Comic

James Sayre
ENGL 1501W
Comic Project

Based on the advice
of a fellow tutor,
I’ll tell you..
Things that
Actually Happened
A bit slow
today?

Yeah.
A bit slow
today?
Is it always
like this?
You
can scrub
the lower
deck.
No, it’s just
that the
weather has
been like
this all week.
LATER ON...
PHEE, PHI,
PHUM....
A PIRATE’S
LIFE FOR ME..
PHEE, PHI,
PHUM....
pencil
candy
groaann
Where did
that come
from?
trash

It
must be
coming
from
down
there.
kid torturer
Help
me!

Afraid I
can’t. He
needs to
do math.
Let the
poor kid
go, you
monster!
Why won’t you
just let
him play?
He always
does
that!
Besides,
isn’t it
about time
for you
to leave?
watch
Yeah, it is...
but you’re
still evil!
Hmmph..Be gone!
I wonder if I should’ve
tried to stop the
kid torturer
-goodbye
wave

The sun quickly
turned into storms

The
wind’s
howlin’
today
Read me
off the
wind heading!
20 Knots
from
the SE!
All ye landlubbin’ tutors
get on
deck!!!
Aye, Cap’n!
Trim the sails!!!
HARD!!!!
Heave, ho!

This is
hard
work!
Nah, this is
nothing like
working for
Juan Ponce
de León
Oh yeah?
Yeah.
That guy made
us sail everywhere
for the fountain
of youth.
Rough.
Where’d
you go to?

France,
Africa.
I’m not
sure you
read that right
On 3,
pull
hard!
Ahhh!

Yeah. I’m looking
for shooting stars
Calm night.
It’s pretty.
Look up! There’s
one in the sky!
Cool!

It’s too dark,
even the stars
don’t provide
enough light.
Oui,
I can’t see
anything

Want to
learn to
make one?
Look,
it’s a
bird!
Just fold down
the middle...
Like this?
Yeah,
and then..

For my comic, I wanted to experiment with ideas of reality and truth in autobiography. While I was having
difficulty coming up with a topic for my comic, a fellow tutor recommended to me just to recount some of
the most memorable events during my service. I was inspired by this to do exactly that – but tell the
events that “actually” happened as if they took place on a pirate ship. The impetus behind choosing to
set my comic on a pirate ship is a nickname I received tutoring. Because of my insistence on making the
students do work and not play video games, I became known as the “child torturer”. Unfortunately, this
nickname stuck; I wanted to visualize this, however, in comic form. As such, I thought that a dank hull
of a pirate ship would be the perfect setting for a torturer to punish his victims by stretching them out
on a rack (one that has the handle of a division sign). Although this nickname sounds grim, I really
enjoyed my time in service and my interactions with students so I wanted to use bright colors to demonstrate
this. Additionally, (mostly due to the medium) I wanted to depict the comic in a simplistic,
childlike fashion.
The pirate ship serves as a multi-purpose metaphor. In one way, the pirate ship and its sails represent
the educational development of the children at Safe Place. At many points, such as the storm scene, the
quick progress of the ship serves to emphasize the quick development of the kids served, although the
storm reminds the reader that this process is not an easy one. In another, the ship sail acts as an
embodiment of my feelings about Safe Place. In the torture scene, the sail is luffing, representing my
frustration with having to goad students into doing their work. However, the storm scene represents
moments where I felt I was actually able to help kids with their homework, the purpose of our service.
The scene in which both me and a student are tightening the sails depicts when we read a history chapter
on conquistadores, a moment I felt I was able to help someone with their homework. Later on, when the
ship hits the desert island, I don’t intend for this to mean that anything bad happened during my service
(or to the kids I worked with). Instead, the sail rips, which represents my desire to only help children
with their homework. Rather, I find contentment in simply folding paper cranes and being present with
students.
I additionally wanted to express the oddness of being a short-term volunteer in a space where most of the
students grow up together, using the scenes of being thrown off the ship until a later point. Although I
don’t really reflect on this further in the comic, I wanted to show the feeling of being a perpetual
outsider at Safe Place.
Colophon
This comic is the result of mixed media - I originally drew the images with a Sharpie pen, then scanned them
at 300dpi, and finally put them together and colored the panels in Adobe Illustrator using the live paint
and trace tool. Creating a comic in this form of mixed media was inspired by Alison Bechdel’s description of
her workflow. The font is Prestige Elite Std Bold, in numerous font sizes.