We were tasked with creating a comic that informs the reader about the humanities and arts requirement at WPI. The requirement is definitely a struggle for a lot of new students at WPI, so we decided to cater our comics for first year WPI students. We also had to make sure that our sponsor, Kristin Boudreau aka the head of the Humanities and Arts department, would be satisfied with our final project.
Since Katie and I are both tour guides, we wanted to do a sort of "tour" through the humanities and arts at WPI. We chose Gompei the Goat as our tour guide - a figure that all WPI students would be familiar with, creating ethos. Our Gompei character is a student who had already completed his HUA requirement, so he can pass on his sage advice to new students. Neither of us are super good artists, so we wanted to start by creating a storyboard:
A tour of the Humanities and Arts:
Gompei - Main character
Audience - Incoming first year students
Purpose - Explain the goal of the requirement, what the requirement is, and how to fulfill the requirement and example registration.
Intro frames:
- Gompei introduces himself like tour guide “Hey, my name is Gompei! Welcome to WPI!”
- Gompei under the bridge
- Gompei: “Here at WPI there are a few graduation requirements, and one of these is the humanities and arts project”
- Gompei in front of MQP IQP HUA holding HUA in block letters
- Can separate this into two frames
- Gompei pointing at title of the webpage
- “A popular way to fulfill this requirement is by complete a “depth” and a “breadth”
- Scale with depth on heavy side, breadth on light side
- You pick your depth and breadth from five different areas of study
- Gompei gesturing to the five areas of study
Source: https://www.wpi.edu/sites/default/files/inline-image/NEW%20updated%20for%20WEBPAGE%204-7-2017%20HUA-Brochure-Aug2013-Web.pdf - Your depth is three or four courses in one of these areas. You should choose something you’re really interested in for your depth! As a goat, I am very interested in philosophy, and like to ponder plato as I chew on my grass in the morning.
- Gompei chillin on the grass
- Your breadth is one or two courses outside of your main area of focus. You should choose courses that you want to try in different subject areas.
- I love WPI’s fight song, and I wanted to learn how to make music just like it, so I took a music course!
- Pic of gompei singing!
- I also want to do my IQP in Paraguay, so I took an introductory spanish course!
- Pic of gompei in paraguay?
- After you do your depth and your breadth, you get to take part in a capstone project in your depth area.
- Pic of just gompei
- This capstone project could be either a seminar or a practicum
- Pic of gompei with seminar and practicum in either hand
- The seminar allows students to dive deeper into their depth area by looking at a complex, humanistic problem or theme.
- Gompei in dive gear under the sea w/ sebastian the crab from ariel
- Students with their depth in writing, music, and drama/theater can do their capstone project as a practicum, a hands-on project where students will be involved in the production of something, such as a play, a piece of music, or a book.
- Gompei at a theater
- "Something helpful that I used in my HUA experience is the Humanities and Arts tracking sheet"
- "Be sure to ask your advisor if you have any questions!"
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| Source: https://www.wpi.edu/academics/undergraduate/humanities-arts-requirement |
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| Source: https://www.wpi.edu/sites/default/files/inline-image/NEW%20updated%20for%20WEBPAGE%204-7-2017%20HUA-Brochure-Aug2013-Web.pdf |
We are planning on meeting today to figure out what programs we can use to create this comic! I think it's going to turn out really cool.
I absolutely love how you drew upon your commonality of being tour guides to provide the context for your comic. They say that you write what you know best and it clearly shows in your script. I also really like how that approach ties into your audience. As incoming students, they would be familiar with tours and I think that provides a sense of comfort to them that allows them to put trust into what your lead character, gompei, is saying. With the added goat humor, I think you are targeting your audience perfectly.
ReplyDeleteYou also mentioned that you found the McCloud reading interesting because he emphasizes using comics to show rather than just tell. I was wondering how you were planning on integrating that idea into your comic and if there were any key features you plan to focus on that really emphasizes that. Overall, I'm really excited to see how your comic comes out!
You bring up a really excellent point: we definitely can incorporate the showing-not-telling concepts a bit more to make our comic more effective.
DeleteI'm definitely a fan of your choice to use Gompei as a guide throughout the comic. Having a narrator explain the process to the viewer "in person" is a great way to make it seem much more approachable and engaging, and having Gompei specifically do it links it immediately to WPI.
ReplyDeleteI also like your decision to plan out all of the major details of each frame beforehand, and I imagine is was very helpful in the actual construction of the comic. Your plan of having Gompei jump between a wide array of contextually-relevant scenes seems promising, as it will help keep the visual aspect engaging without really risking detracting from the message the text conveys.