Studio Card #2!
Introducing Back of the Yards – A Made Collaborative Comic Series
It doesn’t get more real than Back of the Yards, on the South Side of Chicago, when you’re growing up as a teen. It’s where fantasy and the power of story can build resilience, foster healing and lead to greater understanding. Based on the stories and experiences of real urban youth, Made Collaborative and the Made Collaborative Scholarship Fund present Back of the Yards, a story of gritty truth that’s beyond your wildest dreams.
A fictionalized version of the real Back of the Yards neighborhood serves as setting for the eponymous comic book series. Likewise, the stories and the characters themselves are based on the real lives and musings of Chicago youth. These stories were first conceived by students attending an after school arts program. They were collected by our main man, Jimmy Briseno, during Made Collaborative’s first round of urban outreach to inner-city schools. Jimmy had the bright idea to elevate these kids’ ideas in a way that few had contemplated before. By bringing professional comics artists and writers into the creative process, Jimmy hoped to validate the kids’ stories and experiences by weaving them together as the narrative threads of a real comic book series.
The Studio Hyperdoc
The result is a collaborative effort between artists and youth. It is the stuff of Back of the Yards’ first story arc: “Just Dreamin’.” But how, exactly, do kids’ ideas become comics pages? Read on.
Quick Tip:
When skimming through hyperdocs like the one above on this website (using the < > arrows on the bottom left corner of the hyperdoc), it might be helpful to click on the three vertical dots appearing at the bottom left, and then click on the “Enter full screen” option. And once you are done viewing the hyperdoc, just hit your “escape” key to return to this Studio Card page.
Let’s Collaborate!
Below is a collaboration that ties to the Studio Card presented above. This particular collaboration is divided into three sections. All you have to do is read through each section and click “Next” below when you are ready to move to the next step. You will then see a prompt for your collaboration in the final section and when you are ready, just hit “Submit.”
As with all of these collaborations, we do encourage you to use old school pencil (pen) & paper as you brainstorm and prepare your submission. And, of course, you can always skip any part of this collaboration and/or come back at a later time. There will certainly always be other collaborative opportunities updated regularly here and throughout this site.
So, with that, just try to have fun with this and we will be highlighting some of your submissions here on this site and our social networking platform. And, of course, a few selected submissions will be included in our next comic publication!
Some Other Related Action, Studio and Character Cards
For more collaborative opportunities like the one above, you can visit Action Card #1 by clicking here.