(DISCLAIMER: as the group representative, I took a few liberties to explain things as to how I see them, because it's quite strange to do otherwise isn't it? So if Youme, Hai, or Bing, feel the need to clarify, correct, or completely negate what I said, please do so. It's much better that we have everything straightened out instead of messy and inaccurate. But I hope I did a decent job in answer Prof. S's inquiries).
Forming of the Group:
Prof. S wanted to know how we all met. Told her we met in Prof. J's ASAM 328 (is that the right course number) Asian American Literature class. Prof. J assigned a major project for the semester and Bing, Hai, and Youme joined forces to do a documentary. A while later, Youme and Hai invited me and we had our group of four to create the documentary on the discourse of Vietnamese-Americans. We worked well together and so we've managed to keep in touch and are now further extending that first collaboration into a comic novella, which will be Hai's and Khanh's response to Bing's documentary "Nuco" (which is being touched up by Bing right now). Prof. S complimented us own our good synergy. :) Thank you.
Blog:
Prof. S wanted to know the blog's main function. From my understanding, I said we created so that we can post information and discussions on the Vietnamese-American narrative, especially in relation to Nuoc. (We're not that strict on the theme, however. As long as the posts have some educational purpose, we're not adverse to them). So far, the blog is use by the collaborators to share info and (recently) to update each other on the project. It has no specific structure or organization...and frankly, we use an informal writing style for the posts. There is no prose here. This is where we will put our progress/meeting notes too so that we have an informal archive of comic-making process. Our mentors (and any other visitors) can comment on the posts. Prof S. was considering using it as an affective way to send us information/comments on related topics.
Printer:
Prof. wanted to know how we were carrying that out. I said that we are still looking, but we have two possibilities with Youme's printer being the better of the two. But we still want to find a more professional printer. Also, we limited ourselves to about 20 pages because printing more pages will be more expensive and perhaps beyond the grant allowance.
Comic Origin:
Prof. S wondered why we decided to do a comic. In making the documentary, Hai and I were Bing's subjects to film. Bing created the characters Hai and Khanh in the documentary. So Nuoc is Bing's baby. :) After ASAM 328 concluded last Spring semester, we all convened and discussed how we could further the project--we all seemed set on continuing somehow. Bing wanted to finalize the documentary and make it acceptable for public viewing, and Hai and I wanted to continue the narrative in a different direction. We wanted to turn the tables around on poor unsuspecting Bing. I haven't drawn in a long time and got caught up with the idea of creating a comic. Youme is a writer and illustrator so she's a great resource already. At sometime, Hai, decided that the comic would be a good medium to elaborate on, response to, and reveal perspectives that Nuoc did not. We're all quite excited. So when we saw the grant at the end of last year, Youme and Hai jumped on it, seeing the ASAM Grant as an opportunity to bring into affect what we all discussed, and led us in the process of applying for it. We were given the grant. And hence this project launched.
Comic Style:
We discussed the specific style to use for the comic. I said that I suggested we draw noir for the present day so that we're depicted as we are, but use a more cartoon-ish style for when our comic characters tell their story. Youme, so far, is willing to accommodate me and we'll see if this actually works or not. None of us really have much experience with noir though, so we're not sure of how feasible it is. (Thank you, Youme, for being so good-tempered and humoring me). Of course, if noir proves too difficult, then we'll just use another style. Prof. S wanted to know what noir looked like so I showed her a recent book I just bought. Basically, noir is much darker style using a great amount of black against white to depict a heavy, somber mood, and stories revolving around sin and crime. Batman's Gotham City is a great example of noir (and if anyone has seen the film "Sin City", it's very noir-ish).
Prof. S mentioned the film "Persepolis" (2007) which was a comic made into a movie. She said that the film has a similar style. We should definitely watch it sometime. Maybe it'll help us in our project. Also, looking at the Vietnamese anthology "Water Mark" may be interesting (this came in when we discussed the title "Nuoc" and why it was chosen).
We discussed the comic layout of storyline and such, which was in the phone conversation notes. So I won't reiterate here. I assured her that we have images in mind already and that we just need to work on text to make the images into a storyline.
Prof. S questioned if we had considered any other ways to draw the comic. So I told her an idea I had, but didn't tell anyone yet. She seemed delighted about it. Still, I don't think this idea will apply well to our novella though. But I'll write it here: Because Hai has a story and I have a story, we could do it so that one story reads from "front to back" and the other story reads from "back to front". Hence, depending on which direction you decide to read, you get a different story. It's a very intricate but disjoint interlacing of the two narratives. The Prof. mentioned once seeing a book like that but she couldn't remember the title.
Comic Content:
Prof. S found the meta levels of reflection, interpretation, representation, and dialogue of the project interesting. Hai and Khanh become characters in Nuoc created by Bing. And then to bring that representation into dialogue, we create representations of ourselves in the comic--which is another set of characters. Not only that, but those comic characters will reflect on their history and bring another level of representation through the memory/reflection device. She likes the complexity of our comic.
Mentor help:
Prof. S assured us that she and Prof. G will do their best to help us. So we can come to them with any questions, requests, etc. They can help attain books and other resources (even people who we may interview or seek advice from) we may need for the project; though they're not experts in comic illustration but both are well versed and interested in the disciplines of ethnography, narratives, Asian Americans, etc.
To-Do before Friday Meeting:
Mentors will:
- look into payment issues; how to allocate funds to Hai and Youme
- IRB questions: will Bing be able to safely show his documentary without violating ethical issues
- will he be able to do it as a student and grantee?
- or as a student (and ignoring the grantee status) will he be able to show the doc?
- look into issue of drawing UIC in the comic
- she advises us to draw the comic as we would prefer it and make changes later if it turns out we can't use UIC imagery
EXTRA:
There is a VAI-1 (Vietnamese Interacting as One Conference) at Urbana from March 18-20. We can do a presentation and lead a discussion about Nuoc and Hai's and Khanh's narratives. Also, Bing is part of the Asian American narrative as well. Are we interested in participating? (The comic won't be ready though so we'll be focusing on Nuoc). It's a good venue for Nuoc. She promised to get us in touch with the organizers (an email was sent). I said we'll consider it. Seems interesting.
We need a concrete schedule before Friday's meeting. Hai, Youme, and I are meeting this Thursday and will establish the comic schedule then, and, hopefully, have time to draw and work on the comic.
Prof. S is interested in seeing Youme's work.
Ending Commentary:
I hope I covered at least all the major points to be covered. Prof. S is learning about children's books (she wants to write children's books). It's a great coincidence that our project is about creating illustrated narratives. This is all exciting. We can explore illustrating together. Let's have a productive semester!
-KT
