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Printer-Friendly ModeYoung writers, artists apply talents in ‘real-world’ application
April 25, 2011 —
“Due Yesterday Comics,” a comic book put together by English 212 and Art 390, was recently released.
This comic book was a collaborative project facilitated by English professor Janice Wolff and art professor Mike Mosher.
The purpose of this class was to allow students to work together while writing and illustrating their stories, a process beneficial outside the classroom.
This project allowed students to deepen their visual literacy and increase their ability to transfer skills from one academic discipline to another.
“I never wrote just a script before, and it was hard to remind myself not to put in a lot of background story,” said Jennika Bouverette, a creative writing senior.
English 212 classes began the story, building characters and the stories for the first five weeks of class.
“From there, the two sections of English 212 voted for the top five scripts to be sent over to the comics class,” Wolff said.
From there, the art class picked which one they liked the most and workshops began.
“There were editing, drafting, proofreading and drawing workshops,” Wolff said. “All the writing steps were there, plus an art phase.”
Akia Bell, graphic design senior, said she enjoyed and learned a lot from the class.
“I learned that a comic doesn’t have to be confined in boxes, and by doing multiple sketches, it helps the comic really evolve,” she said. “I also learned how to bring a writer’s idea to life through a comic.”
Students in these classes were not only learning how to draw and write comics, though.
“They also learned 115 years worth of history on comics,” Mosher said. “And they had a final on it.”
Christine Janowiak said that she took the course, Art 390, as a spring course in the past, but wanted a chance to take it for the full fifteen weeks.
“This version of it was so rushed that my class wanted to call it “mad-dash comic,” Mosher said of the spring course comic.
Jon Hughes, an Art 390 student, thought of the title.
Many of the students agreed this title was appropriate since they were constantly working and revising.
Samantha Barrigar, a junior, said, “The whole process of coming up with my comic and then having someone else draw it and put their own ideas into it was interesting.”
According to Mosher, quite a few of the writers and artists only communicated through email and were actually just meeting for the first time that day.
“It was a really fun project but I wish I could have talked to my writer on her thoughts about the process,” said Marcus Bell.
The publication would also like to acknowledge and thank the SVSU Foundation for its support in the publishing of the comic book along with the art and English departments for the celebration.