2008 In Review

It's typical for comics to do retrospectives around this time of year, so I'll do likewise. 2008 was a very good year for the Create a Comic Project. After a number of workshops, it finally found a home for regular sessions. It began its own line of comic books to help educators. And the project broke new ground in its use of modules and reached record numbers of children.

I'm quite happy with the project's current home at the Collegiate YMCA. While I only have 5 students regularly, they (usually) work hard and are quite creative. It's taken me a few months to connect with them, but I think now we have the kind of bond I had with my students at New Haven. They'll do great things in 2009!

When I first started the project, I wanted to publish materials under its name. I'd already published a two page activity guide through Hess Educational Organization in Taiwan, but I wanted something that could reach the general public. With the help of many artists, especially Ryan Estrada and Erin Ptah, I have begun this task with three comic books so far and more to come!

The two biggest events of the year were the Comic Making Tournament II and the National Public Health Week field trip. CMT II was far larger than its predecessor, indicating an upward trend I hope continues for some time. The lessons I learned in events and organizing are helping me greatly in preparing for the third tournament.

The field trip was the first major excursion for the module form of the comic project. Nearly 200 students lead through a field trip at the Children's Museum, making comics even as they experienced the various events. While it wasn't without problems, it proved that the project could be melded seamlessly with almost any educational endeavor. This was shown again during Healthy Holidays and will lay the groundwork for projects in 2009.

Places that sponsored the Create a Comic Project in 2008:

New Haven Public Library
Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
University of Pittsburgh
Association of Schools of Public Health
Collegiate YMCA
Children's Museum of Pittsburgh
Northview Elementary
Shadyside Boys and Girls Club
Human Services Center
Braddock Carnegie Library
Squirrel Hill Carnegie Library

The project would not be possible without their support, so many thanks go to them. I'll post more detailed plans for 2009 soon.

12/5/08 Pictures

Pictures from the 12/5 session have been uploaded.

12/5/08 Session

12/19/08 Videos

There were four videos from the 12/19 session.

12/19 Video 1



12/19 Video 2



12/19 Video 3



12/19 Video 4

11/26/08 Pictures

Pictures from the 11/26 session have been uploaded.

11/26/08 Session

11/19/08 Pictures

Pictures from the 11/19 session have been uploaded.

11/19/08 Session

Healthy Holidays: 12/20 Stats

Here are the stats for the 12/20 module:

Comics collected: 35
Attendance: 27
Efficiency: 1.30

The high efficiency for 12/20 came from the higher number of double comic templates and several kids making more than 1 comic each.

Healthy Holidays Tips

For Healthy Holidays, we used 20 different tips for people to write about. They were suggested by students from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

Healthy Holiday Tips:

1. Don't force yourself to eat - stop when you feel full.
2. Don't abstain utterly - pick 2 or 3 treats that are okay to eat.
3. Guess how much is a good portion, then take a little less.
4. Skip adding alcohol to drinks.
5. Substitute “light” and “fat-free” whenever possible.
6. A good holiday platter: veggies, hummus, and shrimp.
7. Recycle your fruit cakes and other holiday refuse.
8. Combine going overseas on holiday vacation with volunteering.
9. Reduce temptation: share your treats with others!
10. Keep your exercise schedule flexible.
11. Mix exercise and winter play: skiing, skating, snowshoeing, etc.
12. For the holiday wish list: keep a body area fit.
13. Buy home gym equipment on sale – and use them!
14. Walk while you shop for presents.
15. Visit people you like and avoid the ones you don’t to reduce stress.
16. Don’t be too rigid about your diet – it adds stress.
17. Keep your loved ones safe; start the new year with a gun permit.
18. It’s okay to say “No” when offered a treat.
19. Include a leafy salad with your holiday meal.
20. Get a pedometer and keep track of how much you walk.

Tips 6 and 12 didn't really work, so they were retired from use partway into the event. The tip that worked best with the comics was #7 (re-gifting fruit cake amused some people).

12/19/08 Session Stats

Here are the stats from the 12/19 session:

Comics collected: 142
Attendance: 5
Student efficiency: 28.4
Maximum possible: 139
Lesson efficiency: 1.02

There was no set number of comics handed out to each student, so the maximum possible was based on the number of pages I collected, with double-comics pushing the efficiency above 1.00.

Healthy Holidays: 12/18 Stats

Here are the stats from the 12/18 module:

Comics collected: 15
Attendance: 13
Efficiency: 1.15

This module had the fewest comics collected of the three.

Healthy Holidays: 12/16 Stats

Here are the stats from the 12/16 module:

Comic collected: 47
Attendance: 39
Efficiency: 1.21

Note that since everyone was expected to only do 1 comic, the personal and lesson efficiencies are the same.

Healthy Holidays: 12/20 Report

The 12/20 module went well. About 20 people took part, twice that of 12/18. The high traffic spot really helped attract attention. Emphasizing the project as a "create a comic activity" rather than a chance to get candy made it appeal more to parents.

The idea of making comics appealed to many kids. I had one 3-year old boy who made 4 comics by himself after realizing that the more comics he created the more candy he could get. At 3, I think he's the youngest child to make a comic unaided.

I was surprised by the number of children who weren't interested in making comics. Many of them just wanted to get on the computer to play games. Fortunately, the Squirrel Library uses a program that automatically limits how long a child can spend on the computer. I managed to get a couple kids who initially expressed little interest after they'd used up their online time.

The 12/20 session may or may not be the last one. I may hold 1 more Healthy Holiday session on Monday, 12/22, depending on the weather. We'll see. Even if I stop now, though, I've collected enough info to start planning for April 2009 and National Public Health Week.

12/19/08 Session Report

The 12/19 session was a great success! The use of competition really brought out the best in the kids. 5 children took part, including 1 who normally doesn't because he has trouble spelling. The promise of prizes was received well and helped them focus. Stats will be posted later, but I can say that comic turnout was very high.

One interesting feature the YMCA has are "TY Bucks." Kids earn them by doing good things and can redeem them for prizes donated by members. This is a great educational and classroom management tool, similar to the stamps I used while teaching in Taiwan. I may use this with the comic project in some form in other venues.

Pictures and videos will be posted soon.

12/19/08 Session

The 12/19 session at Sunnyside is going to be a special competition. The contest is based on the Endurance event from the Comic Tournament. Kids will race to see who can make the most comics in a certain time frame. I'm bringing a bag full of prizes and they'll get to go through it in the order they win to keep it fair.

Comics used:

8-Bit Theater
And Shine Heaven Now
Applegeeks
Awkward Zombie
Chaos Punks
College Roomie From Hell
Demonology 101
Dicebox
Dreamland Chronicles
Fans!
Flipside
Freshman 15
Ghost Hunters
Girl Genius
Goats
Ice
I Come From Mars
Jellaby
Kastle Comics
Lil' Formers
Little Dee
Lovarian Adventures
Mac Hall
Marilith
Nothing Nice to Say
Okashina Okashi
Penny Arcade
Penny & Aggie
Phoenix
Piled Higher and Deeper
Planet Karen
Punks and Nerds
Questionable Content
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Saturnalia
Shortpacked
Sketchies
Sluggy Freelance
Something Like Life
Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki
Sticky Floors
Stubble
Tea Club
Tsunami Channel
Venus Envy
World of Orenda
xkcd
Zombies Calling

These are split into 5 groups of evenly balanced groups given to the kids for them to complete.

Healthy Holidays: 12/18 Report

A shorter, 2 and a half hour session of Healthy Holidays was held today. Unlike the first, it took place in the Children's Department rather than near the main entrance. It began at 2:30 PM, but children didn't start arriving until around 3:30 PM. It was a slow day according to librarians and only ~10 people participated. Exact stats will be posted later.

A boy from Wednesday showed up again and made several comics, and a brother-sister pair liked the activity enough to make two comics each. Parents really seemed to like helping their children filling out the comics.

The main purpose of this session wasn't to get more comics so much as to prepare for Saturday. Thanks to this, I know where a good spot is to set up the table where people will see it. The librarians are expecting a busy day this weekend thanks to the holidays, so I'm hoping to really see some activity.

I didn't take any pictures or video this time. The Children's Department doesn't have room for the tripod, so I'm not going to bother with it Saturday, either (one less item to carry).

Healthy Holidays: 12/16 Report

The 12/16 run of Health Holidays went smoothly. It had to start a little later than planned, but it ran until 7 PM as planned. About 40 people took part, ranging from kids to teens to adults (stats will be posted later) and there's still plenty of candy left.

I'm very glad I chose to put this program together as a trial run for April 2009. I've learned a lot of applied lessons that will make the National Public Health Week version go much smoother. So if nothing else, this has been an informative proof of concept.

Items learned, in no particular order:

1. The most common reason for refusal was time. People leaving had other things to get to and even those coming in often had a limited amount of time to spend in the library.


2. A couple of the tips didn't work well as comic themes, so I won't use them in later sessions.


3. Instructions should be in two parts: the first part is short and to the point, with the second having additional info if a person has more questions. People will often just glance at the instructions and only read the first couple entries, so giving them a quick outline of the project in a few lines is important. The additional info is for the people who do read in-depth so they don't have to ask as many questions.


4. Candy is a great way to get children and even teens interested in participating. Not being strict with the quantity dispensed builds good will and positive feelings. One group relatively unaffected by the offer of candy: adult males.


5. In the vein of being more generous with the candy, I'm going to allow people to earn more candy by submitted multiple comics. This should appeal to kids, who are all about acquiring as much candy as they can (I know I was when I was that age). The next couple sessions are in the Children's Department, so I expect adding "make more comics, get more candy" to the instructions will increase participation.


6. There are parents who don't want their kids getting candy. I knew a couple of parents like this when I was young and always felt sorry for their children. In the future, having an alternate to candy may help get them on board. For National Public Health Week 2009, this will likely be stickers.


7. If there's one person sitting at a table, people will tend to sit across from that person. So keep the side you're sitting on unobstructed.


8. Loading clipboards with the templates and pencils ahead of time was a good move. It allowed me to hand them out quickly. I'll continue to use that approach. Another trick with the clipboards was that for horizontally oriented strips, put them in the board with the right side (the last panel) under the clip. I had a couple people almost miss the first word bubble of a comic because it was covered up.


9. The phrase "earn some candy" is a good one. If you just say "free candy" people may take the candy and not do the comic.


10. Some people mistook the table for donation collection or one of those "Could you take a survey?" projects. A larger banner and/or advertising of the event beforehand might prevent this error.

One other idea for the future: add a raffle component. Some people commented that making a comic was too much work for a few pieces of candy. By having a larger prize, this may make people feel better compensated and make it more appealing to adult males. The raffle would work by having each comic be an entry to win (names and contact info would need to be collected) or exchanging a finished comic for an entry ticket. For NPHW 2009, the prize could be something health care related, such as pharmacy gift cards so people could save money on their prescription medicine.

I took video for most of it, though the audio quality is rather poor. I'll go through it and see what's worth posting. I opted to skip taking photos since it might have scared some people away.

Healthy Holidays Templates

For Healthy Holidays, I'm using a large number of templates, arguably more than in any other event. I've chosen to make this the first time the new comics (post-Otakon) are unveiled. The intent was to put the project on full display to see what comics do best with comicvoice, which is important for future projects involving it.

The event is spread over 2 days, so it's unlikely every comic will be used both days. It's more likely some will be used one day and others on the second, depending on how many people take part.

Comics being used:

8-Bit Theater
Afterlife Inc.
And Shine Heaven Now
Animenefesto
Annie
Applegeeks
Awkward Zombie
Blue and Blond
Chaos Punks
Chugworth Academy
Coffee Achievers
College Roomies From Hell
Comedity
Cool Cat Studio
Copper
Cosmobear
Daisy is Dead
Demonology 101
Devil's Panties
Dicebox
Diesel Sweeties
Dinosaur Comics
Dominic Deegan
Dreamland Chronicles
Dr. McNinja
Ellsmere
Erstwhile
Faking Life
Fans!
Flipside
Freshmen 15
Geebas on Parade
Geeks Next Door
Geist Panik
Ghost Hunters
Girl Genius
Goats
Grim Tales From Down Below
Hate Song
Hookie Dookie Panic
Ice
I Come From Mars
The Jar
Jellaby
Kastle Comics
Krakow
Lil' Formers
Lil' Mell
Little Dee
Lovarian Adventures
Mac Hall
Marilith
My Stupid Life
Mystic Revolution
Narbonic
No Pink Ponies
No Rest for the Wicked
Nothing Nice to Say
Octopus Pie
Okashina Okashi
Paradigm Shift
Paradox Lost
Penny & Aggie
Penny Arcade
Phoenix
Picatrix
Piled Higher and Deeper
Planet Karen
PPG Doujin
Prophesy of Destiny
Punks and Nerds
Questionable Content
Red String
Reman Mythology
Rob and Elliot
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Saturnalia
Scary Go Round
School of Rejects
Seasons of Constancy
Shortpacked
Simulated Comic Product
Sketchies
Skin Horse
Sluggy Freelance
Something Like Life
Sorcerers and Secretaries
Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki
Sticky Floors
Stubble
Sugar Bits
Tea Club
Templar, AZ
Tracy and Tristan
Tsunami Channel
Unshelved
Venus Envy
Versus Verses
Weirdlings
World of Orenda
xkcd
You'll Have That
Zombies Calling

Comic titles in italics are those being used the first time. Phineus was one of the only comics I couldn't use due to lack of appropriate templates.

Healthy Holidays: A CCP Event

On 12/16 and 12/20 (this Tuesday and Saturday), the Create a Comic Project and the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) are collaborating on a special event called "Healthy Holidays." The event is being hosted by the Squirrel Hill branch of the Carnegie Library.

Healthy Holidays is a public health promotion event, designed to raise awareness in the general community about ways to keep in good shape over the Christmas season. Library patrons are given a tip at random, create a comic based on the tip, and get candy in return (the candy is intended ironically).

Like the National Public Health Week event, it uses comicvoice to record the perspectives of individuals. The goal is to collect a large number of comics representing viewpoints from a broad spectrum. Both blank templates and comic templates are being used. Blank templates will be displayed at GSPH.

In addition to being educational, the event is intended as a proof of concept for future projects. The question is whether table sitting in a high traffic location and offering a small treat/prize in exchange for making a comic on a certain theme is effective at community outreach. If this event does work well, a similar setup will be used for National Public Health Week 2009 and its theme of healthy foundations.

Areas of concern with the current design include the passivity of table sitting and the reluctance people may have in investing time to make a comic. A more active approach to recruiting participants or larger compensation may help increase numbers if this project comes up lacking. These design changes will be considered depending on the results garnered here.

There may or may not be pictures and video from the event, depending on approval from the library and participants. I'll post which comics I'm using soon (hint: a lot of them). This event counts as a Create a Comic Module, due to the integration of comics with an educational theme.

12/12/08 Videos

There were 3 videos from the 12/12 session.


12/12 Video 1



12/12 Video 2



12/12 Video 3

12/12/08 Session Stats

Here are the stats from the 12/12 session:

Comics collected: 31
Attendance: 5
Student efficiency: 6.2
Maximum possible: 45
Lesson efficiency: 0.69

The efficiency here is low for the same reason as the 11/19 session: the students were generally distracted by external factors. I'll be repeating this lesson in January.

12/12/08 Session Report

The 12/12 session was a mixed bag. 5 students attended. The warm-up went all right, but the students were so energetic from consuming candy earlier they weren't able to pay much attention to the lesson itself. When asked what the 5 W's were, they answered, "Wow." I'll be repeating the lesson in January - maybe after the holidays are done they'll be calmer.

Stats, videos, and pictures will be posted soon.

12/12/08 Session

The 12/12 session will focus on multi-page stories. I want to see if they can write out a 5 page comic. I'll be covering how to plan a story ahead of time, such as answering certain questions and outlining the plot.

Comics used:

And Shine Heaven Now
Flight
Lil' Formers
Lovarian Adventures
Saturnalia
Something Like Life

12/5/08 Videos

There are five videos from the 12/5 session, a few of which are shorter clips put together.

12/5 Video 1



12/5 Video 2



12/5 Video 3



12/5 Video 4



12/5 Video 5

Evil Diva Joins!

Another great new comic has joined the project: Evil Diva by Pete Menotti and Brinson Thieme. I stumbled across this comic a couple months ago. It has a bright colorful style that makes it great for use with kids. I also like the variety of camera angles, which makes it good for demonstrating panel composition.

Post-Otakon Template Progress 7

No new archives trawling lately, but I have managed to create templates from some new comics:

Animenifesto
Erstwhile
Octopus Pie
Paradox Lost
Picatrix
Prophesy of Destiny
Red String
Reman Mythology
Snafu
Sugar Bits
Tin

I still need to get Robin Edwards comics, but I'm not sure I'll have it in time for next week, when a special CCP event will take place.

12/5/08 Session Stats

Here are the stats from the 12/5 session:

Comics collected: 47
Attendance: 5 full-time + 2 part-time = 6.0
Student efficiency: 7.83
Maximum possible: 54
Lesson efficiency: 0.87

One change in the calculations I've made is with students who showed up late in the session and didn't complete warm-up comics. I weighted them by 0.5 since they didn't have a chance to produce as many comics as a normal student. I think this makes the efficiency numbers more accurate than if I counted them the same as the others.

Abandon Joins the CCP!

Abandon: The First Vampire by Greg Carter and Elliot Dombo has joined the CCP! They agreed to join back in August at Otakon, but I only recently confirmed that was the case. I'm glad to have them on board.

12/5/08 Session Report

The 12/5 session went very well! Fridays are indeed much better days for the project. 5 children participated, with another 2 joining in toward the end. I'll have exact stats later. The lesson went well and the kids seemed to pay more attention to expressions in the end, especially a couple where the expressions hinted at a punchline.

This session also saw a test run of the new CCP camera: a Canon A590 I got in sale during Black Friday. It has a higher resolution and the ability to take longer video than the Canon S3 I'd been using, though it doesn't focus quite as fast. Overall I'm pleased with it and will be making use of it in the tournament. Pictures and videos from it will be posted soon.

12/5/08 Session

The theme for the 12/5 session is character expression, specifically paying attention to them. Kids tend to overlook how a character looks when writing their dialogue, so this will hopefully get them to notice. Basic pointers include what to look for on the face and body language.

Comic templates used:

Awkward Zombie
Goats
Lil' Formers
Lovarian Adventures
Okashina Okashi
Seasons of Constancy
Tracy and Tristan

11/12/08 Pictures

Pictures from the 11/12 session have been uploaded to Picasa.

11/12/08 Session

11/5/08 Pictures

Pictures from the 11/5 session have been uploaded to Picasa.

11/5/08 Session

12/5/08 Session

I'm shifting the 12/3 session to 12/5. There are more kids on Friday and I don't have class that day to interfere. So the upcoming session schedule is:

12/5
12/12
12/19
1/2/09 (Tentative)

No session on the 24th or 26th since there's no school then. I'm unsure when I'll be having sessions in January since I don't know my schedule for next semester yet.

10/22/08 Pictures

Photos from the 10/22 session have been uploaded to Picasa.

10/22/08 Session