11/26/08 Videos

There were only two videos from the 11/26 session.

11/26 Video 1



11/26 Video 2

11/19/08 Videos

There were four videos from the 11/19 session.

11/19 Video 1



11/19 Video 2



11/19 Video 3



11/19 Video 4

11/26/08 Session Stats

Here are the stats from the 11/26 session.

Comics collected: 32
Attendance: 4
Student efficiency: 8
Maximum possible: 28
Lesson efficiency: 1.14

It helped that this lesson used a lot of double comics, which boosted the efficiency, and 2 students completely finished their packets.

11/26/08 Session Report

The 11/26 session used the same templates as the 11/19 session, though I dropped the theme of symbolia and let the kids write their own thoughts. 4 students attended, 2 of the usual girls and 2 boys who normally only attend on Friday. One of them was a student from the summer and one of the best creative writers in the group, so I was happy to have him.

It was the birthday of one of the volunteers, so the kids were in a good mood and far less crazy than last week, leading to a production session. Stats, videos, and pictures will be posted soon.

10/15/08 Pictures

Pictures from the 10/15 session have been uploaded to Picasa.

10/15/08 Session

The Blank Comic Book Contest Results

The results from Nat Gertler's Blank Comic Book Contest have been posted and the Create a Comic Project took 2nd place alongside 3 others:

"Runners up were Chris Leake, for wanting to put it on the counter of the comic shop he owns, Ninja Pirate in Pflugerville, Texas; Doug Burke of Utah, for wanting to use them as role playing guides; David Oakes of Chandler, Arizona, for wanting to archive letters of comment and value stamps; and John Baird of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for a variety community collaborative concepts. Each will receive their choice of one book from the above-listed packs."

While I didn't take the grand prize for 1st place, I did win a free book that I'll be giving away to my students. And the contest helped me think of several new ideas to use with my students. So all-in-all it was a good experience. Many thanks to Nat for running such a creative competition.

Post-Otakon Template Progress 6

I'm getting ready for a major event in December, so I've been busy creating templates.

Comics whose archives I've gone through:

Animenifesto
Picatrix
System

In the case of System, he sent me all of the symbols he uses to create his comic, so I'll use those to generate my own. Animenifesto is a comic I've long meant to crawl through - Zacc, it's creator, gave me permission to use his work over year ago in Sept '07. I've been using Phoenix, his other comic, but not his 4 panel work. Smithson remains one of the few from over a year ago I have yet to get through.

Comics I've made templates from:

Devil's Panties
Dominic Deegan
Geebas on Parade
Grim Tales from Down Below
PPG Doujin
Sticky Floors

I still need to get to Sugar Bits. The comics by Gina Biggs and Robin Edwards are also waiting in the wings.

9/24/08 Pictures

Pictures from the 9/24 session have been uploaded to Picasa.

9/24/08 Session

11/19/08 Session Stats

Here are the stats from the 11/19 session:

Comics collected: 14
Attendance: 3
Student efficiency: 4.67
Maximum possible: 27
Lesson efficiency: 0.52

As I said in the report, the large decrease in efficiency was due to the students being much more distracted than usual. I'll be repeating the lesson on 11/26 and hopefully get better results.

9/10/08 Pictures

The photos from the 9/10 session have been uploaded.

9/10/08 Session

11/19/08 Session Report

The 11/19 session wasn't as productive as I'd hoped. There were 3 kids, but they were so hyper from the recent snowy weather that they hardly got anything done. Fortunately, I found out I can come in next Wednesday - 11/26 - where I'll repeat the lesson. Maybe they'll be in a more receptive mood.

Stats, pictures, and videos will be posted soon.

11/19/08 Session

The 11/19 session will be based on Symbolia, the use of symbols instead of words in the speech bubbles. It's very straight forward, as I just cover some of the common substitutions (like hearts, skulls, etc.) and ask the kids to make up their own.

Comics being used:

And Shine Heaven Now
Lil' Formers
Lovarian Adventures
Narbonic
No Pink Ponies
Okashina Okashi
Seasons of Constancy
Something Like Life
Tracy and Tristan

I've been using Lovarian, Something Like Life, and Seasons of Constancy a lot lately. I'm trying to focus on a few comics at a time and build up template numbers for them.

Post-Otakon Template Progress 5

A brief update on my template progress.

Comics I've made templates from:

Blue and Blond
Mystic Revolution
School of Rejects

I also added significantly to the templates I had of Simulated Comic Product and Matt Herms' work. I need to start making Bleedman templates soon.

9/3/08 Photos

Photos from the 9/3 session have been posted to Picasa.

9/3/08 Session

8/12/08 Pictures

Pictures from the 8/12/08 sessions have been added to Picasa.

8/12/08 Session

11/12/08 Videos

There were 3 videos from the 11/12 session.

11/12 Video 1



11/12 Video 2



11/12 Video 3

11/12/08 Session Stats

Here are the stats for the 11/12 session:

Comics collected: 17
Attendance: 2
Student efficiency: 8.50
Maximum possible: 16
Lesson efficiency: 1.06

I tacked on an extra 1 panel comic to the warm-up portion, which was good. One thing I need to remember, though, is to keep the warm-up comics simple so they don't tire students out before the activity portion.

11/12/08 Session Report

The 11/12 session went well, though it only had 2 students. They understood the idea of thought bubbles quickly. I was a bit overly ambitious with the templates, so I'll ratchet them back once more. However, the use of just 1 group is working well so that will be continued.

Pictures, videos, and stats will be posted soon. Next session is 11/19 and will cover symbolia.

11/12/08 Session

The 11/12 session will cover thought bubbles. Normally I cover both alternate word bubbles and thought bubbles together, but it seemed prudent to divide them into separate lessons due to the time constraints.

Comics used:

Annie
Lil Formers
Lovarian Adventures
Okashina Okashi
Piled Higher and Deeper
Seasons of Contancy
Something Like Life
Tsunami Channel

8/5/08 Pictures

Photos from the 8/5 session have been uploaded to Picasa.

8/5/08 Session

Gallery Moving to Picasa

One thing I've struggled with is making regular updates to the CCP gallery of photos. My current method has been rather time consuming: selecting what photos to upload, formatting them to 800x600, renaming them, generating thumbnails, and then updating the gallery page's HTML by hand. This didn't present too much difficulty at first, but lately I've been falling behind in my gallery updates and wanted to find a different way.

Enter Picasa. I first looked into using Flickr, but its restrictions on bandwidth and set numbers under free mode made it infeasible for use. Picasa is a much better service in comparison. Now to create galleries I only need to select the photos, format them to 800x600, and upload them. This should make it so you'll see photo posts almost as quick as you see video posts. By formatting to a small size, this'll make the 1 gig of storage Picasa gives me last quite some time.

I'm in the process of uploading the remaining galleries (8/5/08 onwards) to Picasa and will post links to the web albums as they're complete. I may or may not go back and convert the other galleries to Picasa later on. Also, some images like the fliers and wide images won't be added to Picasa and will be added in the usual manner.

11/5/08 Interlude Videos

After the 11/5 session, an impromptu game of indoor Nerf football broke out among the students and instructors. I video taped some of it for fun.


11/5 Interlude 1



11/5 Interlude 2



11/5 Interlude 3

Blank Comic Book Contest

This is probably relevant to some of the CCP readers:



The contest is from About Comics, who are related to the 24-hour Comic Day.

11/5/08 Videos

There were five videos from the 11/5 session.

11/5 Video 1



11/5 Video 2



11/5 Video 3



11/5 Video 4



11/5 Video 5

11/5/08 Session Stats

Here are the stats for the 11/5 session:

Comics collected: 25
Attendance: 3
Student efficiency: 8.33
Maximum possible: 24
Lesson efficiency: 1.04

I think reducing to a single group and shortening the warm-up have both worked to help increase the lesson efficiency, so I'll keep it at current levels for 11/12.

11/5/08 Session Report

The 11/5 session went well. 3 students this time, but they were well behaved and hard working, so they really learned a lot. It's interesting that 2 of the students tend to favor short phrases while the 3rd goes for very long sentences. Exact numbers will be posted later, along with pictures and video.

After the session there was an impromptu session of indoor football. I took video of it and will post it soon.

Next session will be 11/12. Not sure what the lesson will be yet.

11/5/08 Session

The coming session on 11/5 will be about word bubbles. Something simple and straightforward after the huge rush and relief from the election (assuming it's resolved by then).

Comics being used:

Daisy is Dead
Dinosaur Comics
Fans
Ghost Hunters
Kastle Comics
Okashina Okashi
Piled Higher and Deeper
Tracy and Tristan

I'm cutting back to only using 1 group of comics instead of 2 or 3 due to the reduction in attendance, so there will be less variety.

Create a Comic Project - If They Could Vote

Rick Marshall of Mind Pollution recently posed an interesting question: who would your characters vote for in the 2008 election?

While the CCP uses the bulk of its artwork from other comics, the CCP does, in fact, have its own characters, thanks to the series of comic books I've been writing. There are four students (who I refer to creatively as Students 1 - 4) and a teacher. Using the cover of the second comic as a reference, the students are (from left to right): Student 2, Student 3, Student 4, and Student 1.

Here's how they'd vote:

Student 1 - Palin. Not McCain, mind you, but Palin, since they share a love of moose and the Arctic circle. She'd also think shooting wolves from helicopters is among the coolest things ever.

Student 2 - Cynthia McKinney. He's a contrarian who, just because Obama is popular, doesn't mean he's going to fall in lock step with expectations.

Student 3 - Obama. She'd vote this way because her parents vote this way and she doesn't want to rock the boat.

Student 4 - Obama. Largely because the online videos that support him are "less boring" than the ones for McCain.

Teacher - Bob Barr. He teaches because it's his way of privately contributing to society, so he'd support the candidate who promotes individual responsibilities.

I should note that while the fictional students have a range of choices, pretty much every real life student I've taught is for Obama.

7/29/08 Pictures

The Pittsburgh Sessions gallery has been updated with photos from 7/29. Took me long enough, I guess.

Fanart Update

The Fanart page has been updated with a new piece from Pauljs75. It pokes fun at the recent string of binomial comics.