Ah, halfway through the first term of university!  Hope things are going well with you all as we move into the second half of the term.

Looking forward to our upcoming individual meetings, please bring in your specific questions about any of the FIG classes.   Again, I am in PLC (Prince Lucien Campbell Hall) 58, which is in the lowest level of the building.  PLC is the eight story building next to the Library and across from the Museum of Art (see the Friday email for more detailed directions).

Below are some announcements and resources.

Friday’s planned agenda and resources:

1. Having a more detailed discussion about The Best We Could Do, thinking specifically about what you have learned in your two other FIG courses.  So bring in your thoughts and questions, and unless you all bring it up I will steer away from a detailed analysis of the panels (!).
2. Having a comic book art studio time.  My main goal with this studio time is to have you working out your visual ideas for things like characters and action, which I will come up with some quick thumbnail drawing activities to help with.  And as I mentioned get everyone working on your page and panel designs (time to get to that 2/3 drafted out goal!).  If by chance you have been working on, or about to start work on your sketches think about the following:
   1. Character thumbnails: What do your characters look like from different angles, expressing different emotions, in different clothing, etc.?
   2. Item thumbnails: If you have important non-character items you will be including in the story drawing those items from different angles, at different levels of shading, at different sizes, etc. (for example an important dining table or a significant tree from your story, just my random examples so think about what you will be filling up your panels with in terms of your personal story and especially think about the items you will be drawing in more than one panel).  See: https://karengillmoreart.com/2014/01/28/a-comic-in-process-from-thumbnails-to-finished/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UShPncjYYK0 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRtmAwyZY1E (I found from the 3:35 mark to about the 4:55 mark especially of use)
   3. For your “bits of action” how do you want to represent the action?  As in a baseball game can be drawn in many different ways from many different angles and perspectives (from the fan perspective, from the batter’s perspective, from the pitcher’s perspective, from the coaches’ perspective, heck even from the ball’s perspective, and so on).  So think about what is the most important action to show the reader and what are you going to leave out?
   4. How your panels will be laid out on the page.  See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feBKyQMPClQ and
   5. Think specifically about how the panels on the page flow together to tell your story.
   6. Think about what components of the story and “bits of action” you will be leaving out and allowing for the reader to fill in themselves within the “gutters” of the page, and also how will you create transitions between the action happening in the panels:https://understandingcomics177.wordpress.com/about/1-2/2-2/
   7. Think about what each panel will contain.  Do you need big or small panels to hold all the action happening within that panel?  What direction is the action and aesthetic needing (such as drawing a skyscraper you probably want to think about a tall panel to convey height and “tallness”)?  Old school but love these ten tips! =http://www.comicsbeat.com/larry-hamas-10-rules-for-drawing-a-comic-book-page/and a good primer here too with good visual examples:http://webcomicalliance.com/featured-news/composition-101-laying-out-your-comic-page/
   8. Think about if you want to use a traditional type of panel grid to each page or do you want to do pages with the art flowing outside of the panels much like Thi Bui does in her work.

Upcoming events:

Remember that this week is the Frankenstein 200^th anniversary events on campus (see posting below this one for more info).

EuCon is coming up and we got our weekend pass tickets (thank you Bailey!).  Be sure to work up with Bailey to plan our social meetup day and time.  The Con is the weekend of November 10-11 and see their site for more info: https://www.eugenecon.com/home

Advising links from the 2-Year Plan presentation:

• https://advising.uoregon.edu/
• https://advising.uoregon.edu/content/peer-link
• https://advising.uoregon.edu/student-resources
• College of Design: https://design.uoregon.edu/student-services/advising
• Journalism: http://journalism.uoregon.edu/students/undergrad/advising/
• Music: https://music.uoregon.edu/current-students/undergraduate-music-students
• Business: https://business.uoregon.edu/ug/advising

And be sure to search on the main UO site for your program’s specific advising assistance (for example “psychology advising”) for if you are in the College of Arts and Science (CAS) likely your specific degree area has some of their own advising.  And of course you can always meet with a UO advisor (see again those links “advising.uoregon” links above).

Looking forward to another week of discussion and comic book work with everyone!

Best,

Robert

Hi, I just received an email from the UO Digital Humanities group announcing some really fun sounding events around the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein happening on campus next week.  Neat Halloween timing!  What sounds really of interest are the visualization aspects of these events and thinking about the ways in which we can nowadays digitally visualize the story as well thinking about ways in which over the years this novel has evolved in our visual and popular culture!

Also this is a great opportunity to learn about an area on campus you may not be familiar with and the Science Library is a great resource on campus and the Viz Lab is just one part of it, there is also a really neat MakerSpace in the Library too!

If you have any questions let me know!

Digital Humanities email invite with additional information below!

-Robert

This year marks the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and universities around the world are celebrating with Frankenreads events between the 24th and 31st of October. The Price Science Commons Visualization Lab is hosting a two-day open house (Oct. 30th and 31st) in the Viz Lab with hands-on, entry-level data visualization activities. Thanks to Celeste Reeb (Ph.D. Candidate, English) the Viz Lab has also scheduled a community event that may be of interest to you:

Oct 29th: Frankenstein Trivia, Starlight Lounge (film screening to follow).

Oct 30th: Visualizing Frankenstein Open House in the Price Science Commons Viz Lab, 10-2pm Celebrate the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein by trying out some entry-level data visualization techniques! Use Voyant Tools to decide whether the monster should be called Frankenstein, Frankenstein’s Monster, or something else altogether. Use Palladio to map events in the novel and connect places in time. Record yourself reading part of the novel and use Sonic Visualiser to visualize the sound. This is a come and go event and is open to everyone. Bring your laptop! Refreshments provided.

Oct 31st: Visualizing Frankenstein Open House in the PSC Viz Lab, 10-12pm
Same as above! Refreshments provided.

For questions please contact Courtney Floyd, Price Science Commons Visualization Lab Specialist, at cfloyd3@uoregon.edu.

Hi,

Enjoyed everyone’s contributions last Friday and hope you all learned some interesting things about the Common Reading program (https://commonreading.uoregon.edu/ and https://commonreading.uoregon.edu/events/).  One thing we did not discuss in great detail that I wanted to put out there is if you are interested in ways to become more involved with the program (for instance being on the selection committee) let me know and I can connect you with Julie.

Quick reminder that for this week’s session please bring to class your comic book worksheet, any art supplies you may need to work on your comic book (I will bring some extra sketchbooks/paper), and any progress you have made so far on your comic book.

And we will be working on your 2-Year plan.  If we do not get enough time this Friday to really draft out your comic books we will roll in more studio work time next week.  As in be really ready to work on your comic books these next three to four weeks.

Another heads-up and I will have ready this Friday a new Discussion Journal page for our Week 6 discussion, but wanted to let you know that this will be very simple this time around. We will be focused on taking your first two Discussion Journals and looking back at what you have filled in for those sheets and expand on your answers/responses in more detail.  This will allow us to all revisit those first two pages in our upcoming discussions (if this does not make total sense now don’t worry I will explain more in class).

Last reminder and my office hours are tomorrow (Tuesday) from 2:00 to 4:00, and you all now have your Achievement progress sheets so this is a good opportunity to meet with me to discuss your progress and any questions you have for moving forward in the class.  And again if you cannot make it to my open hours please contact me about setting up an appointment time.

Best,

Robert

All,

This upcoming Friday we will be diving into the The Best We Could Do graphic novel.  Be sure to fill out your Oct. 19th Discussion Journal page as best as possible for we will be doing a variety of activities around both parts, and especially Part 2.  Remember for Part 2 you need to reference the questions/thoughts posted to the course site here: https://blogs.uoregon.edu/myvisualstory/discussion-questions/.  My goal for this Friday is to come up with our questions we would like to ask Thi Bui.  We shall see how far we can get on this!

Additionally, here are some reminders from last week’s class:

• Any resources to share on the class site’s Resources page?  I’m serious about this one, would love any great sites/etc. you have to share with the class: https://blogs.uoregon.edu/myvisualstory/resources/
• For the Watchmen screening/social if you need help with a room please let Bailey know.
• And again reminder that my “office support hours” are every Tuesday from 2:00 to 4:00pm, I am in PLC 58 (which is in the hallway behind the Tech Desk in the lower level of PLC the southeast side of the building, and the Tech Desk may not be staffed with someone who knows who I am so if they don’t know my name ask for the Teaching Engagement Program office PLC 58).

And as promised here are the Art Ducko resources I promised to post (including specific Art Ducko links and also resources mentioned in the Art Ducko presentation):

• Art Ducko site: https://artduckomagazine.wordpress.com/
• Art Ducko upcoming events: https://artduckomagazine.wordpress.com/upcoming-events/
• Art Ducko meetings for fall ’18 are Thursday at 5pm in Condon Hall 301, except for next week (week 4) they will be meeting  Friday at 5pm in EMU Spruce 232.
• Feel free to contact them at: uocomics@gmail.com
• Euzine: https://www.webtoons.com/en/
• Webtoons: https://www.webtoons.com/en/
• UO College of Design output room (printing/scanning): https://blogs.uoregon.edu/designtech/eugene-output-room/
• UO Campus Copy: https://uoprint.uoregon.edu/about-campus-copy

As always please let me know if you have questions.

Best,

Robert

All,

Enjoyed our discussion at the Museum last week!  Sorry it was a bit short and we did not get to everyone’s thoughts within the larger group, but hoping that the smaller group discussions allowed everyone to have a say.  Again, sometimes just having a big discussion is not the best manner to have everyone feel involved.  Think about this for situations beyond just classroom discussions, such as business meetings where you can help facilitate a discussion that is not dominated by one or two or three individuals.  Future ideas as you move on in your academics and beyond into your future employment.

And now on to…

Class updates!

1. Remember Art Ducko will be coming in this Friday to present on, and lead us in a workshop about creating zines and comics.  Be sure to bring in art supplies to help get work done on your comics!
2. I have posted your questions from the #3 discussion prompt to this page on the class site:https://blogs.uoregon.edu/myvisualstory/discussion-questions/.  Of note we will be using these questions to inform upcoming Discussion Journal pages and discussions.
3. Reminder my Office Support Hours are every Tuesday afternoon between 2:00 and 4:00.  You can drop in during this block without reserving a time, but again your requirement to meet with me is to come in with a specific, and well articulated question/concern about the class (or other FIG classes associated with the My Visual Story class).  And again if you cannot meet with me during this Tuesday time, please send me an email requesting to set up a meeting time.  My office is PLC 58.
4. I have updated the schedule for I want to bring out more of our discussion prompts and discussions next week (Week 4), and want to create more of a full class studio work session for Week 5.  Please refer to the schedule page here: https://blogs.uoregon.edu/myvisualstory/class-schedule/.
5. I have not heard back from First-Year Programs about the availability of tickets for Fun Home.  I will email the information as soon as I hear the news!

Lots to take in there, please feel free to email questions!

Best,

Robert