Graphic Cultures: Create your own comic final project

In my Graphic Cultures class this semester, students had the option of creating their own comic for their final project. Here is the prompt from the syllabus:

Graphic cultures comic: This option allows you to create your own comic on a topic related to the themes of the class. For content there are many possibilities. For example, you might create a comic about:

  • A family story of migration, trauma, or war
  • You could do a brief interview with a family member, friend, colleague, and make a comic about what you learn, as MK Czerwiec does in her book Taking Turns
  • Graphic feminism comic: show us what feminism means to you in a comic!
  • A personal experience of illness or disability or the experience of a family member or simply about an everyday encounter with healthcare
  • Your career plans/dreams. You could think of this as a comic version of a statement of purpose for graduate or professional school
  • Activism or advocacy that you or someone you know has participated in

In terms of form and style, there is also flexibility. I understand that you are most likely not a trained artist; don’t let that stop you! The minimum requirement is two pages/4 panels per page that tells a story (if you want to do more, I won’t stop you!!). Students will also write a 200-word artist’s statement explaining how and why they made their comic.

One student, Leah Walker, created an amazing tribute to her sister and other healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. I have Leah’s permission to share her incredibly moving comic here.

 

Illness-Thought-Activism: Documenting COVID-19 project

In my Illness-Thought-Activism: From HIV/AIDS to COVID-19 first-year seminar, students could make a comic for their Documenting COVID-19 final project. Ashley Chopra created this amazing comic about her experiences over the past year, which included graduating from high school and going to college during a pandemic. Ashley agreed to let me share her comic here.