Character stuff

To start working out how the characters in my comic would react and interact- I made a web with different coloured strings showing different relationships between characters- such as colleagues- bosses- family and love interests if they've had any. This will also help in designing certain aspects of my characters as they will need to respond  to different situations depending on their ties to the people involved.

Comic Layouts

I've looked into comics such as The Walking Dead to get an idea about layouts and standard formatting for how long to make my comic. most seemed to have 22 pages or so of narrative work, broken up with some splash pages, advertisements, letters etc. sections of the comics are broken up with splash panels to emphasis and draw attention to certain aspects and events. This seems like a good format to work with- although I may have to shorten it or lengthening it depending on how much narrative I have to put in and how much time I have.

survey responces

I started off my survey by asking what sexuality people were,to get an idea on where their stance would lie more on the subject. As 4 of the 5 people definitely identified as LGBTQ+, it gave a bias to the answers as they were more likely to be accepting of LGBTQ+ characters- but also helped give an insight as to how members of the community feel about issues.

Nearly all of the answers mentioned  characters played by actors in TV or Film, which reflects on how easily accessible that medium is to a wider market. Deadpool was mentioned- who has been made pansexual in the comics as well as the film.

Most of the answers seemed to be more into trying to show the answer's moral standing as to trying not to stereotype people in general- which didn't really help. There was mentions of stereotypes including flamboyance,being an outcast etc- which are very commonly shown stereotypes in the media- particularly directed towards gay men.

Most people saw the media's representation as being poor and lacking of a multitude of things and heavily based on stereotypes used to make these characters jokes and to add comedic value.

The mixed reactions could have been a result of contrasting media exposure that people have had of certain characters and people's backgrounds-which makes it interesting as to how different people develop with different views based on information

This response was expected due to the number of LGBTQ+ people who answered the survey.

One of these answers I couldn't really count as YouTube people aren't characters- so therefore don't count for a questionnaire into character representation- which I could have made clearer in the survey.

Almost everyone agreed that poor representation played into negative stereotyping of LGBTQ+ characters. The comment about poor representation being when it is mentioned as an afterthought plays into queer baiting- or trying to appeal to a larger fanbase by making a character more appealing- which is an issue.

the general consensus was that there needs to be more representation- more accurate representation and just generally for it to improve.

Overall the survey would have been more successful if more people had answered, but the answers I got were useful none the less.

Survey

I made a survey to see how people viewed lgbt representation in the media, but only got 4 respondents so far, here is the survey

Queer Fashion

I have been looking at a book called A Queer History Of Fashion: From The Closet To The Catwalk edited By Valerie Steele, which looks at queer history and fashion from the 18th century onwards and how this influenced/ was caused by fashion. It also covers large events in queer History such as the gay lesbian march on DC and the response to the AIDS crisis. It also contains several essays looking in detail at parts of LGBT culture and opposition. This will help to look at queer history from a more arty perspective, as well as help character designs and costumes and what I could use to show different things.

Marvel and DC

These comics have varying panel sizes depending on the flow of the narrative and the significance of the scene being depicted. The boxes tend to fill the entire page and have a high level of detail and colour, which usually is palleted to fit the tone of the comics and add atmosphere. The text is usually in the same font except for a few characters where they come from a different dimension/world eg Vision.

 

Domics and theodd1sout

 

 

Domics and theodd1sout are web comics and YouTube channels. Their comics are usually short comics with a punch line or joke, and are made in square and rectangular panels one after the other. The style is simplistic compared to comics like DC and Marvel. They are still really great.