The themes for my graphic narrative projects had many different factors of narrative structure. For example the narrative for my graphic narrative is a very open one, it leaves it open to the audience as to what might happen next and then make them want to read the next day edition of the comic. Also, my narrative is a single strand one, this is because of the length of the comic, due to the shortness it would be very difficult to try and add more of a storyline to the comic, also I want the comic to be quite simple so it is easier to the audience to read and understand the comic. Also, my graphic narrative in Linear, meaning the flow of the narrative is in chronological order. I chose this in order to keep the comic short and simple, making it simple and easy for the audience to read and understand the comic, thus hopefully attracting a readership. My narrative will have an opening, conflict and resolution in a way, but the main theme about my narrative is to tell a joke and try and make the audience laugh, so there is not a need really for a resolution or conflict, unless this is involved within the joke being told. There is also no cause and effect aspect to my narrative structure as there is not enough narrative for there to actually be a cause and effect, all the comic involves is the telling of the joke in the particular graphic. Also, the comic does not have the concept of an enigma; this is due to my idea being very simple for the audience to understand. The form & shape of my graphic narrative is the form of a newspaper column comic. This means my comic will have a small series of boxes, around 3-4 boxes, in order to present the story of the narrative. This is done in order for it to be published in newspapers, which will then give it the opportunity to give the graphic a very high readership audience. The tone and colour for my narrative will be quite bright, this is to link to the theme for my comic itself, as it is meant to be very light-hearted and make the audience laugh, so bright colours, such as orange and yellow, could be used. I also used a certain aspect when it came to the anchorage of the comic as I used a combination of both text and image. All the images that were used in the comic were drawn by hand, then uploaded onto the computer programme “Photoshop� In order to edit them. Whereas the text was inserted into cartoony speech bubbles and then placed in each individual square and marched to the character speaking, there is very minimal speech in each box. There is also no need for captions on the comic, as captions are usually used, for example, the movement of location within the scene of the comic. And my comic narrative is very short so does not have any scene changes, thus does not have the need for captions. There are also technical codes that need to be looked at. One aspect of this is the font used. I used a block font in order to make the text on the page sand out, but I also used a normal, block font for the text, this is because I did not want to use a certain unique or particular font that would distract the viewer from the comic itself, as I want the viewer to fully understand the images and text at the same time. There is also the layout of the comic. The layout for my comic is a simple one, it’s a comic strip design with 3 square boxes to represent and tell the story of the comic. But I wanted these boxes to be symmetrical to each other, otherwise it will give the comic quite a low quality look, plus I believe having the boxes all together and the same size will give the comic a better look. There are also symbolic codes to look at, such as colours used in the comic. As I used drawings of animals, such as foxes, I would stick to their original
colours, for example the foxes are an orange/brown colour, but the backgrounds are different. I coloured them in by hand but once the comics were started to be created on Comic book pro, I could add effects to make the background of a higher quality, for example I used the effects to make the backgrounds look slightly more grainy, which I think looks quite good in the comic. My comic also does represent some certain communities, one of these categories is gender, one of the most common factors of representation, as many different comics will feature people in it, in this case I represent both the male and female gender, as the foxes are both male and the cat is female. But it doesn't represent race, age or sexuality. The reason for this is that finding out about a characters race age or sexuality does not really fit into the theme of the documentary, but the reader can interpret one of the foxes characters age in a way, as he is wearing a baseball cap, which is considered to be sectioned for people with a young age,
I have tried to include popular culture within the narrative, but this can prove to be quite difficult as the dialogue has to be quite short, but I tried to include popular reference in one of my comic’s, by referencing the “horsemeat� scandal, this is done to show that the comic can be relevant, due to it being a news paper comic strip. Also, by doing this narrative it can also highlight the technology used. For example in previous times it would not have been as easy to create a narrative by using just computer programmes, but in modern day times, this is able to happen with ease. My design of the comic can also link to historical other designs. As in old fashion comics, it will have quite a gritty look, but this not out of choice, as this was the best look available, whereas my comic I had the ability to chose whether the comic had quite a smooth look or very rough. Production processes My working on this project it also gave me the chance to examine my own technical competencies. For example while working on the project I had to learn and new programme, comic book pro. This programme was used to actually design the comic itself. At first it was slightly difficult to work with the programme, as this was the first time I had used it, but this is a relatively simple programme, so it only took a short period of time to learn the programme and enhance my own technical skills. I only used one other programme in order to complete the project, which was Photoshop. But I found Photoshop quite easy to use, and the reason for this was that I had use invested quite alot of time in using Photoshop for past projects, so I could remember how to work the programme well. This also gave me the chance to look at my creative ability and how to create ideas. At the start of the process I examined many different comic types, such as newspaper strip and graphic novels, just to give myself an idea of what I could create. I decided on a strip-based comic, as this was the most simple and easiest to do. Once I selected this I
had to think about what the actual comic would be about, so I looked back and researched through different comic strips that were the same as mine. After research I decided on a carton animal based one, which has been done quite frequently in the past, but a large amount of these are aimed at children, whereas mine can be open and aiming at all audiences. I also decided that my comic would be a humorous one between the characters, and that for each comic, one joke is told, and I decided on this for two reasons. One is that the comedic value would appeal to a large audience, and people may be attracted and want to read day by day to see what the next joke is. But also those comics that have comedic value in them are considered very popular. One of the most important parts of the creating process was time management, I had to make sure I could keep track of what had been completed, what needed to be completed and how much time I had left. At the beginning of the process I had a considerable amount of time, so this meant I could take my time when it came to researching other comics, and then having my own initial ideas. I also had enough time to carefully pick my ideas and start to draw out these characters for the comic narrative. One of the longest and most time consuming parts of the process was editing the images and making sure that they looked professional enough to be put into the comic. Responding to feedback I have had different pieces of feedback along the whole production process, from the initial ideas thought process to the final design, for example I had help with feedback to help decide which comic I should, and it was felt that comic/newspaper strip idea would be the best one, due to the simplicity of the design. I also had feedback from the client when it came to the ideas of my characters, they liked the designs that I had created, but could they look more high quality, using Photoshop and adding effects to the images then did this. But also the client gave me a sense of freedom when it came to creating the project, as when we discussed whether the backgrounds could be hand- drawn, or be sourced from online sources. The client left it to me to decide what direction we went with this, and I decided that hand-drawn backgrounds would be the best idea; this is done in order to add to cartoony look of the comic. Â