Comic Book Challenge: Communicating Ideas Through Comics
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M.A.W.R.M. Components: Rhetorical Situation and Descriptive Components
Rhetorical Situation:
Exigency
This Comic Book Challenge: Communicating Ideas through Comics consisted of an individual project I created in “Perspectives in Information Design and Digital Media Rhetorics,” which is a core course offered in the first semester of the M.A.W.R.M. program.
The issue that prompted me to choose this topic was the lack of understanding that Libertarianism does not mean the absence of government (that would be anarchy). Hence, the content in my comic book aims to drive the audience to look closely at Libertarianism and the use of “big government.”
Audience
The target audience in this design challenge consists of anyone interested in learning more about the four different types of political theories. This comic book could be used by the Libertarian Party and its supporters in a political campaign. I would like to say it could be used in high school and college classrooms as well as, but I am afraid it could be considered biased and indoctrinating within those settings. In which case, parents who support this content could use it to teach their children about this relevant issue.
Constraints
Some of the constraints were not being able to really draw with perspective since I am not an illustrator. However, that was part of the challenge: proving that anyone can create a comic, even if using stick figures, like I did.
Descriptive Components:
Design and Invention Processes
The goal of my comic book is to communicate the basics of four political ideologies: Capitalism, Communism, Socialism, and Libertarianism. Both the illustrations and the story line are simple and straightforward to make a point about each of the four different types of political systems.
I used my own hand-drawn images for the characters and settings, drawing in Illustrator with a Wacom Intuos Pen and Touch Tablet. I manipulated the image for the building and the signage in the first panel in Photoshop. I am not an illustrator (as you can tell), but I tried to incorporate several facial expressions to communicate each character’s tone, according to its situational place within the script.
Although I started the layout with a template from Comic Life 3, I only kept the template’s fonts and lettering. I changed the panels layout to fit my drawings and I manipulated shapes and colors to fit my content. To achieve unity from page to page, one major design choice I made was to keep the dark background throughout all pages.
Reflection
Overall, this was a great first experience learning to use the apps and designing my first comic book. It was interesting to learn to use different apps and select one that fit my “artistic intentions” the best. I believe I met the challenge in creating an original comic and proving that one does not need to be a professional illustrator to be able to communicate ideas in this type of media.
I am drawn to Political Science only when it is directly associated with Economics, thus, this project was an opportunity to express my socio-political-economic point of view in a popular format. This Comic Book was fun to create, and the results surpassed my own expectations.
Demonstrated M.A.W.R.M. Competencies
- Sufficient knowledge of scholarship and research or design methods to apply them critically
- The ability to apply classical and modern rhetorical theory to contemporary professional communication practices
- Demonstrable technological and media production literacies
- Outstanding writing and editing skills
Apps/Tools
- Comic Life 3
- Adobe Photoshop
- Wacom Intuos Pen and Touch Tablet
- Adobe Illustrator