Have you ever wondered about WWI? What happened? What did it look like?

A Bit of History

WWI was a brutal time in our history. WWI started in 1914 after the assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand, but nationalism, militarism, and different allies also played a part in the war starting. Austria Hungary launched an attack on Serbia, which then escalated to countries declaring war upon others. Germany, Austria Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire fought against the allies; Britain, France, Russia, and later on Canada and the USA. The allies won the war  in 1918. War was awful; about 40 million soldiers died in total, from both sides of the war. 

How can researching the historical significance of World War I inform and enhance the storytelling in a graphic novel I create?

The graphic novel we made each represents something different from the war. It could be air aces, women in war, front lines, and a few other choices. Each story that our classmates wrote told a story of world war 1, with the reality of battles, death, and struggles. Each graphic novel had a reality about it that was very similar to how it would actually be. 

By researching facts and events in World War I, you could make sure the information was accurate and had the correct timing. By knowing the information, you could really enhance the story by making it seem all very realistic. If the person writing the graphic novel understands the materials, and how life would be, then it could make the story better they know what they are talking about. Doing this, the reader could also try and make connections between the readers and the graphic novel, by words, drawings, or even the sounds. 

Final Project

The final project for this WWI unit was to make a 20 panel graphic novel. I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into… it was hard!! I didn’t expect all those late nights, early mornings and hours working on this graphic novel. 

Planning Documents

Before we could get into drawing these graphic novels, we had to plan for them! We did many panning documents, but I am grateful we did each and every one of them, for they were extremely helpful when it came to start drawing. 

WWI Comic Book

For our comic books, we got to choose our very own category. I chose air aces, because I was interested in how the life was. My soldier was names Charles and he came from Canada. He got placed in a British training camp, then joined the RFC (Royal Flying Corps). He flew in the battle of Passchendaele, in Belgium. I found learning about all these battles, ways of life, and facts very interesting, and I am glad I chose the topic I did.

Conclusion

I thoroughly enjoyed this project, and I am glad I got the opportunity to make it. Even though this comic was hard, and it was very stressful to make, I had so much fun, and the feeling when it was finished was super rewarding.

 Thanks for reading!!