Any given Sunday

[AngelinaKizz]

I did my first "comic" strip for an assignment for my narrative illustration class. I went heartfelt, and I know it doesn't have a conflict and resolution, but I'm happy with how and turned out. I'm toying with the idea of expanding it, and making it a longer story with 3-4 window segments. I grew up with my grandmother doing the bulk of raising me, and I've always wanted to write down as much as I can for my kids to eventually get a sense of what it was like growing up in her wonderful house.

[Geoffrey Mégardon]

I agree that conflict, resolution, beats, climax etc have their use in story telling to hook the reader. But most of all there is the message that you want to communicate and the audience you want to reach. I believe that the important point of a story is to have a question for the reader that you will answer.

I think your story is doing fine without all these technical devices because, even if it is subtle, we all understand that the girl is growing and we start unconsciously to ask ourself what will happen to the grandma. Everyone can relate to the theme and question of legacy. Furthermore, for your target audience (your family), the question is “how was it to live with grandma?”. A documentary can be very flat in his structure, as long as the viewer is really interested in learning. Nowadays, even documentaries are over dramatised though, because you can hook people to watch something they are not interested in, answering questions they don’t really care about.

Very nice work I enjoyed reading it.

[AngelinaKizz]

@Geoffrey-Mégardon thanks so much!!! She was an epic lady. They lived in the roughest neighborhood plagued by crime, drug abuse and homelessness. It was never a surprise to walk into her kitchen and find someone struggling, sitting at her table with a big plate of food. Need a washroom? You can come in. Need a shower? You can come in. She was even robbed blind by a pair she'd brought in to feed, and her response was "they probably need it more than me". She was epic.

[danielerossi]

That’s also my heritage in your comics! Right down to the peaches and baccala. I teared up near the ending.

[AngelinaKizz]

@danielerossi I love that you understand peaches and baccala!!!! Did your family make soup with it, or fry it? What about dandelion soup? My grandmother's Italian was very much a dialect that evolved over time and combined portuguese, and Ukrainian, and Spanish. She never learned to read, and never really learned English. She ended up taking on words from other immigrant neighbors, and it was something of it's own beast. She called it Minest, but it wasn't minestrone. It was potatoes, garlic, chick peas and dandelions (or anything green from the garden cooked to mush and served on fresh crusty bread)