A Sense of Doubt blog post #1699 - Watchmen Assignment - Fall 2019
Until the Winter of 2019, I hadn't taught Watchmen in a class room since 1988 or 1989. I think it was 1989, but I don't digital records of that time, at least not here. And all my paper files are back in Michigan.
Some of the materials I used, like the famous Comics Journal interview is now online, so it didn't matter that I could not find that issue of the journal when I was home in December.
I put a lot of thought and effort into this assignment. What is posted here is a revision of the assignment I used in January and previously posted to this blog.
Students choose a recent news story and write a short comic book script depicting it (though there is also a historical event option). I freely borrowed this idea from LCC faculty member and new friend/colleague Nicole DiGerlando, who does the assignment with Moore's V for Vendetta. Of course, I put my own spin on the idea.
Students also analyze the storytelling techniques of Watchmen. They will write about elements of Watchmen that inspired parts of their own comic script. (I HOPE).
It;'s a group assignment. People are working in teams of two, though one student alone because of an odd number of students.
I think it's pretty cool.
SOME OF MY PREVIOUS CONTENT
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1692 - Watchmen previews (and content) - new and old
and
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1468 - Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen Series is Coming to HBO Next Year!
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1447 - Alan Moore Legacy and Top Ten plus some comic book stuff
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1445 - My Watchmen Analysis for class - LCC - ENGLISH 101
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1440 - Re-Reading WATCHMEN
ANOTHER SCRIPT POST
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1441 - Script for Trees #1 - Warren Ellis
and one bit in the hodge podge
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1178 (SoD #1617) - 50 years ago - On the Moon - Throwback Thursday for 1907.25
ESSAY
FOUR -WATCHMEN for WRITING 121 and ENGLISH 101 - Concordia University and Lower Columbia College - FALL 2019
A BRIEF GLANCE at
REQUIREMENTS
This is collaborative writing project.
You and a partner will collaborate on both parts of this assignment. The
importance of collaborative writing for now and your future should be obvious.
For part one, you will analyze the story
and storytelling techniques of a single chapter and connect these to the larger
whole of the novel. The analysis will be in essay-paragraph form. It should
include pictures from the book. You will post this on a blog.
For part two, you will adapt a
relatively current news story to comic book script format. You are to consider
issues of ethos, pathos, and logos as well as kairos (timely, current) in
choosing your story. Think about how best to dramatize the story, how to
describe what the artist will draw to depict the story in DETAIL, and how best
to convey important information with metacommentary as explained in class
lecture (and the TSIS text).
Peer review = differs at each school
Final Draft submission (paper and online) =
MINIMUM LENGTH = Part One, analysis:
750 words - five paragraphs.
Part two, COMIC SCRIPT: Eight pages of comic
book script.
MINIMUM SOURCE USE PART
TWO =
TWO sources minimum: one must be a news article from a credible source. The
news article is your CORE SOURCE. At least one other source for background and
context.
MINIMUM NUMBER OF CITES = Four minimum: one
from each source and an extra.
HOW TO COLLABORATE
As to how you manage to collaborate, I
leave this to you to decide. Can you do it all or almost completely remotely?
Do you wish to meet and work together to at least lay foundation and set tasks,
meeting once or twice more to review, revise, and polish? We can and should
discuss collaborative process in class. I am as curious about what you devise
as I am about what I might advise.
PART ONE OF THE ESSAY
FOUR ASSIGNMENT - the analysis
YOUR COMMENTARY AND
ANALYSIS OF WATCHMEN: - In addition to your comic script, you will
need to write some analysis.
ANALYZE how Watchmen tells its
story. What story-telling techniques do the creators employ to tell the story?
Examine the art, the composition of the
page, the sequencing, the way the frame chooses what you see and restricts what
you do not, the colors, and any factors that contribute to telling the story.
Examine the writing. How does the
writing affect how character develops, the plot, themes, irony, deeper meaning,
and more.
With your partner, write five paragraphs
analyzing elements of the book. Add content on what you have learned from
analyzing the story-telling techniques of Watchmen that you used in
your own script. Also, add some general remarks on why we read this book as
detailed next.
PICTURES: Include pictures from
the book with your analysis. Refer to the art and/or writing directly as shown
in these graphics. Alternately, you may be quoting or describing writing and
art in your text as well.
ADD SOME CONTENT ON WHY
DO WE READ WATCHMEN? This content could be ideal in the
introduction or the conclusion or both. Issues and educational goals to examine
and/or achieve: Purpose, audience, storytelling techniques,
exposition/dialogue/narrative, the connections, commentary on current
events(kairos), Developing critical ideas about current and historical ideas,
argument and persuasion. How do we influence people with our writing? How does Watchmen
influence its audience?
What would possess a person to dress in
a colorful costume, hide her/his identity, strive to good deeds (or ill deeds)?
POSTING: Submit this work in a
blog and submit the blog link to a discussion. Respond as per requirements.
PART TWO OF THE ESSAY
FOUR ASSIGNMENT - the SCRIPT
BASICS: Choose a news story
and adapt it as a comic book script as a means to practice description,
dramatizing news, thinking about bias and credibility, alternate means to
convey information, and just because it should BE FUN. :-)
PROCESS AND STAGES OF
DEVELOPMENT
- By “you” here in this list, I mean
teams of TWO.
- Choose your core source – a recent
news article.
- PITCH your idea on the discussion
board.
- BRAINSTORM - examine samples of comic
scripts, contemplate Watchmen, choose a purpose, choose how to tell the
story (narrator?).
- BEGIN WRITING: You may wish to sketch
thumbnails and rough out the “beats” of the story.
- FIND ADDITIONAL SOURCES: Any good news
story will provide avenues for you to add more sources. What these are will
depend on your news story. But it’s best to choose a news story for which you
will need a little background and context.
- FINISH ROUGHING: Whatever process, you
choose you will finish a rough version of your story.
- FINALIZE IN COMIC SCRIPT FORMAT: Using
a sample script or the official template, write your comic script in an
established format that will make sense to your audience (editors and artists).
- BE PLEASED WITH YOURSELVES! You did
it!! Submit your work as a paper document and online via the classroom
submission tool.
DETAILS AND
EXPLANATIONS IN ABUNDANCE
BEFORE #1. WHY ARE WE
DOING THIS?
It is useful to our purposes to think
about different ways to write, how we write differently to different audiences,
and how forms will change the modes we use to convey ideas, the language we
use, and even the ideas themselves.
I try to create assignments that I would
enjoy doing. This is one that I very much enjoy.
1. Pitch idea for comic
script
Use the provided discussion board to
pitch your idea for your comic script by the posted deadline and then respond
to two classmates by the final due date.
Your pitch should contain
- a description of your idea,
- the purpose for how you will
communicate about your idea, and
- the recent and credible news
article that will form the core of your idea.
- THINK STORY. You want an “incident.”
- NO SPORTS.
- Local news, maybe, depends.
- Think national or international news.
2. PURPOSES FOR YOUR
COMIC SCRIPT
- to inform: basically, teach a
current event or a current event that opens a subject of inquiry. FOCUS. In
this mode, your tone can be light-hearted or serious. You will make
meta-commentary on your ideas even if it’s not quite as persuasive as the next
purpose; use metacommentary to clarify and elaborate.
- inform with
commentary: teach
about a news event but with opinion as an added element. In this mode, your
meta-commentary will ward off misunderstandings, qualify which claims are
important, and anticipate objections among other uses.
- PARODY/SATIRE: Like Mad Magazine, The
Onion, Cracked, and more: How can you express opinions AND mock at the same
time. If you choose this avenue, you may use an existing fictional story to
parody a news article; for instance, The Mueller of Oz (aping the Wizard of Oz
and Mueller investigation). Use EITHER parody OR satire. These are different
animals as will be explained in class.
Metacommentary in parody or satire must
be delivered via a narrator who jokes, jibes, quips, and japes at and about
your main content.
3. BRAINSTORM
- Let the research drive your work.
- Have an idea? Hunt for a news article.
- Have no ideas? Hunt for news articles.
Scroll through Twitter feed. Look at news sites, like the BBC or CNN. Look at
fake news sites, like The Onion.
WANT FUNNY? - You
cannot choose a “joke” news story for your core source, but if you want to do
parody, these sites will give you ideas. You may make fun of a serious news
story.
4. CHOOSING THE RIGHT
ARTICLE: WHAT IS KAIROS?
Kairos basically means “timely” or “at
the right time,” and is a term we use in rhetoric to think about how we write,
why we write, and the purpose of how our writing may strongly affect our
audience.
Your idea will need to exhibit kairos.
And when you write about your idea, which you will do in the second part of
this assignment, you will need to define kairos and defend your idea as
“timely” and why it is timely.
I will provide EXAMPLES via CLASS
INSTRUCTION.
- What is a current
event?
I am defining a current event as one
that has taken place since 2018-2019. Your news article will have to be from
2018 or later to qualify.
You need to share a current news article
as a core source.
5. ETHOS, LOGOS, and
PATHOS
These components are known as the
rhetorical triangle, and their origins can be traced back to Aristotle. We can
use these modes of discourse to make stronger appeals to readers.
You are tasked with using these modes of
appeal in your writing for this assignment.
ETHOS - a measure of the
writer’s credibility and character. Think reliability. See it as an ethical
appeal. Writer’s appeal.
LOGOS - this one relates to
logic and reason. It’s the core of the argument – its text – what is being
argued and how. Think evidence. Think authority. The text’s appeal.
PATHOS - PASSION, emotions,
beliefs, values, and the sympathetic imagination comprise this appeal. This is
usually considered the audience’s part in the process – what emotions has the
writer engaged in the audience.
See links. Extra direction for this part
of the assignment will be given in class.
https://www.lsu.edu/hss/english/files/university_writing_files/item35402.pdf
(also see attached)
6. SOME THINGS ARE NOT
FUNNY
Some things are not funny. I do not
think everything can or should be mocked. Some disagree. I do not think rape is
funny. I do not think child abuse is funny. BUT mocking the trouble Adrian
Peterson got in for his extreme corporeal punishment of his children could be
funny. What Bill Cosby did to so many women is not funny at all, but a parody
of the Cosby show with references to his crimes might be funny, or at least
some people will find it funny.
I recommend that you use your own
judgement when it comes to humor if you choose it as your purpose for this
assignment.
I try to use my best judgement in the
classroom with my use of humor, and still things fly out of my mouth that, upon
further consideration, I might not normally say out loud. I ask you to cut me
some slack as I am YOUR TV SHOW and I am doing STAND UP just as I would cut you
a lot of slack. You would have to work pretty hard to offend me.
6. THE COMIC SCRIPT
WRITING THE SCRIPT
FIRST, choose how you are TELLING THE
STORY. You have to choose one method and stick with it. News Broadcast is
the only method that can be mixed with one of the other methods.
NOTE: Metacommentary will be easier with
a narrator.
- PICTURED NARRATOR: Like Understanding
Comics or The Influencing Machine, you create a character who
speaks to the reader directly, breaking the “fourth wall” as in the wall
between the characters and the reader.
- UNPICTURED NARRATOR: Like Rorschach’s
journal, this narrator is simply sharing the story but not DIRECTLY with the
reader. The fourth wall is not broken.
- NO NARRATOR -
DIALOGUE ONLY: The
story does not employ a narrator. Instead the story’s writer creates a
situation in which the characters discuss things and convey information through
their dialogue. This method is difficult to pull off as there IS NOT NARRATION.
- NEWS BROADCAST: This method to deliver
exposition may be combined with one of the other methods. You describe panels
set in a TV news room and news anchors are delivering the news.
- OMNISCIENCE (limited) - The
Narrator exists but is unseen and unnamed, like Stan Lee, who was often
“telling us” the story in the Marvel comic. In some cases, the “telling” feels
more overt, like Stan Lee, and in other cases more like a hint, much less
obvious. In fiction, this method follows only one character. In comics, the POV
can often hop around from character to character, and yet notice how in Watchmen,
many of the issues are centered on a specific character and the chapter tells
his or her story or he or she actually narrates, such as with both Rorschach
and Dr. Manhattan.
- OMNISCIENCE (total) - No clear
feeling that the narration comes from a speaker. There’s no sense of a person
in the narration at all, and the mode of story telling does NOT focus on a
character’s POV, like the character-centered approach of some Watchmen
chapters mentioned with limited omniscience.
There’s no “right” answer here. Choose
the method that works best for you and your story. Choose the method you like
best.
THE CONTENT
- Use the samples comic scripts to write
your own script.
- Examine the various comic book scripts
I share in files (or even look around on the Internet yourself) and create AT
LEAST the minimum page count.
FORMAT = Your script must be in
some comic script form that makes sense. You will see that in the samples each
writer uses a different method, but there are many similarities.
- THERE’S A COMIC SCRIPT TEMPLATE, and
you may use it.
- Document should be printed on paper
and submitted as Word file. PUT YOUR NAME IN THE FILE NAME, LIKE THIS
-
TowerChrisandElliotVanglore_EssayTwoComicScript_C1_F19.docx
MINIMUM LENGTH = Eight pages of comic
book script; each page must contain a minimum of four panels. One page may be a
splash page. **** Of the minimum 32 panels, 25 of them must contain captions
and/or dialogue. **** Please consider exceeding the length minimum.
SPLASH PAGE: A splash page is a
single page in a comic book that often (though not always) contains the title
and creator information. As it is not always the title page, it can appear
anywhere in a comic book. If you use one (and you don’t have to), it can be any
of your five pages. A splash page features no panels. It is one giant panel
that fills the page.
DESCRIPTION OF VISUALS
TO ARTIST: One
thing that makes a comic script unique – even more unique than a film script –
is that it provides somewhat detailed (some more so than others) descriptions
of what the artists needs to show in the frame. BUT often comic book writers
are careful not to tell the artist how to draw the imagery. Some give more
information and direction than others. It’s a working relationship between two
creators. But a good comic book writer will give the artist lots of freedom to,
well, BE AN ARTIST while at the same time making sure every detail is accounted
for. As an example, Alan Moore planned every sign, match book cover, piece of
paper that looks like trash, product name, EVERYTHING. It was all part of
constructing his world: Gunga Diner, Promethean Cab Company, ads of Veidt’s
Nostalgia, and so much more are in his script. So, DESCRIBE the panel and then
provide CAPTION and/or DIALOGUE in script form as per the samples.
You will be graded on how well you
describe the art to be shown in the panels and how well you have thought out
the way to convey your news story and information in a story format.
************** BEWARE of
describing too much action in one panel; think of how an artist would
draw what you are describing.
HEY, WHAT IF I HAVE NOT
READ COMICS BEFORE AND HAVE NEVER WRITTEN A SCRIPT? I suspect that most of
the students in my class will be neophytes to this kind of thing and possibly
to comics as an art form. BE OPEN to this work. It’s just story telling. Tell a
story. Think about the pictures. A story with pictures. The assignment poses an
exercise in visual thinking.
MORE ABOUT THE SCRIPT
This assignment is about TELLING A
STORY. Think of it as a story. Learn lessons of how to tell a story from Watchmen and
from the sample comic book scripts.
Tell your story and meet the minimums
(you may exceed). Give the story a clear beginning, middle, and ending. Use
characters freely, but as you introduce them, you must describe them. Again,
see the comic script samples. One caveat is that some scripts lack character
descriptions because the characters were already defined. I have tried to
provide several samples that do contain character information. These
descriptions do not have to be lengthy.
For example, here’s a description from
Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Bitch Planet, issue #3: “Adult Penny Rolle, in a
jumpsuit of some kind that is NOT the NC Bitch Planet uniform. Something akin
to scrubs, I'm thinking? She's a huge woman -- fat, fat, fat -- with a swathe
of curls on the left side of her head and otherwise bald. She is not shackled –
her arms hang at her sides. Let's have a good look at her. Don't apologize for
the rolls.”
SOURCES: Your story has to be
the product of some small amount of research. As such, cite like a traditional
essay with in text cites and end references in the script itself. Character
dialogue and/or captions may contain direct quotes from sources, which is okay,
as long as you are citing. Meet the minimums as detailed here:
MINIMUM SOURCE USE = Three sources
minimum: one must be a current news article from a credible source (not a
joke).
MINIMUM NUMBER OF CITES = Four minimum: one
from each source and an extra.
Have fun!!! This assignment is supposed
to be fun.
Anything I have forgotten will be
explained in class or announcements.
I have more thoughts on why this comic
and why comics in this class that I plan to write out on my blog. Stay tuned!
Thanks for your hard work and
conscientious attitudes. - chris
Put the FUN in FUNky.
WHY DO WE READ WATCHMEN? Issues and educational goals to examine and/or achieve: Purpose, audience, storytelling techniques, exposition/dialogue/narrative, the connections, commentary on current events(kairos), Developing critical ideas about current and historical ideas, argument and persuasion. How do we influence people with our writing? How does Watchmen influence its audience?
I have more thoughts on why this comic and why comics in this class that I plan to write out on my blog. Stay tuned!
COMIC SCRIPTS like this one: BITCH-PLANET-3_Kelly-Sue-DeConnick.pdf
All in a folder called COMIC SCRIPTS in files.
There is a template:
Comic-Experience-Script-Template-2013-10-05.doc
EXTRAS
SEARCH - "Watchmen comic book script" the full comic
https://www.scribd.com/doc/13749342/Watchmen-comic-full
COMIC JOURNALISM
http://www.tcj.com/reviews/journalism/
WATCHMEN STUFF
Watchmen and Intertextuality:
How Watchmen Interrogates the Comics Tradition
by Julian Darius | in Articles | Mon, 21 March 2005
http://sequart.org/magazine/2664/watchmen-and-intertextuality-how-watchmen-interrogates-the-comics-tradition/
Why does “Watchmen” use the 9-panel grid?
https://literature.stackexchange.com/questions/2558/why-does-watchmen-use-the-9-panel-grid
WATCHMEN - LIT STACK EXCHANGE
https://literature.stackexchange.com/search?q=Watchmen
Why Is Watchmen So Important?
https://io9.gizmodo.com/why-is-watchmen-so-important-5162302
A Reflection on Watchmen: The Power of Color
http://graphicnovel.umwblogs.org/2015/09/28/a-reflection-on-watchmen-the-power-of-color/
Banned Books - Watchmen
https://thecomicbookteacher.com/2014/09/25/banned-books-week-watchmen/
COMICS JOURNAL - ALAN MOORE INTERVIEW 1987
http://www.tcj.com/the-alan-moore-interview-118/
Watchmen: Comics and Literature Collide
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1604&context=etd
Alan Moore, Watchmen and some notes on the ideology of superhero comics
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233486774_Alan_Moore_Watchmen_and_some_notes_on_the_ideology_of_superhero_comics
ARCHIVE OF THE FUTURE: ALAN MOORE’S WATCHMEN AS HISTORIOGRAPHIC NOVEL
https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/english-association/publications/peer-english/4/2%20Tony%20Venezia%20-%20Archive%20of%20the%20Future.pdf
“Watchmen: Deconstructing the Superhero”
https://library.ndsu.edu/ir/bitstream/handle/10365/22356/Watchmen.pdf?sequence=1
On the Boundaries of Watchmen-Paratextual Narratives across Media
https://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:869023/FULLTEXT01.pdf
‘‘Who Watches the Watchmen?’’: Ideology and ‘‘Real World’’ Superheroes
JAMIE A. HUGHES
Under the Mask_Non-Normative Sexuality in Alan Moore’s Watchmen
https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/unca/f/T_Smith_Superhero_2017.pdf
GENERAL DISCUSSION AND INTERVIEWS
https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/24093/what-are-the-qualities-of-watchmen-unique-to-comics-and-in-which-way-did-the-mov/24131
REVIEWS
https://geekreply.com/uncategorized/2015/05/08/10-recommended-comics-watchmen
WATCHMEN TV SHOW - HBO
https://io9.gizmodo.com/these-watchmen-set-pictures-seemingly-reveal-the-fate-o-1826760037
and
https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-cast-of-hbos-watchmen-has-been-revealed-and-the-fan-1826269382
DAMON LINDELOF'S LETTER about the new TV show for HBO
https://io9.gizmodo.com/damon-lindelof-unveils-his-bold-plans-for-the-watchmen-1826239088
SCRIPTS
http://www.scriptsandscribes.com/sample-comic-scripts/
http://www.comicbookscriptarchive.com/archive/the-scripts/
MAIN : http://comicbookscriptarchive.com/archive/
http://www.comicsexperience.com/scripts/
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1910.13 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1562 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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