Sierra kerr

Nerd’s Guide to Art (That isn’t actually a guide)

By Sierra Kerr 1

Acknowlegements

I'd like to thank both Freestyle academy for giving me the motivation and ability to do this project, as well as all the wonderful people at Lee's comics who dealt with me in my interviewing. I would also like to thank the Academy, and all the little people.

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Table of contents Preface.........................................................................................................................7 Introduction...........................................................................................................9 Chapter 1...................................................................................................................11 Chapter 2..................................................................................................................19 Chapter 3..................................................................................................................21 Conclusion..................................................................................................................26 Works Cited............................................................................................................29

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Preface Being the person I am, I am incredibly shy and find it very difficult to talk to people, let alone request their permission to interview them. As such, this project was almost quite literally my worst nightmare, some vile concoction crafted by only the most malicious of English teachers, created specifically to plant fear and dread in the hearts of students everywhere. However, as dramatic as I may try to make the event sound, I couldn't get out of it.

My initial attempts were... flaky, at best.

Lacking the ability to (legally) drive, my choices were limited to the locations that were close enough that I could catch a ride to, and even then at this point I was still unsure of what I wanted my topic to be. Prompts were thrown at me, some admittedly useless, but one ultimately stuck out. Art. Art is cool, people like art. However as my luck would have it, the museum that was closest to my residence was a spot that had already been claimed by someone with the ability to operate a vehicular contraption. What else was there to turn to, in these trying times?

Comics. One thing lead to another: Where was the closest comic shop, what problems might it face, how do I talk to people? All sorts of fun things, I believe I've rambled enough regarding my struggles, though, and it's probably best I get on to the actual book.

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Introduction A small shop in the same area as Costco and Krispy Kreme, it's entirely likely that you've gone your entire life without even knowing of the shops existence, however if you were to ever stray from your normal course of life, venture into the little comic shop, you won't be disappointed. Greeted immediately by the site of comics of all sorts, you can hear over the radio songs of nostalgia. The original themes of all sorts of cartoons and movies, Batman, Spiderman, even perhaps an older James Bond theme. It's entirely likely you would feel the pangs of nostalgia.

There is one other thing that adds to the experience, in addition to the choices and childhood memories: The employees.

You are greeted the second you walk through the door, and you can tell right away that these are pleasant people, people who you could start a conversation with about comics easily, whether you knew anything yourself or not. The very first impression to get of Lee's comics is incredibly positive.

This leads to some questions asked: How does such a quiet, charming shop like Lee's manage to compete in a world where everything appears to be digitalized? What does Lee's provide that you couldn't buy on Amazon? But further questions arise: Why comics? Why do people like them? What's so cool about them? From that logic, What's so cool about anything?

So many questions asked, and far too little time to address them. Though this is merely the introduction, my dear readers. All will, hopefully, be answered and more, I simply ask that you have some faith and patience in me.

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Chapter 1

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he first question that was posed to me while trying to solidify a location was “How has a comic shop managed to do in a world where everything's online? It is a good point, I had thought. How has a comic shop managed to compete against both the instant accessibility to what you buy, and not even have to leave the comfort of your own house? I had asked the questions of a few employees at the store, one of them being a man named Ryan Brent, the general manager of the shop.

He had mentioned that, though Lee's may be unable to sell comics at a discounted price as Amazon can, they

do provide something that ordering online isn't able to. “I think the reason were still in business and the reason that people are still coming in the shop is that we offer a service, which is direct recommendations, we can talk about comics and just, there's the personal touch and personal aspect that you're not going to be able to get off of amazon'. As I have stated, the atmosphere that you are immediately greeted with in the store is one of friendliness and welcoming. The several times I had gone into the store, the employees were nothing but polite to both me, and the other customers who were in the shop at the time. On

several occasions, I had overheard patrons to the shop start up conversations easily about the comics; asking for recommendations, sharing opinions about a series, and in all honesty, it would have been incredibly easy to have mistaken them as friends as opposed to strangers who had only met due to one working at the store. There was no exaggeration in his statement.

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Chapter 2 As stated previously, I was drawn to Lee's due to my own personal interest in art, and as time went on I had grown quite fascinated with Comics as a medium. They are unique, different to movies and television, as well as music and books.

And while there are plenty of things other mediums have the ability to do, and some do so much better, comics have the ability to portray information in ways specific only to them.

Changing art styles and color scheme to display a change in tone or time, exaggerating proportions in way that artistically look good and make sense, even drop hints important to the storyline while brushing them off as background static. Comic books have even been described as the most

versatile art form there is (Burgas). Webcomics have the ability to take this even further.

Homestuck, created by Andrew Hussie, is an incredibly popular webcomic, and since starting back in 2009 the comic has reached over 7,000 pages, and multiple flash animations. I mention this not only because I myself am a fan of Homestuck, but because of some of the things that the author has actually managed to accomplish using the medium he has that would be impossible to do anywhere else.

In several cases the layout of

the very website has been modified to show a change in narration, as in the plot several omnipotent characters have hijacked the story, one changing the layout to make communication with the reader easier (all the while being fully aware of this).

However, that isn't where it stops.

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As stated previously, I was drawn to Lee's due to my own personal interest in art, and as time went on I had grown quite fascinated with Comics as a medium. They are unique, different to movies and television, as well as music and books.

And while there are plenty of things other mediums have the ability to do, and some do so much better, comics have the ability to portray information in ways specific only to them.

Changing art styles and color scheme to display a change in tone or time, exaggerating proportions in way that artistically look good and make sense, even drop hints important to the storyline while brushing them off as background static. Comic books have even been described as the most versatile art form there is (Burgas).

Webcomics have the ability to take this even further.

Homestuck, created by Andrew

Hussie, is an incredibly popular webcomic, and since starting back in 2009 the comic has reached over 7,000 pages, and multiple flash animations. I mention this not only because I myself am a fan of Homestuck, but because of some of the things that the author has actually managed to accomplish using the medium he has that would be impossible to do anywhere else. In several cases the layout of the very website has been modified to show a change in narration, as in the plot several omnipotent characters have hijacked the story, one changing the layout to make communication with the reader easier (all the while being fully aware of this).

However, that isn't where it stops. Characters and creatures have directly interacted with the very website layout, some literally jumping out of the pages.

While breaking the “fourth wall" (Which is essentially the barrier between the reality of the story and the reader) is possible in many mediums, and self-aware narration is hardly the most unheard of event in novels, having characters who break free of the panels that they would normally be constrained to in such a blatant fashion is something that works best in comics. It all just goes to show how versatile the medium is.

This one of the reasons why I personally enjoy comics. The ability to play with the narrative not with just plot points and characters but also the very format of storytelling is something that I find incredibly fascinating and interesting.

However, as I am not the only person in the world, there are vast amounts of reasons as to why people take an interest in them. I asked a few of

“It has its own unique flavor that's kind of neat, and for people who are into comics, theres nothing else like it.� the workers for their input on why people enjoyed the medium, and the insight of the owner himself, Lee Hester, provided some commentary on this. “Its wonderful and it stirs us as human beings, its universal.

Movies are a combination of sound and pictures, and it stirs us all and we all love it. Book, its words only and it creates pictures in our heads. Comics, you've got no sound but you have words and pictures combined, so it's its own thing. Its unique. And, so you provide a little bit of it yourself, your imagination fills in the gaps.

And you create, whenever you read a comic book or graphic novel you get what the artists

put in there, you get what the writer put in there and you also get what you put in there. It has its own unique flavor that's kind of neat, and for people who are into comics, theres nothing else like it."

As different as comic books and graphic novels may be to many other forms of art, there do like simpler reasons for why people take interest in it all. Some people may enjoy reading comics for the escapism factor, the ability to get away from normal life. Others simply like to look at the art, and enjoy a good story. As many people as there are on earth, its likely that everyone has their own reasons.

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Chapter 3 I have a slight confession to make, dear readers.

I may have lied originally about the topic I wanted. What my original choice was something involving video games, as I myself am a huge fan of them, even more so than comics. However due to my previously-mention inability to drive, I was limited as to how I was actually going to get places. Sure, I was able to get to Gamestop, but that would have hardly been the most interesting location for me to document.

So I settled for a compromise, and as I have discovered video games and Comic books actually share a lot more in common than I had originally thought.

Though the two share an as-

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sociation simply by being “nerdy'' things, there is a far more interesting connection than just that. Video games, much like comics, require the readers input to further the storyline, though perhaps at a far more intense value. Just as comics require you to imagine what happened in between the panels, video games require you to move your character, select a dialogue option, pet the dog, et cetera.

However in addition, video games and comic books can also go hand in hand.

An interview with another em-

ployee at the shop, Chris Phillips, he had stated that comics offered franchise “a cheap and open way to expand their universes'', the examples he had given being Planet of the Apes, and Star wars, “both of which have benefited from expanded universe stories in comic book form''. In some cases, there have been video games that attempt

to expand on a movie's or a television show's universe, such as Telltale's Game of Thrones series, which expands the universe of the show by telling a story involving original characters created for the game.

The two can also help each other out as well, and have done so in the past.

Top Cow’s The Darkness is a title that comes to mind in this particular instance. The comic’s protagonist, Jackie Estacado, is “an exceptionally dark anti-hero at best, a borderline sociopath much of the time” (Thompson), and its later video game adaption under the same title had gained incredibly positive reactions. The game had also managed to make the protagonist a far more sympathetic character than the violent and angry hitman Estacado is on page.

Video games have also benefited from comic expansions

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as well. Some examples of this case being the Tomb Raider series, Dead Space, Silent Hill, and even the Star Wars comics have incorporated characters from the video game series.

Unlike comics, however, video games have failed to gain the respect from society that comics have in order to be taken as a legitimate art form.

Messages and analysis of video games are either dismissed or don’t exist, as it is “just a game”, however criticisms are also ignored for that same reason. It becomes difficult for games to be taken seriously.

Video games to have the potential to be just as serious an art medium as anything else out there, whether as a way to tell stories in ways others can't, or as a way to spread one's culture.

Never Alone, for example, is one of these.

Never Alone is a game produced

by Upper One Games, the first indigenous-owned commercial game company in the US, as a part of their “World games'' series, which is an attempt to draw from all sorts of unique and rich cultures from across the world, and bring it together games for a global audience to enjoy. The game had been developed with nearly forty Inupiat elders, storytellers, and community members who contributed to the development of the game. The game itself was narrated in the native Inupiaq language and featured many characters and important figure in Inupiaq myth.

Conclusion This entire project I can easily claim is one of the hardest projects that I have ever had to do, though I can also say that I had a lot of fun doing it.

Well, once I got over my almost literally crippling shyness.

Since starting this project, I've learned a lot about the history of comics, and I've read into all sorts of different perspectives on the debate on whether or not comics are or are not a legitimate medium of art.

With the assistance of the employees at Lee's comics, as well as the moral support of everyone who dealt with me during the course of this project, I do hope you all have enjoyed this.

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Works cited Thompson, Michael. “Drawn Together: The Love Affair between Comics and Games., Arstechnica. Conde Nast, 25 Nov. 2008. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.

Hester, Lee. Personal Interview. April 8th 2015.

Phillips, Chris. Personal Interview. March 23rd 2015.

Brent, Ryan. Personal Interview. April 8th 2015.

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A junior attending the school of Los Altos High School and the Freestyle Academy program, Sierra is a writer who, despite her ability to ramble for hours about fictional politics and world-building, she actually have an incredibly difficult time talking about herself. Born to a family with a mother, a father, and a brother, she has two cats in which she is staring to question whether she is actually the one who owns them, and not the other way around.

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