Once upon a time, in a far-away country called England, American Studies major Steve had a brilliant idea: he would include comics in his creative thesis. Via the wonders of the Internet, Steve proposed the idea to his at-home Wesleyan buddy Adam, a Studio Art major. Now both on home turf, the two are working hard at the project. The goal: a 170-page thesis, 120 of story and 50 of comic book-style drawings. A sneak-peak quotation from the story:
“The spotlight comes up. Bright lights reflect off clean floors. Our hero is blinded and shudders as he enters through the two sets of automatic doors. The scent of the mall begins to filter through his clogged nose. It does more to wake him up than an alarm or a cup of coffee could ever do. It is olefactory terrorism.”
CH: Tell me a little about your thesis, Steve.
SM: I was on a creative writing program in England, and I started out with a story about a kid who gets kicked out of high school because he’s in the middle of trying to do a peaceful protest type thing, and he’s been in a lot of trouble already, and in this protest he gets so involved in his imagination that he starts smoking a cigarette in school, and he gets expelled. From there, I realized that I wanted to talk more about his parents’ relationships, so I placed the dreams that he has throughout the story—both day and night—in comic book style. I knew that comics was something I wanted to do for a long time. I’ve always loved the Roald Dahl books where Quentin Blake does those little drawings that really show the world that the people are a part of, that define a lot of what you think, about how the characters interact.
CH: Do you want to be involved in comic books yourself after graduation?
Steve: Ideally, I’d like to write coming-of-age novels, children books, and comics.
CH: Do you draw yourself?
Steve: I’m actually in Drawing I this semester.
CH: So this is where Adam comes in.
AT: Yeah. Steve just came up to me one day and was like, “Hey man, do you want to illustrate my thesis?” And I was like, “Yeah man, cool!” So–
SM: This is impressive, because it was over IM, and I was in England.
AT: But anyway, I thought it was an interesting idea. I now realize that this is going to take up a lot of my time, so Steve talked to me about getting credit for it. We talked to Lesley Snipes [Assistant Professor of Art] –she is 200 percent cool—and she allowed me to get a Studio credit for drawing comics. We jumped into character design early. We got some people to stand up and model for us. I’ve gone back and forth on costumes and character types, and I think I’m angling more towards anime—
SM: And I’m really resisting that.
AT: —but Steve has the ultimate say in it.
[They discuss the drawing style for a while and show me groovy comics]
SM: This is why I asked Adam to do it. I figure there’s no better time than now. I don’t pay for food or housing, I’m surrounded by artistic people who have enough free time to help. This is a stepping-stone, something I can do, a story I really like. In writing as much as I have been, I realize my own immaturity as a writer at this point. I’m really learning the basics right now. But I like the themes—when does imagination get pushed into the background, when does being cool become important [during a child’s growth]—and I like my ideas. I know that I can constantly work to be a better writer, and this has gone through tons of revisions already.
AT: Plus there are guitars with chainsaws, and a flamethrower that comes out of the guitar. It’s so hot.
SM: Yeah, there are some cool things in there. It’s like a dirty fairy tale, in a way.
AT: Oh, we want to make a general call for people who know about Photoshop, and would like to do lay out. We’re not going to pay them, but we could definitely use people who know what they’re doing.
**If you are interested in helping with lay out, contact Adam at x7620.
Leave a Reply