Ah, comic books. I’ll admit, I’m guilty of binging these. I’ve even waited years for sequels (I’ve been faithfully following along with “Amulet” since Grade 2…) Whether it be Garfield, random webcomics, or Batman…

…Ever since i was little, I’ve absolutely loved them. 

Did I write this intro, just to insert that video? Absolutely. I have no shame. I actually just watched “The Batman” a couple days ago, and decided to watch a bit of the 60s version again. I swear, I didn’t remember it being like that.  

Anyways, it’s about time I actually get to the point… 

It was March 29, 2022 when we were introduced to a brand new project: “A War to End All Wars: Graphically Told.” At first, I was intrigued. Although I consider myself more of a WWII kind of gal, we couldn’t have head straight to that without meeting it’s predecessor. 

I’ve watched a couple of documentaries and movies, but I’ve never really gotten beyond Ferdinand or the Russian Revolution (Anastasia lied to me.) I did know a little bit about “trench warfare”, but nothing too much. 

A cool historical topic was enough for me, but when I heard the final product for this project was a GRAPHIC NOVEL, I was obviously hyped. 

I have attempted to make comics before. For example, the one I made in Scimatics and a random project from Grade 7. I also have a bunch of unfinished character designs for an idea I have on the back-burner.  

Meaning, I know the amount of pain and suffering it brings to an artist’s wrist and sanity. 

As someone who’s too ambitious for their own good, this had the potential to be a very bad experience for me. Luckily, I accepted my fate and resorted to… other methods. 

In the end, this was a great learning experience and I can’t wait to share it with you!

(Me telling you about this project)

We started this project with the intent to extend our understanding of “cause and consequence.” Well, this was the perfect project for that, because WWI was practically a leading “cause” for WWII. 

However, before we get to that, we had to learn about some short-term and long-term causes. After reading along with some textbook pages, we discovered that WWI had many causes, and the assassination of Ferdinand is just one of them. 

For an opening activity, we were assigned to write a short paragraph about what we believed was the main cause for WWI.

I went along with the obvious choice, Ferdinand, but added my own personal twist of RADICAL NATIONALISM. If you haven’t been following along with my “Learning Journey™”, then you wouldn’t know that this is a spicy return of a past theme. If you want to be a koolkid™, then you should check out my “Revolutions on Trial” post. 

Although my paragraph was shorter than usual, I’m pretty happy with it. I tried to be concise and I hope my point comes across. 

Here’s mine: 

After we gained a basic understanding of the causes of WWI, we were ready to move forward. To understand the events that occurred during this war, we read a graphic novel. This book manages to cover many battles/important dates from WWI and condense it into a relatively short comic. 

It doesn’t go too much into detail (that’s a job for us later), but it gave us an understanding of what generally happened. I enjoyed it, and the art was amazing. I couldn’t imagine drawing that many panels!

With this new knowledge, we wrote a reflection for the novel and connected it to possible consequences of the war. I chose to mainly talk about the physical/mental health impacts, and touched a bit on generational trauma. In the end, I’m not too proud of the writing I completed for this assignment. I believe I could have done better to clarify my points. 

Here’s my writing:

OOH AND WE ALSO WATCHED A WWI MOVIE TO COMPARE THE GRAPHIC NOVEL TO. 

If you know me well, then you should understand my love and adoration for film. To extend our learning, we had the opportunity to watch “1917”, one of my favourite war movies. Sam Mendes has striked again with his fancy camera work.  

Of course, the cinematography is my favourite part of this movie. Continuous film is incredible and allows for a completely immersive experience! I still can’t believe they managed to keep every minute entertaining! 

I watched this movie when it came out, but I still felt devastated at the specific point of the movie which I will not describe for spoiler’s sake. Surprisingly, I think I appreciated my second watch even more, since the pandemic has made me a movie obsessed nerd. I can now understand the effort it takes to make such a production. 

Don’t worry, I’ll stop rambling now. Overall, I really liked this movie. It really allowed me to immerse myself into the time period. 

A quick mention, we quickly did a deep dive into a specific battle and shared it in groups (however, we were not allowed to choose this as our comic topic.) I’m just really happy with the research I completed, and I wanted to show y’all the slideshow I made on the Battle of Verdun.

Yeah, that’s it. I went a little overboard and I don’t want my work to go unnoticed, so flip through it please. Thank you. Very much appreciated.

With our newfound understanding of WWI, we were ready to start our magnificent comics. 

At first, I was very overwhelmed. Although I intensively researched my battle topic (the Somme), I still had no idea what kind of a story I was going to write. I was intrigued with the battle of Beaumont-Hamel which occurred as part of the Somme, and I began to generate many ideas. However, they were either too cliche or too long. There was even a point in which “Pearl Harbour” reemerged itself from the deepest pits of my memory. 

In the end, I somehow came up with the idea of a soldier who got knocked out and missed the entire battle. I planned to have a dramatic introduction, and then shock the audience with a very anticlimactic climax. 

Although I had tried to simplify my ideas, it still turned out harder than I anticipated. I often felt overwhelmed. Originally, I aimed for a comic book style similar to the graphic novel we read. 

With my trusty pal Procreate at my side, anything was possible… 

It was a tiring process, but it was worth it. I’m super proud of my finished product! 

“How might we use graphic novels to understand Canada’s involvement in WWI?”

Well, this project allowed us to analyze the factors involved with inciting the war, and the consequences of it’s bloodshed. We were also able to use this information to create a product that would help us understand Canada’s involvement in WWI, 

I believe, in attempting to communicate our knowledge of the topic through a different medium, we were able to extend our understanding. In seeing this history in a non-traditional view, we could personally connect to it in a different way. 

In conclusion, I think that in using graphic novels and communicating through a new medium, we were able to gain a unique perspective of historic events. 

That’s the end of this blog post! Although it was hard, I really enjoyed this project! I can’t believe we’re already in May… my birthday is coming up real soon! I feel old already!

Anyways… see you in the next blog post!