mre How I Really Feel About Comics Thinking back to when I was a little kid, I have absolutely no memories of comics. 1 can't remember ever reading comics myself, or being read comies by my parents or teachers. Growing upas a triplet with two brothers, we did everything together, so I thought maybe if my parents bought them comic books I would have had a chance to read them also. However, even being _ Met i boys, they never wanted comic books, which meant that [ never got to read them either, [aside gM aloe, wen te 8 v : : : from thi} I don’ trecall haviig a desire tf my parents to buy mea comic book asi kid because 1 wet | never found them interesting or entertaining enough ~ sorry to all the comic lovers, Even as s8¢e 57 got older, | never wanted to read comics, and so it wasn’t until this year at CSUN that I actually bought my first comic book and read through a Couple (and that’s only because it was required to Neewple whet buy the book for our class) When my professor told us that we were going to have a couple different a about comies and that we had to buy Scientific Progress Goes “Boink” by Bill Watterson, | thought to myself, “Oh ms es! I'm so excited! It sounds like fun!” NOT. If'm being 7/_y TAT S he completely honest here, I really don't enjoy reading comics. Atall. I find them too confusing 10 7°) 2/5 wl mo understand and boring at times. There was only one comic that I read that I truly understood i ) vee! what the message was. It was the first comic strip on page 20 in the book, The only reason why T ae 3, understood the message was because it was one that I was able to relate to my life. As my See your professor began talking to us about different things in comics, such as “gutters,” I thought, ander st. 5 hase “What in the world is a gutter? Isn’t that what’s on our roofs to carry off rainwater?” Along with not understanding what a “gutter” was, [ also didn’t get what a “text box” was. When I went home later that day, I sat down in front of my computer and had the urge to learn what all theseas different words of the comic world meant — and yes, I do mean “comic world,” because | feel { Tike I'm ina different world when it comes to reading and understanding eomies. L went online ~~ fence and used the website comicbooks.about.com to lock up the definition of a “gutter,” and I was oot beatig a clear | able to figure out that it was the space between each panel of the comic. [also used the website ag on readwritethink.org to learn the definition of a “text box,” or as the website refers to ip a ee i Hees s rcbect caption.” If it wasn’t for those websites 1 would have been even more lost during these bs fat! } Usites cos el ebsi assignments. — Glod found i aah ee jel ep yer o wt Don’t let all my negative talk about comics make you totally convinced that I hate comies, Even though I'd rather not read comics, for the first assignment when we had to choose a comic x Ned wwe related to, I did find one that made me laugh from Scientific Progress Goes "Boink LIke I” Yon 1s, roliouss mentioned before. it wasn't oo difficult understapd because ofthe fact that t vas a situation Ms F™"“7 paloma hel ° Hales falleed ole} that I have been in myself. On page 20 of “Scientific Progress Goes Boink,” | relate to the first Skis comie strip when Calvin talks to his dad about giving him money for getting “good grades,” “¢ leted beck because | always used to ask my dad for a car or money in return of getting good grades. This; nl a} g assignment made me realize that yes, even though I don’t enjoy reading comics, there is pos cf vatrot tug probably a bunch that I can find that I can relate to my life in some way. However, does this (recers mean that I’m going to buy more comic books? Probably not. ~ ood honesty bere eee aoe PT emcee For our second assignment, we had to create our own comic strip. Boy did I have a hard time Ye comedic jon And I thought reading them was hard enough! The fact that I am a horrible artist just put the “ icing on the cake during this assignment. Aside from the fact that my grandpa can draw better r than me — whieh he actually can ~ it took me forever to come up with a topic to draw about. | kid \ \eee you not, Isat on my chair, in front of my desk, staring at a blank sheet of computer paper for lands) ; about 2 hours until | finally came up with a topic. W 5 Le Ly a ile drawing my comic strip, it made me wowaS Geer yy _more emphasis to it, lvhich was the ed was going for)so I made the first two panels black and “a5 ose realize how much thought artists put into theirs. There({gso many different ways one can. yh robbed Nceprened/“Sany, ort approach their comic. When creating a comic, you have to think about what it will @orttay if you maga! wer Kk bactes decide to add color or make it black and white. What would this decision say about you as a person? Will it give people a feeling that maybe you are a person who is happy all the time, ot that you have a dark side sometimes? What about making your characters speak? Whether of not you put thought bubbles over your characters can show that you want the emphasis to be on a = 9:09 certain panel, or maybe you wanted it to have an “actions speak louder than words” feel. was |). prmaybe you Wanted int have an eclionsrak oer udderste, all the different ways I could present mine (bit instead I chose to make it | H almost 4, overwhelmed simple. I felt that the way a person chooses to approach their comic defines their type of mack abcd: bce Ld ™ personality. So since I am someone who prefers things to be short and sweet, [made my comic) "4 it kc three panels. I wanted to only include color inthe last panel, because I felt that it would bring Y* fle nacg¢ wot mucerger %e nego : f of white, [also included only one thought bubble in the first panel because I wanted it to give a hint dae ae the readers as to what the meaning of the comie strip was as a whole. Overall, I saw that \. making a comic strip differs from reading one because when you're reading one, most people past i cou\® 4% don’t think about all the effort that was put into it, It’s easy to just be able to sit down and read Jesu edn? : 3 ioe through comics, but sonpefimes it sure ain’t easy to come up with one and choose the right way {naval to approach ‘Asa third assignment, our professor had us respond! to our peer’s comic strips. I thought, “Oh gulch reat, how am I supposed to write about another person's work {vhen Im no better myself” When I chose which comic strip I was going to respond to, I sat down and really looked at it for about 20 minutes. I wanted to really put all my thought intot> When I finally understoodibT— “teh — 7 sia wrote about it ina way that myself processed \] asked myself, “Does this comic relate to my) |<) mack‘ie woo Ae Kelle om fac urd ically OT pest ste eh atl wa ay?" I realized that asking myselt that question ‘cally helped me understand it more : ; ; z dh, niece so it was easy for me to write about what I thought the comic was conveying. During this 5 whe ack : @ ose assignment, I saw that even though their comies also did not have the best art work were ye sfill able to get their message across to us, the readers of their comies. This showed me that not pte? dsasing every comic has to befantstcaly the best adeyou have ever seen. As long as the creator of the comic does a good job portraying his/her message, it doesn’t matter how good or bad the artwork is, Also, learned that each person can view a comic differently. We all process information in our heads differently, so when one person reads a comic and interprets it one way, another person might get a totally different message, e& At the end of the day, I’m still not sure if | fully understand comies§For the majority of the time, I usually don’t understand how to read a comic and what all the different things like gutters do that affect the way pne reads a comic I feel like comic strips can really get your mind Lage Upesee tty pe Centeart be) 2 he aif 6 _/ thinking, While you read a comie strip and think you understand its meaning, it may totally not <4, ee] of even be what you think it isfafter this class, I don’t think I can see myself reading more comics, ~~ plece : ed Pe It’s something that doesn’t really interest me, and so | don’t see io outto buy acomic “fs cea sh book to read. Vee", las Ut betel raltor. a fou lcept Nene a consi ister} fore, T conld Ths Se pe Neos reestie ase (ud its oud fo ' erdin es { | hed oS no oF a 4 we a La veg here and |'m alad fo SE2 you Foun with the wertng for yor Congide PWISIAA saat for aaraghn> vnel fueWorks Cited "Gutter Definition." About.com Entertainment. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Oct. 2015. Pane. Graphic Novel/Comics Terms and Concepts (n14.): n, pag. Readwritethink.org. Web. 4 Oct, 2015, Watterson, Bill. Scientific Progress Goes "boink": A Calvin and Hobbes Collection. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel, 1991. Print.