Final Project: PRINT

Gabbie Brown
Mrs. Jarrett
English 10
1 June 2009
Graphic Novel Final Assessment
I decided on the characters Marji, from Persepolis and Mate and Minerva from In The Time of The Butterflies. I chose these characters because I feel like they share some similar qualities. The one that I focused on in my graphic novel representation, was that they all stand up for what they believe in. All three characters are quite young, although are very mature and educated for their age. I chose the setting and sequence of events because it shows something that they are passionate for, and how they are not willing to just give it up without a fight. The panel designs that I used through my representation varied in some ways. I wanted to show different angles and compositions for the frames. I used some long shot frames to show the setting, while in others I used close up frames to show emotion. I made some frames bigger than others to show greater importance. For example the frame where Minerva is yelling, “We stand up for what we believe in!” I made that frame larger than all of the others because that is the most significant of all the frames, because it is the main theme that I focused on throughout the panels. I interpreted quite a bit of dialogue and thought bubbles to show what people are thinking about how they feel about the current situation. I also incorporated color because with the characters that I chose, I don’t consider them characters that should be in black and white. All three of them have very strong, bold personalities and I feel like color really emphasizes that. Also I feel that with the story that I chose, color helps tell the story, and keep people interested throughout.

Comeback 4

So I continued reading along in the novel and it has gotten even more intense. Claire walked in on Mia cutting her wrists...what. Okay so tight. The story is started to get a little repeative and annoying but I'm going to keep going. It might just be because I am reading a few other books and haven't really had time to focus on this but still, they can start to mix it up a little. They try to bring her to more doctors, and it seems like nobody can do anything. It starts to get more into Mia's writings and journals, which are really dark and mysterious which I think will lead into her half of the book. She seems really creepy, but from what I have seen of her on the back of the book and in interviews it is weird to think it is the same girl. Somewhere in the book a huge change most occur, and I can't wait to hear about it. I'll keep it posteddddd.

Comeback 3

Okay, so I continued reading and in this part of the story now Mia is 15 years old. She has run away and gotten involved in drugs. Her parents find her high offfff her ass, and they take her to her therapist. This new therapist is different, and Claire and her husband don't know how they feel about her. She seems to make everything Mia and her family are going through "no big deal". Claire explains all of her concerns about her daughter and how she thinks that the way Mia is acting now a days must have to do with her Father molesting her as a child. Her therapist acts as if Claire is crazy, no no no that has nothing to do with it is how she would respond, leaving Claire feeling like an idiot. So as her therapist meets with Mia, and recommend Claire to back off of her and give her space, Claire knows if she does that Mia will just keep running away. So Claire goes to Mia's room to look for evidence, that this somehow must have to do with Mia's father. She digs through everything, and finds Mia's writings, tons of them, journals, pictures, diagrams. She reads them, they all include something about Mia's father, and Claire now knows she was right all along and can't wait to show teh therapist and earn her "I told you so" moment. This reminds me of one "Friends" episode I watched before I read this chapter. Haha, it was the one where Joey was digging through Rachel's room and finds her dirty books underneath her bed, he had always said Rachel must read porn because "everyone does" and she always denied it, and he had finally found something to prove it. Haha, so it definitly reminded me of that, even though in my book it is a much more serious matter.

Comeback 2

Holy Beans..okay so I kept readng it keeps going as Mia is growing up and remembering more about her father. She started to see a counselor regularly by the age of 13. She was crippled by the memories she had of him. She started acting differently, having horrible nightmares and wake up in the middle of the night crying. Clarie didn't know what to do, she blamed herself for this everyday, but she thought if she had never met her husband, Mia wouldn't be here. She started to idolize people who were bad influences, alcoholics and rockstars. These chapters reminded me of my friend Talen, she is my age and I have known her since I was about 5. Her mom used to nanny me, and I noticed when we were about 9 she started acting really different. She listened to rap, and swore alot. I asked what had made her change and she always told me not to worry about it. Her attitude was tense, and she turned cold. When I was about 13 we no longer spoke. Her mom found me on facebook one day and we hadn't talked in abou 4 years and she asked how I was and everything, and I immediatly asked about Talen. She said she was okay, but that she had started drinking and hanging out with the wrong people. She ran away one day for a 2 days. She also told me that she had a rough childhood that they hid from me and my family, because they didn't want us to worry. She didn't go into deatails and I fifn't feel like nagging. I haven't spoken to her since I was 10 years old. It really reminded me of my book, because you can clearly see that Mia is going through a very hard time. I'm going to keep reading..

Comeback 1

OH MY GODDDDD! Okay, so I am about 75 pages into it and it is so intense it is ridiculous. So as I stated in my earlier post about the book, the mother Claire and her daughter Mia share their story through hell and back. The first part of the book starts off when Mia is 13, and she has run away from home. Which is a huge shock, because her and her mother and stepfather all got along so well. So when they found out she was gone, they freaked out and had everybody they knew looking for her all over the streets. Mia left a note saying that she belonged on the streets and needed to see what life was really like. LIKE WHAT! Ah my god, okay so when they do find her she is like a lunatic and they have to nail her windows shut and what not. Than it jumps to a flashback about when Claire first had Mia and when she was married to her first husband. Who was EXTREMLY creepy, I can't even explain it. His name is Paul, and his family was like okay with incest. WTFFFF. His mother told him I can't think of anything more beautiful than a mother making love to her son or a father making love to his daughter. Are you kidding me? This so f@#$%ed up it is ridiculous. Anyway, so Mia was playing with her cousin one day and her aunt was changing her cousin's diaper and Mia went up to her and spread her legs and said; "This is what daddy does to me." I don't even know how to respond to that, it makes me want to vomit. At this time Mia is 3 years old! I seriosuly don't know how to respond to this, what would I compare that to? Like what do you say to that? The judge that Claire took him to court with was siding with the husband at first until he started abusing Mia more, than he was told he had to go to therapy and get help or never see Mia again. He never went to therapy, so he was out of their life. THANK GOD. I need to keep reading, this is addicting, my gosh.

Comeback

I chose the book Comeback. by Claire and Mia Fontaine because my mom had read it over the summer and she would not stop talking about how good it was. It is a memoir about Claire, and her daughter Mia. My mom read it when my sister and her weren't getting along very well and she than decided to have my older sister read it. Than all she did was talk about how good it was too. It was weird to watch, it was like after they both read the book their relationship got much better and they weren't fighting as much. So of course I have been interested in reading it and finally have decided too. So I can't wait to keep reading it. It is al ready so intense!

Love

Frey, James. My Friend Leonard. 1. New York: Penguin, 2001.


"There is only one happiness in life -- to love and to be loved." (George Sand) As I finish reading My Friend Leonard by James Frey, you realize that love in the book is a constant. Whether James is completley and irrevocably in love with Lily, or head over heals for heroin there is always some form of love. Throughout the book James wants to be loved, he wants to feel like somebody wants him at all in anyway. While James was using, he lost everything. Nobody cared about him anymore, he was worthless to anybody that once loved him. Imagine the feeling of loosing everybody that ever meant anything to you. While the book goes on James begins to have weird dreams about his exgirlfriend, her name his never given but he calls her the Girl with the Artic Eyes, she never appears in his real life again but she lingers in his memories and in his dreams. He was deeply in love with her, and feels guilty for begining to think about her again because of Lilly. Now that James is heading back to his sober life again his parents have come back into his life. He is begining to feel loved again, and he is begining to feel whole again. As I compare this to my life I have no idea how I would react to loosing my loved ones. Have relationships with people and communication is a huge factor to a healthy lifestyle.