The Secret Language of Comics

At school, I don’t usually carry a bag with me. I don’t have strong object permanence, so when I can attach something to myself (via pockets and lanyards), I do. But when I work I do tend to take a bag with me since I usually can’t tie a lot of stuff down to me while I’m on the sales floor. My work bag usually consists of:

1. The bag itself, a 8 dollar EarthBound canvas tote. (Lots of space, cheap, compact)
2. My lunch. (Food in the mall I work at is expensive, so I just get something on the way and save it)
3. Whatever crochet project I am currently working on. (despite me not having time to crochet at work)
4. Crochet hook (For said project I never work on)
5. Yarn (Good for getting tangled in my bag)
6. Scissors (For the crochet project but also just extremely useful in life.)
7. Some trash I threw in there randomly (Because I couldn’t be bothered to find a can)

The picture in kinda cramped bc the only way to get good light in my room is to stuff all the contents in my small photo both. However, in a way I feel like this helps paint a better picture of myself. I am an extremely disorganized person, this messy cramped space helps to illustrate this.

What’s in my bag:

1. My calculator for calculations on the go!
2. Another Mask to protect myself.
3. My air pods to listen to music to avoid small talk with strangers.
4. A snack because sometimes you get a little hungry.
5. My computer and its charger to do school work.
6. A pen.
7. A water bottle because it is good to stay hydrated. I use bottled water because I have a bad habit of losing my reusable water bottle.
8. My iPad and Apple Pencil so I can take digital notes.
9. I usually have Blistex or some type of lip balm, but I can never seem to find them when I need them.
10. Eye drops for the days I wear contacts because I was not gifted with 20/20 vision. (If I am wearing glasses a cleaning wipe)
11. And I usually have a book that I am reading for one of my seminar classes.
12. Also my bag I don’t use it much now that I am doing work at home so I did not include it in the picture.
13. My phone and my wallet are not included in the picture but are also things that I have in my bag.
14. My Keys, we have been in this pandemic for so long that I have not really needed my keys, and thus do not have a clue to where they might be.

Due to the pandemic, I have not really needed to pack a bag, so I tried to be as accurate as possible with the things I included. So I tried to fit things in my bag that I would think I would need for a full day of classes if I was going somewhere. In my description, I tried to justify why I had certain things in my bag, a little funny, and hint at bits of my personality. This image is a pretty accurate depiction of what I keep in my bag because I tend to be very practical about the things I carry. I do not want my bag to get too heavy. The image also hints at my inability to keep up with a water bottle and other things, which some people can relate to. Despite my best efforts to have a reusable water bottle, I have lost so many of them at this point, I have lost hope. But this Sunday sketch was a fun way of presenting myself and thinking about the things that I use daily.

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1. My Wallet
2. Carmex
3. A Wrist Brace
4. Car Keys with pepper spray and a Rock Lee keychain
5. A Pouch with Masks
6. Nametag for work
7. Boxcutter also for work
8. Random change
9. Sharpie
10. Retainer Case

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My cousins actually got me this black elephant bag from Claires years ago. I have used it on and off, but now it’s my go to bag because I can be kinda rough with it. I always keep it on the floor of my room and if I need to go anywhere I can just grab it and go. As for the contents, a wallet is very necessary because it has my money and license. Though I never go out specially to shop or go get necessities, I only leave my house is to go to work. There are a few reasons for that. First, I kinda live in the middle of nowhere, so to go to Walmart or work I have to drive 30+mins. With the pandemic, my dad was the assigned person to get groceries, and it’s still like that. On to the next item, I always have chapped lips, so I make to have some sort of lip balm around me. The wrist brace is for when I work. I think it is pretty obvious to figure out where I work. Chick-Fil-A. I bought the wrist brace to wear when I am taking orders on IPads because the IPads are heavy and very uncomfortable to hold. I got weak wrists :(. The nametag, boxcutter, and sharpie are also for work. Next is my car keys which I love because of the Rock Lee ( a Naruto character ) on it and bells on it that you can’t see that well in the photo. The bells are very convenient when I need to make sure I have my keys inside the black abyss of my bag. I can just shake the bag to hear the bells. The dotted pouch as an assortment of mask though I usually wear the mask from my CFA uniform. The last item is my retainer case. I always keep that on me even though I can go without wearing my retainer for 10 hours per day. Speaking of that, I need to schedule an orthodontist appointment.

Looking back at before the pandemic, I had everything in my backpack and more things. I like to be prepared and more. I usually had a mini first aid kit in my backpack with extra hair ties and whatnot. I also have extra things in my car as well like a blanket, small pillow, towels, hairbrush, jacket, and masks. I find comfort in have a lot of things that I know will be useful for me or others in the future. I think that my bag and its contents represent the pandemic version of me. To be honest, I just shove things in the bag and have to rummage through it all for a while to find what I need. It’s an organized chaos which I think describes me perfectly.

Contents: Emory Binder, Lab Manual, Lab Notebook, Macbook pro, USB C Charging Cord, Emory Planner, Sunglasses, Airpods, Pen

Overall, I did not find this sketch assignment too difficult. Given that we are living in a pandemic, I only use my backpack only a couple times a week. When I do, I usually have most of my Chemistry supplies because my Chemistry class and lab are in-person. Therefore, I use the binder for all the worksheets that I receive during Chem lecture and use the lab manual and notebook during lab. Also, I use my computer to complete several assignments for my classes, and I use a planner to keep track of my work for the week. As for sunglasses and airpods, I use those on an impromptu basis given the environment around me. After looking at what is inside my bag, I feel like it is very representative of me as a student because I am quite minimal on the resources that I typically use.

Name: Martin H.

Occupation: Student at Emory

Contents: Macbook Pro, Wallet, Drivers License, Credit Card, Debit Card, Trident Gum, Disposable Film Camera, Airpods, Keys, Cat Keychain, Hand Sanitizer, TI-84, Macbook Charger, Lightning to usb-c cord, Macbook HDMI-USB-USB-C Dongle, iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, Herschel Supply Backpack, and a Banana for scale.

I’m not sure how to explain it but I feel like this is very representative of me as a person. Part of it is also due the fact that I can recognize that this are my belongings. Some choices I had to make are how to place everything and whether or not I should stack things on each other. I didn’t find this assignment too challenging. I think representing yourself in a catalog of the stuff in your bag is a type of writing because how someone formats their description can show how one carries themselves.

My items:

1. My glasses and eyeglass case – This is essential to my everyday life because my eyesight sucks and I need help seeing at a distance.
2. A polka-dot umbrella – I forgot to take it out of my bag but I put it in there at the beginning of the week when it was storming days on end.
3. An extra spoon and fork – It was leftover from my lunch out this afternoon. I may need it for future meals.
4. My pink calculator – I forgot to take it out of my bag but I put it in there at the beginning of the week when I went to go study in Woodruff Library.
5. A pair of black earbuds – I use this pair or another of my other pairs of earbuds/headphones 24/7 because I listen to music and podcasts frequently throughout the day and I use them for any Zoom sessions. (I have way too many, sadly. )
6. A KitKat – A friend of mine randomly handed me this today since she knows I’m constantly hungry.
7. A mechanical pencil and a wooden pencil – I always have these writing tools because they are essential to being a student. I prefer the mechanical one and only have the wooden one as a backup.
8. My wallet – I brought this along today in case I went to the store and needed money for purchasing. I didn’t go.
9. Tissues – It is officially allergy season and I have horrible allergies.
10. Lip balm – Even though I am wearing my mask whenever I am out, it’s routine from pre-COVID to bring my lip balm everywhere just in case.
11. My Kindle – I falsely convinced myself that I would have some free time today and read outside in the nice fresh air.

I would say that this photo inexplicitly represents me. It included a lot of aspects that are essential to my everyday functioning, such as my glasses and earbuds. However, on the surface level, the items didn’t reflect my true self. I think my reasoning behind including the items is more representative. One example is that for a lot of the items, I put them in my bag in case of an emergency, showing that I am a well-prepared and thoughtful person. I plan ahead in case things go wrong, like a pencil running out of lead or me having an unexpected sneezing attack. I only removed a couple of items that were really personal, however, in a way, they would have been a lot more explicitly representative. That level of authenticity would have been uncomfortable for me to share publicly. I think this catalog is a form of writing, especially with the help of short explanations. It was similar to a comic in that the image has underlying meaning that is uplifted with accompanying text.

For the Triptych I wanted to do something relevant to today. I chose to write about a covid denier, using the same words: “Covid isn’t real.” The story progresses in three stages. First, the figure is watching the News, seeing record Covid cases. In the middle, he is still going out to a social gathering, ignoring the information about covid. Finally, he is in the hospital still denying covid is real. Finding the inspiration was not hard as it is a real problem.

To find inspiration for this sketch, I decided to scroll through the trending images on Flickr. I noticed that there was an abundance of landscape images. Something I like to do in my free time is to relax outside and just think. However, after while that tends to get boring, and I crave human interaction. For me, at least a balance between the two makes me happy. Hence, the line of thinking of my comic. This landscape caught my eye because I thought it was pretty magnificent. I also chose this specific landscape because the environment looked particularly dry, which means its only bearable for so long. After I decided on this image, I used the Pixlr online photo editor to insert the frames and the text boxes.

The most challenging part of this experience was summarizing an idea within three panels. This is quite different from my personal literary narrative comic because I had no creative boundaries. In this case, on the other hand, I had to make my idea fit into three frames, which requires the utmost conciseness.

For this weeks triptych, I wanted to portray the feeling of nostalgia in a college student reminiscing on his high school athletic days. It begins with the high school athlete winning but not liking wrestling. Then, at his college desk, he looks at an old photo of himself and remembers a time he misses. For the drawings, I decided between using pen/marker, or an online comic tool. I chose to use pens and markers because I like the simplistic look it gives the comic.