English 102 Paper 4

creating a comic book (with a point)

Before you do this step: be sure that you fully understand the entire project. In this step you are going to show that you read those instructions carefully, and to show that you reallly thought about what parts of the comic book you are going to tackle (the art and text? just the text?). You also need to have a sense of what the overall issue of the comic will be about and how you imagine the story and/or characters will be driven by some issue or situation or conflict or idea or condition or obsession or need that allows you to put your comic into some kind of logical category that some other key works of graphic fiction also fit into.

If you are at all unsure, then you want to go back and review The Graphic Fiction Project and then return here.

very important clarification

You are not writing/illustrating a comic-book version of Mandel's novel. Again, you are not producing a graphic-fiction version of Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven

You are writing one of the issues of the comic books featuring Doctor Eleven mentioned in the novel. That means you are producing one issue of Miranda's comic book (we are shown little bits of that comic book throughout the novel, but you need to expand on those little bits we are shown).

ok, so you're back and ready to go

In addition to having carefully explored the assignment requirements, you should also have done at least a little initial research into "hot topics" or subjects or issues treated in graphic fiction. You should have thought about what your storyline will be, and whether or not you will also do the art, and you should have thought about what format (website? PowerPoint? Paper? Something else?) you want to work with to present the comic.

what you will turn in (and how)

Before you spend a great deal of time on the research, the invention, the writing, you will need to get a Project Proposal APPROVED by me (yes, I will actually write you back "APPROVED" or not; if not, then you will need to revise it until it is APPROVED. Be sure you check the due date on the Class Schedule.

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: I will not accept your final project if you have not had the Project Proposal approved. Then things roll down hill in a very unfortunate way--you will not get a score for this 200-point paper; you will not pass the class.

The proposal itself is not hard, but it does require you to have considered your options, to have thoroughly read and understood the project choices. The (short) proposal will be typed in MLA format, and it will include:

A project title (it can certainly change)
An overview of your project as you envision it. Will you do illustrations and text or just text? If you do illustrations, will you draw the, or will they be found images? Will you use some of the dialogue or details that were in Mandel's novel as a starting point, or will you maybe create a different issue? What will your storyline be? Since you are really doing only about eight pages of the comic book, what key things will be happening in the part of the comic you are producing? Be sure, for the next item, that something of the issue or idea from your reseaerch paper appears in the action or in character speeches in the part you create; that will make it easier for you to do the research paper step.
Thoughts on what research you will be doing that fits some issue or idea that your Dr. Eleven story will be based on. If, for instance, you imagine the conflict between Dr. Eleven's forces and the outcasts is based on his having PTSD as a result of what he's experienced, then see if there are other comics that deal with the subject of PTSD. If Dr. Eleven is racially motiviated, then see how race is treated in some key works of graphic fiction (you will find works such as Saga and Maus and others). For a Dr. Eleven story that centers on class struggle, you may find general works on that subject as it appears in graphic fiction, but you will also want to locate some specific examples of other works of graphic fiction (such as V for Vendetta) which you will compare/contrast your comic book to in your research paper.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Don't forget that your comic book will be discussed in your research paper as though your comic actually exists and is an example of the type of graphic fiction you are writing about.
The last page of your proposal will be an initial Works Cited page (in current MLA format, so you must use the Purdue OWL site or some other source showing MLA 8th edition format) showing sources that relate to a situation or a setting you will draw on to make your scene feel real. You need at least five sources for your research paper, and at least one of those sources must be a book.

REMEMBER: (and this makes this a bit easier), one of the five sources will be YOUR COMIC BOOK (you need to create a fake Works Cited entry for it); at least one of those sources should be a work on the idea or issue you are exploring in graphic fiction in general, and at least two of the works should be individual comics or graphic novels or graphic series that also deal with the same issue or idea that appears in your comic).

ALSO REMEMBER: short sources are not useful; Wikipedia-type sources are not acceptable; if you can get more than one book on your topic, that's even better.

You will e-mail the Project Proposal as an attched Word (.doc, .docx or .rtf) or .pdf file. Once it is APPROVED! you can go on to the next step.

do not rush this and have it returned to you unapproved; that wastes time

Really think thoroughly about the assignment, the requirements of the whole project that this is a proposal for. Be creative, yes, but also be practical. Do not make this huge; be sure it has a point; be sure you can come up with a research paper with a clear/pointed thesis; be sure you develop an exciting (or at least thought-provoking) part of a story that draws readers in and makes them want to read more. It really is a lot to think about.

you are not alone