Extra Credit Assignment: Alexander Westcott

 

I apologize for the poor quality of this (had trouble downloading), but this is the extra credit assignment we had for today. Below is a description of my comic. Feel free to leave comments that might help make this comic better. 

The Crying Wolf

Graphic Novel Edition

            

          Out of all the creative works I have done, this has been the most emotional piece I have ever done. Before I go into the details about how I brought this comic page to life, allow me to explain what this is. The page is from a novel that I am writing called The Crying Wolf. It a story about a young girl named Caitlyn who is growing up in a post-apocalyptic world torn apart by Werewolves. Society has collapsed in a short matter of days and humanity must do whatever it takes to survive. Between the long nights of the Wolves’ hunt, to the insanity consumed by the remaining human population, Caitlyn must battle these obstacles if she hopes to be safe. But growing up in a chaotic world where she will discover her homosexuality and battle her insanity.

          The page here displays the end of one of the chapters. Caitlyn is writing down one of the most memorable moments of her life. Her father had been bitten by a Wolf (what they’re calling werewolves) and is on the verge of becoming one soon. Wolves cannot die once they transform, so Caitlyn must kill her father before he turns when night comes. The emotional struggle is too much for her, but she succeeds in doing the job. Her father has taught her ways to survive and is confident that she will live without him. The page/chapter ends with him being put out of his misery and Caitlyn being forced to fend for herself.

          The comic page that I made here was inspired by the works of Persepolis and Fun Home. The page starts with the older version of Caitlyn in more detailed style with the rest of the imagery simple and childish. The childish style was inspired by Persepolis and how Satrapi had her style. This symbolizes Caitlyn’s childhood and how she saw the world at a young age. The text above the images were inspired by Fun Home when Bechdel was writing her text in a more literate form. I did this so was to differentiate between her narration and the dialogue going on in the memories. There are only a few areas of color, but they draw a symbolic reference. The blue color on the tears refers to the title Crying Wolf, where she goes through a lot of emotional struggle in her past. And the colored blood represents the horror that she has endured. I have not decided yet if this will be an actual graphic novel, but this would be an idea of what it would look like.

Stitches Part 1

     

     I didn't give more than one response option :/ Sorry guys, I guess I'm like David Small's mom in that way.

I'd take Ms. Trenchbull over Mrs. Small any day.

    

      Anywho, we’ve read a lot of graphic memoirs during the semester. Stitches is also a memoir, and focuses on childhood. It's a really dark look back at childhood too. Not like Matilda or A Series of Unfortunate Events with sprinkles of humor but dark like.. Well, I felt like I needed a hug after this one. I think there’s something to be said about graphic memoirs and their ability to affect the reader. Small, in Stitches, was able to visually convey a story of silence and internalized emotions with few words. This memoir is characterized more by what was absent than what was included. In a later interview Small talks about things he wishes he would’ve included:

     “One of them would have been the fact that I actually did have friends when I was a teenager. And I realized this was another instance where if I was going to talk about that the book was going to grow to 500, 600 pages. I did feel that I had to say something about it. And I felt I cleverly summed it up in that one page picture of a party scene. But if I were a reader I guess that would certainly leave all kinds of questions in my mind. Like, ‘What kind of friends did I have?’

     The interview is here if you're interested. 

     What do you all think? Do you feel satisfied with bits of David Small’s childhood that we’re getting? Why do you think he chose these vignettes instead of others? Were there questions that you had about his experiences that have yet to be answered (or what do you hope to see resolved)? Also, how do you think the absence of  information adds, or takes away from the story? 

Stitches, Part 1

Stitches (Part 1): Topics for Discussion

[Respond to your favorite(s)]

1) The thing that struck me most about Stitches on a first read through was how esoteric the characters were. Small doesn’t appear to spend a lot of time providing a lot of details about the interior lives of the characters, with the possible exception of the protagonist (himself as a child). After thinking about it and reading it again, I’m now of the opinion that the characters in Stitches do get a lot of treatment, but that treatment is very subtle. Small is using the details of facial expressions and gestures to tell us a lot about the different characters in the story, especially his parents.

This sort of approach is a very interesting one for a comic and presents some questions about the medium itself. In prose, the interior life of characters can be included seamlessly into the narrative because the author can express thoughts and feelings of the characters that don’t necessarily have a visual manifestation. In a comic however, there always has to some kind of visual image on the page, which means that these strategies can’t be directly translated from prose writing. While comics are far more participatory than, for example, film, they are also far less participatory than prose.

How does David Small convey the interior life of the characters in Stitches by using the tools available to him in the medium of comics? Is comics limiting in terms of being able to convey complex interior thoughts and feelings? How does Stitches expose or transcend these potential limitations?

2) Stitches is the first comic we’ve read this semester that employs the convention of onomatopoetic words in order to create auditory illusions for the reader. This convention has a lot of stigma attached to it, especially in superhero comics (BAM! POW!!!!) That stigma makes it unsurprising that it did not show up in the other comics works we read which definitely try to be ‘taken more seriously’. However, Small chooses to employ it here in a very serious, very realistic story.

 

What is the role of sound in Stitches? How does Small’s extensive use of ‘silent’ panels function within his narrative? Are these onomatopoeias a crutch, or are they a natural extension of the medium of comics?

  

3) Because of both the biographical facts of Small's life as well as the themes he is trying to construct, Stitches features several scenes that depict verbal, emotional, and physical abuse. The scene between David and his grandmother stands out in particular among the first half of the book as a very pointed example. On my first read-through this scene was definitely surprising and disturbing, especially because of the fluid narrative style Small employs. There’s a moment that happens a few panels into the act where you realize: ‘Oh. This is actually happening.’

 

What techniques of comics storytelling is Small utilizing to depict potentially disturbing scenes of abuse in a way that is affecting without being melodramatic? How did the medium of comics affect your reading of these scenes as opposed to similar scenes in, say, film or prose?