Wells Press Comics-C.J.B

Transcription

1 Wells Press Comics-C.J.B Hi. I m C.J.B. I use this alias as to keep my identity safe for the most part. Plus, It s easier to type. If you know me already, however, I m the one that made cartoons, though I always called them comics, for the Wells Middle School Newspaper Staff in the eighth grade. So, to keep them timeless, I decided to show them off here. I ve always loved to draw, and seeing how our newspaper was just words for the most part, I decided to add some humor without too many ugly, boring words (the irony in this is that this is a 126 word paragraph). The jokes are pretty corny for the most part, but Mr. McAnany loved them, so I m not complaining. This collection consists of the monthly comics, or political cartoons to me more precise, that I put out in the multiple issues throughout the year, each one having something to to with the month or commentary that usually went alongside it. Each title will be accompanied by finished date (or at least close to it), when the artwork is finished and ready for scanning. Each one has a story behind it, just know that many of them are packed with references to something. Many of mine, at least. One of the comics, shown at the end of this section, isn t mine; it the winner of a comic contest, which ended a small unit I organized with Mr. McAnany regarding the topic of comics. The idea came when I realized that the people in the Media class believed that they couldn t draw, which I decided to disprove by creating a quick, but interactive animation with a how to on how to draw a stick figure, which gave me an easy 400 points into my grade. This lead to an assignment where the students would create a comic, and the best one would be published in the newspaper, the cartoonist receiving 200 points that went into their grade. I, of course helped decide the final one, which will be presented here in this collection.

2 August something (24?), Newsi Comics: #1, Vending Machine Madness September Issue This was our first cartoon, debuting in the first school issue of the year. It was paired with an article regarding the disseverance of one of our vending machines (it had bugs in it). The girl is named September to go along with the date the Issue came out. The Strap-Guy in the second panel has no real name, and you ll never see him again. On the machine, I hid messages in them for the reader to find. The second panel on the top left says : FF: Rulers are the best thing ever. I put this because at the time (and not really even now), I needed to use a ruler on paper. Overtime, I learned that thickening the outer lines made cropping a lot easier and that geometry is useful in life. When you re Outlining comics, that is. FF: Rulers are the best thing ever What FF stands for? Like seriously, I don t actually know.

3 September,???, Newsi Comics #2: Oh, The Irony/ Netflix and Pay October Issue This piece is particularly special because he s been used before in an old animation for the Geography portion of our Student Showcases from the spring of Our character is Kul Gai (pun entirely intended) and is from South Korea, but has recently moved to America. Here, he s trying to enjoy a movie on NITEFLOOKS, but instead has to sit and probably read a book. Here, Kul is sitting at home as he decides not to go to the Halloween Dance, hoping to enjoy a movie or two on the off-brand movie service NITEFLOOKS, which halts your movie - viewing until you pay the correct fee. The alert was worded to sound like a store clerk fed up with one of their reoccurring customers, the one that either never seems to be quiet or a line takes five hours to get through. I bring up that he s Korean as in the Showcase, I (or at least the character representing me) went on a trip to South Korea; He was my tour guide. Here, Kul looks quite different from the first art style (shown to the left). Now days his hair is a lot more spikier than it used to be. It also seems that his hand is less broken He was a pretty cool guy C.J.B, 2017 compared to this close up picture.

4 November 28th, December Issue December Issue Meet Dr. Sembar, a science researcher from the year 2848 that has discovered an old box television. This piece came alongside my own commentary on the school s old, abandoned TV s that sit in one of the top corners of each of the classrooms, with exception of the rooms that were originally the old cafeteria (the one the Dome, A.K.A Catoosa Cafeteria replaced). As you can see, unlike the last couple of cartoons, this actually has color, though limited to blue, brown, yellow, green and a tiny bit of red. The idea in itself should be self-explanatory, but in case you didn t realize, it s a reference to old 90 s video game music, a classic meme a viral internet joke that not everyone understands, but it s funny anyway; classic referring to the Classic Era of memes which spanned from the early 2000s-2010s and the negative outlook some people have to modern music on the radio. Because this was in the December issue, our main character is named accordingly. Dr. Sembar, s name helped shape the comic s initial setting. I forget the name of the construction worker listening to musician the back, but I m sure his first name was Chris. Looking back, Harry Holiday sounds a lot better. As we see, assuming there will still be corded earbuds in the future, he must have overheard him talking.

5 Now, here s an interesting story on my commentary. The title isn t mine, as it s too pessimistic for my taste. The original title was Blast to the Past: Not-so-Stone Age Learning Tech. See how more lighthearted that sounds? Now, I like Mr. McAnany, our editor, and all, but this is something I didn t agree with. Funny thing, I actually told him that I didn t want the title, but I couldn t get through to him. His reason being my description of a dull-colored box with a curved piece of glass on the front and a mess of wires hanging down from the back. I admit, the description could have been a little more enthusiastic, but that doesn t change the fact that I wrote how I thought. Thing about me is, I write how something is. I feel it s easier to understand that way. The description was meant to bring the image of one of these TVs back into your mind. After all that, there s nothing I can do to change it now. All that really matters is that the content of the commentary itself has only been edited, not altered. Thankfully, it hasn t, despite it s format being more akin to your typical news article than a Commentary.

6 February 19th, SPRING BREAK: Expectations VS. Reality March Issue This one was a fun one to make because I got to use my new brush markers, with actual line-art pens instead. They cost $20.00 for a pack of nine colors and a blending tool (that s how you know they re good, unless you got them off Ebay, that s when you get skeptical). This was also fun because I decided to make it all official with notes and whatnot, blending on the side, a draft title, even how many centimeters the sides are. However, I am sad that I might have actually used up the only blue marker in my set, strange, I know. My inspiration came from the ideal spring break, as seen with the first panel, which was directly taken from the musical The Sound of Music, the first scene in the Twentieth Century Fox film version to be exact, and the reality of a typical Oklahoma spring. Thing is, at the time of writing this, no tornadoes have touched down, yet. This is the first and last full-color issue for the year, and boy, do I like going out with a bang, but this isn t the last thing in this collection.

7 Before we continue to the final comic, I want to present the talk sprites for the animation I did for the Cartoon Unit. I titled each one How to Draw Art followed with the page number, or part. The format is based on a type used on commentary videos usually seen in the art/ animation community on Youtube. This way, it s easier to represent yourself without having to use your own face. Plus, people, such as myself, love animation, and I provided. See where I m going with this? Below Screen

8 MR. I CAN T DRAW ANYTHING Only 70 s to 90 s kids will get that or you just know Jim Carry

9 Finally, we have our contest winner, Harley Rusher s Anxiety. As the title implies, this comic is about the struggles of dealing with anxiety. At the time of creating this cartoon, Harley expresses her feelings when it comes dealing with anxiety, so she gave it a body. The body of a judgmental monster. The way the monster talks reminds me of an abuser of some sorts, like an overbearing parent or partner. I asked her what kind of monster it was physically; it was the only one she could give me, but she also describes it as a voice, as the comic shows. The way the monster speaks reminds me of an abuser of some sorts, like an overbearing parent or partner. Over all, comics, or cartoons are made to portray a story that words can t always tell. Yes, words help convey the underlying message to the reader, but would rather show it through expressions, color, gestures and emotions than to try and tell the reader on it s own. While my comics are more of a relatable slice of life, created mainly so the newspaper s appeal would go up, this one tells a story of the daily life of a social anxious person.

10 Believe it or not, I ve been working on one last comic for the May issue while working on this anthology. It s called Last Few Days of School. It s a prediction on how one might feel on the last week before summer break. I m especially proud of this one because I managed to draw dynamic and depth right. However, some of the edges are a little smudged do to a new Sharpie pen being used. Thankfully, It didn t ruin the image too much. If you look behind our main character in the first panel, you can see September with an elongated neck as she snacks on her favorite life-source, a good bag o chips. This piece in particular was based off of the manga style, from the angles to the expressions. The main character s mouth in the second panel is a direct reference to Echiiro Oda s manga series One Piece (recommended for pirate lovers). I hope this brought some light to some of the hidden gems of our school, even if most of them are my own. I wanted to present to you that even in an environment that seems like prison, you can be free to express yourself however you want, even if feel you ll be ignored to some degree. If you liked these comics, thank you! If you didn t, forgive me. All of these are just the representation of the school year here at Wells Middle School, for me, at least. Good bye, with some riddance and tidings to all who have read this entire anthology. I do hope you have a good rest of your twenty-eighteen!