D. Low – Data for Penn-Kings Link Videoconference; 13 November 2012
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Transcript: 16 March 2012, After School Comics Club (picks up in medias res)
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David and Robert – University-based researchers and hosts of Comics Club
Jamir, Larry, Raman, Chance, and Gary – 5th graders in Comics Club (ages 10-12)
(all names are pseudonyms)
Randy – character collaboratively created by members of Comics Club
Robert: This is what I do too when I get writer's block, is I read something...
Jamir: Yeah.
Robert: And the more I read, eventually something happens, right?
Jamir: You're like, you're like, "Wow, that helped me out a lot."
Larry: Hey, do you mind if we curse?
Jamir: No! [as in yes, we mind if you curse]
Larry: Yes!
Jamir: Dude! Dude!
David: I think...What I want to think of this place is being is like they're doing us a favor by letting us do
this.
Larry: [sarcastic] We don't curse at all anyway.
[Robert laughs.]
Larry [about Robert]: He's staring at me like I'm lying!
David: I'm staring at you like that too. Um. The thing is, it's not my rules when we're in here, it's kind of
the fact that we're, like, they're doing us a favor by letting us hold this workshop and I don't wanna really,
like, upset them and have them say I'm not welcome to come back here, cause, like we all gotta watch
ourselves a little bit.
[Larry has taken off his socks again and put them on the table.]
Jamir: Come on, Larry! Man, this is not like a play around class. We're talkin' about stuff.
Larry: He said take it off!
David: Take it off but keep it under the table. You know, like. Yeah. Yeah.
Larry: Under the table, like you said.
Raman: Larry!
Larry: It's opposite day!
Jamir: Dude, you play too much!
Robert: It's not opposite day, everybody.
David: Freaky Friday is not opposite day.
Larry: So if it's opposite day then, you shut up! You go take a bath! You shave!
David: [joking tone] I shaved this morning!
Larry: Go home and change [unintelligible].
Jamir: Man, you are so crazy. I'm here to talk about comic books, not how your odored feet smell.
Larry: Ok, let's get back to the A-game, yo.
David: Let's, let's get back to the A-game. So, what I'm, what I'm kind of really liking about the direction
that this just took, where we might take different chunks of the story is like, Jamir might write a bunch of
the story that's like about Randy's dream where he's fighting the Grim Reaper, and Chance might want to
do part of it that's kind of like this [pointing to the cartoon collection Zits: Jeremy and Dad], so we might
need humor, because like in my lifetime sometimes I have funny moments... Sometimes I have, like,
D. Low – Data for Penn-Kings Link Videoconference; 13 November 2012
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upset freaky moments. [to Larry] What's up?
Larry: Did you say raper?
Chance: I have, um...
[Group laughter]
David: I did not.
Jamir: What'd he say?
Larry: He said, he said Grim Raper.
David: Grim Reaper!
[Group laughter]
Jamir: No, that's nasty! C'mon!
David: But I mean...No, the word for someone who rapes is a rapist, though, so not a raper. So right? So,
there's no Grim Raper. Um...I hope not.
Raman: Why are we talking about that?
Jamir: Now [unintelligible]. This is confusing!
David: Ok, so. Yeah, Chance. What are you saying?
Chance: I'd like to work on, if I did that, I would like...
Jamir: And then maybe Raman could work...
Chance: the 'Jeremy and Dad' [ZITS] thing with...
David: I mean yeah. And you could also work on different pieces. Cause like you could do some different
pieces of it.
Chance: Jamir's funny.
David: I know Jamir's funny. So I think that, what we could do here, is create like a, a portrait of this
Randy character that's really complicated, where, cause everyone's interpreting Randy a little differently.
Larry [funny voice]: Randy!
David [mimicking Larry’s funny voice]: Randy!
Jamir [looking at drawing of Randy, originally produced by David with input from the group]: I like how
you gave him the outskirts in shadow [referring to the outlining Gary did earlier]. It looks really cool.
David: Yeah, um. You know, we can color it too at some point. Like, I think it's... I'm really in love with
this idea that everyone brings something different to the character and the story, and then it ends up being
really good. So like, Larry?
Larry: Yeah?
David: What kind of comic are you thinking about?
Larry: You wouldn't want to know.
David: Yeah, I do wanna know.
Larry: Kay!
Jamir: No seriously, you don't.
David: Really?
Jamir: No, no. His comics are really...
Larry: Nasty.
D. Low – Data for Penn-Kings Link Videoconference; 13 November 2012
One of Larry’s comics stories, featuring the Randy character (created on 20 April 2012):
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D. Low – Data for Penn-Kings Link Videoconference; 13 November 2012
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Raman has been working on a history of the Comics Club, using the medium of comics as his format.
Raman has been very concerned about details (both visual and narrative), and has taken photographs to
make sure he accurately portrays people, buildings, and objects, and casually interviews his peers and
me. Although Raman has only recently begun this endeavor (October 2012), he plans to document the
history of his club, from its inception to the present.
1st draft of pg. 1
D. Low – Data for Penn-Kings Link Videoconference; 13 November 2012
Early version of 2nd draft of pg. 1
Photo Raman took of front of his school
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