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Winter 2024 Online Graphic Novel Workshop with Paul Karasik

Key takeaways, accomplishments, and reflections

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This is an outline of my thesis Project Progress, targets, and goals. If you remember during my second year review I proposed an animation telling the story of a young girl playing a video game that experiences harassment. She then learns how to play and enjoy the game despite the behavior. This past semester as I was working through the story and finalizing the storyboard and animatic, a previsualization of the short film with drawings for each shot that are placed in an edit and roughly timed out to the final project, I realized that my research paper and project felt a disconnect. There were many sections of my research that I wanted to share and visualize within my project. By transitioning to a comic I’m able to weave together my research with the story from my original proposal intact and now integrated with context and information relating to my research.

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Introduction

Where did I start?

Video Game Prototype
Research, References, and Concept Art
Animatic
Rough Draft

What I accomplished during the workshop

Learning Outcomes
Production Progress
Final reflections

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Where did I start?

Pursuing Design MFA with a focus on Digital Animation and Interactive Media (DAIM) at The Ohio State University

My researching focus is:

Harassment in Games
Design challenges depicting Online Interactions

Idea for an animated short film after creating two comics in a creative writing for academic research class

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Where did I start?: The Story

The Story is about a little girl playing a video game that gets bullied by another player and has to overcome that conflict

Her Avatar comes to life when she realizes she can make a character that looks like her

The story cuts between the girl playing the game, her imagination of a realistic avatar, and the 8-bit art style of the game

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Where did I start?: Current Progress

In a game design class I created a puzzle platformer and developed the 8-bit style of the game

Making the game helped me come up with ideas for game mechanics as key elements in the story

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Where did I start?: Current Progress

I made a full animatic of the short story

I only had a script for the first part so I struggled through the second half of the animatic, working out story issues as I went

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Where did I start?: Current Progress

Realized I wanted to pause the video and talk about how the story relates to the research on video games and harassment

I decided to switch gears and make the project a comic that included research and

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Comic: Vertical Slice

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Project Progress: Example Pages

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Project Progress: Example Pages

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Comic: Converting Animatic to Rough Draft

Approximately 50-70 page comic braiding together narrative story, visualized research, and personal stories from gamers and my own experience as a video game player.

Rough Draft Layout For Comic

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Project Progress

Refinement of graphic novel core purpose

Full Thumbnails reducing narrative page count from 39 to 31

Base for Cover Page from Single Spread HW

Increased confidence and motivation

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Learning Outcomes: General Comics

Good News Everyone! More opportunities today for Cartoonists now than ever

No wrong way to be a cartoonist

You don’t need to be an art expert to successfully express yourself/communicate through comics

A graphic novel doesn’t have to be totally finished to be able to pitch it/find an agent

Learned about new comics that I’m excited to read!

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Learning Outcomes: Story

Cliffhangers on pages to keep the reader engaged

Follow your story spark. It ignited in you for a reason

Every scene must advance your understanding of the character or plot

Can you describe your story in one word? What is it about?

Give Each Page a Central Idea or Concept or Title: Easy Title, Solid Page Idea

You can use the structure of the page to support your story

How do you want readers to experience your comics?

When people give you feedback, they are usually correct about what the issue is, but not correct about what the solution should be

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Learning Outcomes: Technical

Physical Calendars to aid with deadline management

Don’t use random layouts for gutters because you like the shape. Use it for a reason!

Focus on Comprehension. Most important!

Every Mark Makes a Difference

Hide your learning curve in the middle of the story

You can make a font from your handwriting for your text!

Increased vocabulary for comic layout (gutter, polyptych, etc.)

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Learning Outcomes: Workflow

Pause and Reflect while working. What is your work telling you?

Make a zero draft. No pressure. Get everything down.

Journal. Save ideas for later. Intuit and iterate.

Production Techniques, Tips, and Tricks

Thumbnails
20 minute intervals and sprints
Spending time in story saves time later

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Workshop: Teaching Method Reflection

Teaching Methods ALSO Applicable to Workflow

Timed, quiet work time with interspaced breaks with a final sprint

Tailor your lesson to the class

Passive Reflection

Close Eyes
Listen during reiteration

Active reflection

asking lessons learned
Post lesson activity documenting key or favorite take away

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Workshop: Final Reflections

Take time to pause and reflect after you have done something or learned something. Sit with your new knowledge for a moment. Look inside your mental mirror and observe your reflection. Do you see anything different?

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Workshop: Final Reflections

You had this idea, this spark, for a reason.

Everything in your life, the media you’ve consumed, conversations, and your subconscious have led you to this idea.

Follow the light from that spark and see where it takes you. It might not end up how you expect. But there is something inside of you that has something to say. Let it speak.

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[COMICS] CAN BE AN OPPORTUNITY TO INVESTIGATE UNCERTAINTY AND AMBIGUITY, AND THE EXISTENCE OF MULTIPLE VALID INTERPRETATIONS OF A PHENOMENON

-KRISTIAN WILLIAMS

COMICS CAN OFFER RESEARCHERS NONLINEAR, TANGENTIAL, AND MULTILAYERED POSSIBILITIES FOR CONVEYING COMPLEX INFORMATION. (Kuttner et al., 2020)

COMICS CAN OFFER EXPRESSION OF STYLE.

(Kuttner et al., 2020)

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Example Comic Research

Benevolent Sexism: A feminist comic explains how it holds women back

Unflattening (2015) is a dissertation by Nick Sousanis (The first dissertation to be done in a comic) and is about the concept of Embracing the more unconventional ways of knowing and seeing perception as an active and infinite process.

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“Not only space, but time and experience too, have been put in boxes.”

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Introduce the book Unflattening (2015), say that it is a dissertation by Nick Sousanis (first dissertation to be done in the form of a comic)

Concept and motivation: Embracing the more unconventional ways of knowing , seeing perception as an active and infinite process
whats shown: The limitations of typical ways used in forming a fixed point of view or mindset within a planned and controlled system
“Unflattening is meant to counteract the type of narrow, rigid thinking that Sousanis calls “flatness.” Fusing words and images to produce new forms of knowledge, Unflattening teaches us how to access modes of understanding beyond what we normally apprehend.” (Harvard U Press)

The beginning of the excerpt criticizes the spaces and institutions that often are the only places people associate with acquiring knowledge.Seeing the drawings with this text made me think of classrooms and schools as carefully controlled environments that typically only offer one standard method of transferring knowledge �(“Not only space, but time and experience too, have been put in boxes.”). �The drawing seems to be also showing the information getting to the ‘students’ but also going out of their heads right after it ‘entered’. Using the wording “sender to receiver” also references computing as a reference to everything being processed only through one strict and predetermined pipeline

Maybe ask question: how did this page make you feel about the ways we have acquired knowledge through our lives, probably mainly in schools?�

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THERE IS NO SINGLE “CORRECT” VIEW

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the comparison of the distance between the eyes to the point that there is no “correct” perspective

Illustrating the literal example

“...you have consciously set out to design at least some pages which can be read in multiple directions at once….. So what advice do you give readers about the choices they make in how to read those images? �As we think about how the reader moves through the page, there is the typical pattern, left-right, row by row from top to bottom not unlike how text unfolds. Because the ideas didn’t necessarily move like that, I wanted to move the reading in a multitude of directions: at times sliding backwards, occasionally upwards (very difficult), sometimes snaking, hopscotching about, and in a few cases, where I wanted it not to matter which way you read – and that mirrored the idea at hand. “

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Making Comics by Scott McCloud

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“The space of a comics page is such a constraint, as are things like font size …. I really enjoy this game I see myself playing with the constraint of the page – how to make meaning, how to ensure things flow – all these factors come together and result in the unexpected.”

Nick Sousanis

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Writing and Process

Step 1: Project Research Writing Sections and Process:

Is Harassment in Games Really a Problem?

Massive Popularity
Consistent Stereotypes despite changing Demographics
Impact on players

Why does it happen?

Theoretical Frameworks

Online Disinhibition Effect
Social Identity Model of Deindividuation Effects (SIDE)

Historical harassment and bias within the industry and game studios

Lack of Representation in game and studio staffing
Hostile work environments

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Writing and Process

Step 2: Paper Sections:

Design Challenges depicting video game play

Simultaneous Coexistence in physical and digital world

Challenges
References and investigations into Comics and Film

Repetition/maintaining interest

Comics as Research

Benefits of comics in communicating academic and design research to a broader audience
Design Challenges depicting simultaneous coexistence online

Project Process

Learned tips, methods, and techniques for creating comics
Design Research recommendations for translating research to comic format based on learned processes

Reflections

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Braided Comic

A braided essay is one that weaves two or more distinct “threads” into a single essay. A thread can be a story with a plot or simple a string of thought about a specific topic (https://writers.com/braided-essays)

This alternating movement draws out themes and ideas from each thread such that the essay as a whole points to larger ideas and themes.

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Braided Comic

Fragmentation expands peripheral vision on a topic (Miller 2021)

The caesuras or interruption allows for connections to be made between the narrative and the research.

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Project Progress

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Braided Comic Layout

Layout Plan Link

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Comic References

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Braided Comic Style Ideas

1. Personal Examples/Ideas: Autobiographical Comics

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Braided Comic Style Ideas

2. Design Research : Experimental/Illustrative

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chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.ubu.com/media/text/cc/pdf/Puigros-Puijener-Jerome_384_2010.pdf

Unflattening Nick Sousanis

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1: reminds me of a board game design: anticipation of possible outcomes and seeing the goal on the horizon, playing field association (“passage of time is written in space”) - - - ask question referencing the previous slide too: is this format guiding or making the reading/viewing even more freeform? what’s the balance between reading and viewing? What comes first?�

2:I also liked the example of dog’s abilities to smell, hear, and see aspects of surroundings that we simply cannot detect. I appreciated this because it reminds us that even though we are more intelligent compared to most other beings, we will never have some of the other unique ways of acquiring knowledge that so many other animals have, and so there will always be something we are missing when processing and interpreting information. This point made text and writing seem even more inferior to other ways of seeing and knowing (connect back to no single correct pov)

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Braided Comic Style Ideas

3. The Gamer Short Story : Action Adventure

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1: reminds me of a board game design: anticipation of possible outcomes and seeing the goal on the horizon, playing field association (“passage of time is written in space”) - - - ask question referencing the previous slide too: is this format guiding or making the reading/viewing even more freeform? what’s the balance between reading and viewing? What comes first?�

2:I also liked the example of dog’s abilities to smell, hear, and see aspects of surroundings that we simply cannot detect. I appreciated this because it reminds us that even though we are more intelligent compared to most other beings, we will never have some of the other unique ways of acquiring knowledge that so many other animals have, and so there will always be something we are missing when processing and interpreting information. This point made text and writing seem even more inferior to other ways of seeing and knowing (connect back to no single correct pov)

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Braided Comic Style Ideas

4 & 5. Research Harassment in Games Research and History: Journalism Comics

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Kid Gloves by Lucy Knisley

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Braided Comic Style Ideas

4 & 5. Research Harassment in Games Research and History: Journalism Comics

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Considering different methods for citations and inclusion in the research section of the comic

Integrated into comic
As direct link
Sourced at the end of the comic
*To bottom of page

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Film Content Analysis Progress

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1boby_bifP-7Wyv7XlhHH_fnfJZQ10jkcCT5nMGgpYlE/edit?usp=sharing

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Project Progress

Approximately 50-70 page comic braiding together a narrative of a young girl playing an online video game, visualized research, and personal stories from gamers and my own experience as a video game player.

Rough Draft Layout For Comic

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Project Progress: Example Iterative Process

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Project Progress: Example Iterative Process

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