   • What might be changed to help get the intended message across?
   • What additional changes might be made to strengthen the message?
   • Did creating this comic help you to understand the content? How so?
   • Could viewing this comic help others understand the comic? How so?
5. Act
   • Class discussion: What was easy? What was difficult?
   • How did the panel analysis help you decide what to do in your own comic?
   • How can the use of comics have an affect outside academia?
     • Example: political cartoons

References

Frey, N., & Fisher, D. (2008). Teaching Visual Literacy. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Hobbs, R., The Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program, Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action, Washington, D.C.: The Aspen Institute, November 2010.