The Adventures of Johnny Bunko is a book about magic chopsticks and a pixie spouting career advice, yet as you read the pages, you find yourself wondering where magic chopsticks can be found!ĭesire – Because of the reasons outlined above, content delivered in comic form is simply more enjoyable to consume. Imagination – Through abstraction people engage with the content much more deeply because they can more easily put themselves into the scenarios depicted. I’m not sure how the numbers play out, but it’s a safe bet that those who read the comic adaptation had a vastly more emotional experience seeing a dry report brought to life. Look at the two versions of the 9/11 Commission’s findings: One was delivered in traditional text form while the other was delivered as a graphic novel. You could probably take out the words from the comic adaptation of Moby Dick and still pick up much of the meaning.Įxpression – Comics combine imagery and content to deliver impressive clarity for their message. After all, seeing a businessman trapped under a huge pile of paperwork is clear regardless of the language used. Universal – Due to their visual format, comics have an ability to transcend language. And who doesn’t want to hear a good story? Evangeline Haughney from Adobe Systems asked that same question and turned to comics to help share research findings in a compelling way with her colleagues. Comics speak to us on an emotional level they use storytelling rather than fact sharing as a foundation. Here are five reasons that might explain that phenomenon:Īpproachable – If you had the choice between reading a 60 page TPS report or reading a 60 page comic, which would you be more inclined to do? Exactly. While this may be a good definition, it misses the point of why comics do such a great job explaining complex concepts. In his book Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud tried to expand this definition but ended up right back at these simple, albeit sterile two words. To this day, I still hear from former colleagues who reference those scenarios in conversation!Ĭomic pioneer, Will Eisner, uses the term “Sequential Art” to describe comics. Within a few weeks after this roadshow, there was a clear shift in the way colleagues were talking and thinking about the adult fans. I’d start off the meeting pretty casually, because inevitably the attendees would get so wrapped up in reading and discussing the comic, they’d largely ignore my presentation until they had a question about one of the scenarios highlighted in the comic.įairly quickly, I modified the presentation to focus primarily on talking through the sixty scenarios we’d outlined in the comic. When I walked into each stop on the roadshow, I threw down a handful of the comics on the conference table and started talking through my presentation. He delivered dozens custom designed illustrations for a box of LEGO sets that cost my budget center about $300)Īfter assembling the comics into physical form, I put together a presentation, a short video (created by fan clubs, of course), and some other materials that I used for a multi-city, multi-office internal roadshow to “formally introduce colleagues to the AFOLs”. (As a sidenote, Greg worked in exchange for a huge box of new LEGO sets that I sent him. Together we developed a series of hilarious, relevant four-panel strips that were then printed, color copied and stapled. Using this inspiration to guide me, I worked with one Greg Hyland, an artist and AFOL to create a series of comic strips that told the story, for those uninitiated in the hobby, of it was like to be an adult fan of a”child’s toy”. Here were four grown adults having an in-depth debate about content meant for kids 7-12 years old! Overhearing their conversation about whether the explorer was going to get out the clutches of the tiger in time made me start thinking about the power of visual story telling. One day over lunch, I noticed four colleagues reading the comic strip in the back of the instruction book included with one of the LEGO sets we were producing that year. I had a hard time getting on their calendars, much less convincing them that they needed to stop working on the 95% audience and turn at least some of their attention to the 5%. During this period I had a unique challenge of trying to convince my colleagues, smart folks who were solely focused on kid oriented programs and projects that there was value in working with the Adult Fans of LEGO (AFOL). In 2003, I was working on the community team at The LEGO Company, the maker of those fantastic and wonderfully ubiquitous plastic interlocking bricks. Case Study: Comics in Community Communicationīy Jake McKee on 10 Aug, 2009 - Comments Off on Case Study: Comics in Community Communication
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