The Secret Language of Comics

In high school, I did quite of few of presentations, and I was in theatre for 3 semester. I still get the jitters before doing something in front of a crowd, and I am fairly confident in my presentation skills. Before working on the Halfa Kucha, it thought that it would be easy to an extent because I already had an idea of what I wanted to say and present. While working on it, I went through the graphic novels looking for panels that are relevant to my vague idea then I constructed my argument. Looking back, I wished that I constructed my argument first then pick out panels. That way I can focus more on the argument and not get lost in which panels I should put in the presentation. I wasted a lot of time picking the right panels. As for the argument, I wanted to put more into it, but the time restraint held me back. Which is good for this type of assignment, it would be harder to stray off path, and I focused more on the important stuff. I liked not having to create an introduction for the presentation, describing the plot. I could just get right into it. If I were to implement that into analytical writing, I would focus on the body and then right the introduction and conclusion.

For the panels on the presentation, I wanted to focus more on what is drawn on the panel rather than the text. For Teddy’s slides, I cut out the frames where he facial expression was showing. In Sabrina, the facial expressions are kinda bland. However, there are the few times where it more realistic features to it.

Whenever I give presentations, I try not to be that one person who just reads off the slides. This assignment made sure that you won’t read off the slides. I also did not need to worry about typing my argument out; I could just say it. With the slides moving automatically, I had to make sure what I said was relevant with each slide, and I had a limited time to say it which was nerve racking. Towards the end of the presentation, I kinda went off in a tangent and was not able to say what I wanted too. Remembrance and reconnection can happen at the same time. But why? who knows because I couldn’t finish. From my fellow students’ presentation, I would try to slow down myself down and have flashcards to keep myself on track. As for future presentations in general, I would try to put less on the slides and just talk about it.

I have been half dreading this assignment all semester, I don’t know what happened to me in quarantine but last semester I started to get stage fright for the first time in my life. All through out high school I just never really cared about my peers watching me but something about zooms makes it all the more dreadful. Writing for this was much different than the essay’s, I have the comfort of editing during the writing process when I am working on a essay but doing this I only had my thoughts and my flash cards. While practicing for my presentation alone I found my brain running faster than my mouth and I would trip over words and start to stutter.

Organizing my slide show was a lot easier. I liked the idea of focusing on each of the three stages of recovery so I decided to make each section color coordinated to make it easier for both me and my audience to follow. Without doing anything outwardly visual I don’t know how I would translate that into writing other than just breaking my sections up into paragraphs. I don’t think my analytical process what any different in the making of this. I think the manor helped shaped the final product, such as me not using as complex sentences structure and having a an actually visual tp point out instead of trying to portray whatever I was talking about in the text.

I thought the timing was a really interesting part of this process. When it comes to academic situations I tend to be a pretty concise person. However I still found myself racing against the time limit on some slides. I really liked everyone else’s slides, if I were to do this again I would try and make an effect to make mine more visually appealing instead of just having a page from the comic I am referencing.

Formulating my argument for my Halfa Kucha was not that different than forming an argument from an essay. First, I made a list of all the books we have read this semester, and I defined what I thought the trauma was in each work. After analyzing my notes, I noticed that there were many similarities between Teddy from Sabrina and David from Stitches. I then specifically found images in which Teddy and David are similar in coping with their trauma. I then checked the end of the works to compare their healing processes. I structured my presentation pretty similarly to how I would write an essay for this topic. I discussed each work on its own and then analyzed the differences and similarities between the two. If I was to make my presentation into a written work, I would not change to the format/organization too much. I thought my presentation resembled an essay in that I made a claim in the beginning followed by evidence and a short conclusion.

I wanted to choose visuals from each Sabrina and Stitches that would support my stated argument. For example, I found images in both Sabrina and Stitches in which Teddy and David, respectively, express their anger. For a majority of my presentation, I knew roughly what I wanted to say and found corresponding images. In some cases, the images would give more ideas, which in some cases made me change/condense some aspects of my argument. An example of this at the beginning of my presentation was when I commented on the facial expressions of both Teddy and David. Commenting on these facial expressions helped me develop my argument further to say that David was more poised to recover.

By giving this type of presentation, I learned that effective presentations do not have to be excessively long. In some instances, being perfectly concise can perhaps be as effective as giving several examples to support your argument. Something that I saw from other presentations was the inclusion of quotes. Although the medium calls for having a picture on each slide, I thought that the inclusion of a power quote on a slide was rather effective. If the presenter has the quote on screen, it is definitely more effective that way than just reading it. I think I will use this presentation technique in the future.