Comments on Comics for Consumer Communication

Theresa Putkey — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:11:07 GMT

Rahel – thanks for the great case study. I liked the detail in how you managed the publication and appreciated how the article was down-to-earth, practical, and educational.

Why did the shirt have to be plaid, btw?

Rahel Anne Bailie — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:55:48 GMT

One of the then project sponsors of these publications in the Native Services Department contacted me to clarify some points, which I’d like to state here: “As part of of Native Programs for LSS at the time I [Bernee Boulton] would like to point out that it was I, who along with Penny Desjarlais who came up with the initial idea for this project. I invited Candis Callison to the project. It was she who suggested the most talented Brian for the project.” By omission of the details, I did not intend to diminish the most important role of Bernee and Penny in sponsoring and directing these publications, and my memory failed me in remembering who had referred whom for the project. Without Penny, and certainly without Bernee, this project could not have happened, and certainly wouldn’t have been as successful as it was!

Rahel Anne Bailie — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:28:09 GMT

We – the artist, the writer, and I – did go through a thumbnail/storyboard process to work out the various aspects of the publication. I glossed over this part in the first paragraph under “How This Book Came About” but can describe it a bit more here. We had a field worker and in-house lawyer describe to the artist and script writer what a typical case and legal process would be. The artist went away and did some rough storyboards, providing some options for drawings. A few of them were just for comic relief (no pun intended) – we knew that they might reflect reality but we wouldn’t be able to use them. The writer wrote the dialogue, but because she was used to writing for television, sometimes she would write in actions which, of course, wouldn’t work in a static medium like paper. So I edited down the script in the first pass, and then worked with the artist to fit the script to his drawings. We calculated the right number of drawings, chose from the ones he’d drawn, added in a few more to be drawn, adjusted the script to fit, and so on, until it all worked.

Then, we had to run the final product by the legal team again to make sure that the fiddling we did hadn’t changed any of the legal context. I don’t think the publication is available online, but I could ask the agency if they could put it online or for permission to put it online. If they don’t want it online, it would be because laws have changed, and they wouldn’t want legal info to be out there that’s past its due date, so to speak.

I. G. — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:16:39 GMT

Why plaid shirt? A wifebeater would have been even more appropriate.

Scott McDaniel — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:36:16 GMT

I think my last comment got lost in the ether. If so, this one can be deleted.

Nice job on the article! As a comic artist and an interaction designer I’m always interested to see project like this. Comics are often seen as a second class medium, something that Scott McCloud argues against quite well in Understanding Comics. Did you encounter any resistance to using them along the lines of comics being “kids stuff”?

I’m also curious as to whether you and the artist went through a thumbnail/storyboard process to work out the pacing, panel placement, and story elements before beginning on the final artwork. It’s a process that serves the same purpose as paper-prototyping in UI design or playtesting in game design. Finally, are the complete comics available online in any form?