Comic Book 2 Hour Lesson Plan (CLICK HERE)

Literal
a. I, Alice Munson, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
b. I have completed the viewing and analyzing of 44 superhero movies dating from 1978 to present day.

Interpretive
30 hours of work alone goes into finding and viewing the movies themselves. While most the time, these movies would be watched for entertainment, with every movie I was asking myself these questions: how does it relate to the current age, was it popular (why or why not) (based on the money it made), and if I personally thought that the movie was good. So, it was more than just viewing movies, it was analyzing them to their core. Each movie has a concise review written out. This will be included in a Google Doc later this week.

Applied
One way that it helped answer my EQ, is that I had to really think about what was so appealing about some of these movies. It's no secret that the majority of these movies are horrible. There might be someone out there who liked them, but for the most part they were looked at with disdain. I had to figure out why. The major reasons are one: the writers of the movies didn't follow certain rules that the heroes had; or two: even if the writers did take the idea of the superhero to heart, there was nothing to connect the audience with the movie.

Questions:

1. Have you worked in comics before? If so, what did you do?
2. What are some of the titles you worked on?
3. What are some of the characters you created or re-created?
4. Why do you think some of the most enduring and popular characters have lasted so long (e.g., Spider-Man, Superman, Batman)
5. What did you like about working in the comic industry?
6. What didn’t you like about working in the comic industry?
7. Do you still do things for comics? If so, what? If not, why?
8. What comics, if any, do you read now?
9. What creators do you admire most, and why?
10. Do you approach female characters differently that male characters? If so, why?
11. What do you personally think makes a comic series successful or well-liked?
12. What do you think "successful" means, in terms of comics?
13. Who is your favorite character from comic books and why?
14. What do you think is more important in a comic book: story or art? Why?
15. What is our process in creating a new comics character for an ongong series?
16. What are the most important elements in making an effective character?
17. Do you think comics have changed drastically over the past years? In what ways?
18. Do you think that the incorporation of comic book-related animation (such as Justice League, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and Under the Red Hood) has drawn in a bigger audience?
19. Do you think digital comics are going to or have already changed the industry? If so, how?
20. How do you think comics and comic characters will be different ten years from now?

NOTE: I have come down with a horrible stomach flu that has prevented me from fully completing this. I'm posting what I have and the log and pictures will be posted either later tonight or early tomorrow (when I can focus for more than a few minutes).

Log: Click Here
Evidence: Click Here, (pictures are going to be included later. there are technical difficulties)

LIA:


Literal:
a) I, Alice Munson, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
b) The significant points of my independent component were the block-long (1 hour, 30 minute) presentations to each of the freshmen classes. I did a total of three of those presentations, two sets in Estrada's classroom and one in Pellegrini's. These presentations were on three topics: an introduction, scripting, and paneling.

 The introduction was just that, an introduction to who I was, what graphic novels and comic books are and what the difference is between them two. I showed examples (comics from both my own collection and from graphic novels/trade paper backs that I borrowed from the library) and explained what made each book how they were. Some examples of this are: comic books are like a chapter in a book, sometimes not even that; trade paper backs are comic book "arcs" or all the chapters compiled into one story, beginning middle and end; graphic novels are books that are comic books, just never intended to be sold in those 'chapter' floppies.

The scripting presentation was a little more intensive. I looked around online for examples of a comic book script and it was difficult. It took me an hour or so until I went to the DC home page and found a script (and the whole process, too!) of Animal Man, a comic that was apart of their "New 52". It outlined the script and all of the steps to get the final page.

The paneling presentation is where I used both the script (and the paneling steps afterwards) and I also made my own paper as well. It was more of an outline for my presentation rather than a worksheet to be handed out, but it helped and the link to it is above.

There are more things than the presentation that I did. I helped most groups on their actual presentation (going outside of the class and helping them as they practices and giving them pointers) which I could only (unfortunately) do for three classes, although I did do it for almost the whole block. I also did extra research for the outline and I also helped the freshmen teachers create the rubric that graded the comic books themselves. Finally, some freshmen did come up during lunch and asked me to help them with their cocmi books and I helped them there as well. All of these things mixed together adds up to around 30 hours, perhaps a little under it due to the fact that we had planned for 4 presentations and I was unable to do it due to scheduling.

Interpretive:
My work represents 30 hours of work, because before every presentation (which is about a 2-hour presentation in itself) I had to research what I was talking about and create a basic outline. Of course I didn't create a long outline like I did on the final presentation, but I still had to work on each of them in depth. I also "practiced" for my 2-hour because I talked for over 45 minutes and used the comics and graphic novels and the script to engage the audience. I worked closely with the freshmen teachers and created aides and scripts of my own. While I might not have hit 30 hours exactly, I worked very hard on this and it has helped me for the final presentation.

Applied:
This whole experience helped me answer my EQ because it helped me gauge how interested these kids (who are the main demographic of comics) were in comics. When I would hand out the comics, I could see how interested they were in the comics that I handed out. There were many times when I heard and saw people getting excited over seeing Batman or The Flash. It was kind of funny, because there was this one boy who was so excited over having The Flash comic. It was kind of awesome. I also gauged how interested they were in creating the comic book by the questions they asked afterwards. Most of the time, they would as in-depth questions that I never thought they'd ask. Questions like, "What makes a good comic book?" While I'm sure that they were talking about their project, they still asked the questions that I had been asking myself, kind of forcing me to think about it. I would talk about certain aspects of a comic book, such as the characters, and they'd ask me things like, "Who is your favorite character?", showing me that they were interested in when they talked about comic books. Characters, some events that happened (big events, like Batman's death or Superman's death), and the relationships of characters. It helped me get one of my answers, "Familiarity." To be interested and into a comic book series, you have to be familiar with what you're looking at and this whole experience taught me that.

1.) There is a relationship between the amount of tension applied to a nylon rope and where along its length it will snap.

2.) Dependent: Where/when the rope breaks (meters)
Independent: Amount of tension (Newtons) due to mass on the end of the rope.
Control: Rope material, length of rope, and the height the mass attached to the rope falls from.

3.) One of the main aspects that makes a comic successful is realism. To be able to be interested in a comic book, it has to be believable to the reader, even if the action itself is impossible. Batman and Spiderman's ability to swing on ropes is one of the ideas that is widely accepted as fact, when really the actual action is pretty much impossible. I am doing this experiment to examine if it is actually possible for a 200-ish pound man to swing on a rope without the rope snapping, all in the name of realism!

4.) First, the materials: I would have to obtain objects of varying weight (which will be weights themselves) ranging from 10lbs to 50lbs (and I will add more weight if needed). I would also have to obtain nylon rope and cut it into pieces, each about 2 meters long, which I will measure with a meter stick. I will also have the meter stick for measuring where the rope snaps and exactly how tall my roof is. Speaking of my roof, it will be the structure that will be holding my weights. We have found a beam that will support the amount of weight that already had a sizable hole through it, so we can attach the rope and thus drop the weight from the roof itself down off the side. From there, I will drop each weight attached to the same amount of rope and calculate the force exerted. If the rope snaps, I will measure where the rope napped on it and figure out where the center of the tension was caused, making it snap.

5.) This experiment will go under Physics.

Link to 20 Minute Presentation Lesson Plan