By Dana Younis
The comic workshop was very interesting as I am a comic fan myself, specifically Marvel fan, as I grew up reading and collecting the comics religiously, which in the workshop the ice breaker question was if anybody reads comics, where everyone shared their comic preference, and I respected everyone’s opinion, including D.C fans in the workshop session.
During the workshop Dr. Anna and Mr. Connor spoke to us about how to create a script and a storyboard for the comic that we will do through slides that she has prepared with Mr. Connor, which they made it very simple and answered our questions regarding these points and distributed a template to work on, as well as elaborating on how can we draw the atmosphere and facial expressions in comics, which they have showed us examples on them and seemed very easy to do, especially to a person who cannot draw at all such as myself on academic comics about COVID-19. One of the important things we have learned during the workshop is how to create panels and caption boxes in our comic, as well as showing us examples of how different caption boxes look depending on the shape the artist have chosen as well as the meaning of them, such as corner boxes indicate information on when and where the comic is taking place and how zig zag bubbles indicate screaming or shouting.
Dr. Anna has showed us the most important thing in any comic which is how to create the comic’s story, like how to start the comic and how to end it, but the crucial part was the climax, due to the fact that it contains the core of the story and the message the comic is trying to send to their readers. Academic comics are not just entertaining, but they are also a new way of spreading information about a research and including verified data that has been done by qualified researches, as in the workshop, there were examples on how to include research data in comics to convey and inform readers about a specific subject, such as mental health.
After taking all that information in, it was our turn to create a comic about something that we have experienced during COVID-19, which I instantly thought about the time I decided to travel to my home country which is Jordan after I graduated from the university in December 2019 and spend time with my relatives, but COVID-19 had other plans, which the virus out-broke and spread around the world, which Jordan and stook extreme precautions from the virus and rules were strict in Jordan, such as not being able to leave my house, therefore, I stayed in my house alone for three months until the government of Jordan started to loosen restrictions and rules they have applied on all of us. In the comic I created, I tried to display the experience that I had by applying what I have learned in the workshop.
My attempt at drawing a comic
References
http://Marvel Entertainment. 2022. Marvel.com | The Official Site for Marvel Movies, Characters, Comics, TV. [online] Available at: https://www.marvel.com [Accessed 24 January 2022].
DC. 2022. DC. [online] Available at: <https://www.dccomics.com> [Accessed 24 January 2022].
Who.int. 2022. Coronavirus. [online] Available at: <https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus> [Accessed 24 January 2022].
T, J., 2020. Razzaz announces activation of Defence Law following Royal Decree. [online] Jordan Times. Available at: <http://jordantimes.com/news/local/razzaz-announces-activation-defence-law-following-royal-decree> [Accessed 24 January 2022].
Al-Najjar, A., 2020. Jordan: Coronavirus and the media | European Journalism Observatory – EJO. [online] European Journalism Observatory – EJO. Available at: <https://en.ejo.ch/ethics-quality/jordan-coronavirus-and-the-media> [Accessed 24 January 2022].
Feigenbaum, A., 2022. COVID Comics and Me. [online] Google Docs. Available at: <https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1v2hYfaph6CuTD_yXFNGxftIFA87Ch935e1RvoOWcZ6M/edit#slide=id.gcb54cd5efe_0_0> [Accessed 24 January 2022].