01 | Issue #3 Collaborations
| Summary | Welcome to the Issue #3 Collaborations! With this base Studio Card, we introduce you to the Back of the Yards comic series, a Creative Commons comic project produced by the Made Collaborative Studio. Back of the Yards is a story about young man in the West Side of Chicago that has what he believes to be a supernatural encounter and his subsequent journey to understand what is real and what isn't within his neighborhood. |
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| When | We will examine past, present and future states of these neighborhoods in attempt to gain a better understanding of how these neighborhoods originally developed and evolved through the years.developed in collaboration with participating youth from the West Side of Chicago. |
| Who | As part of this collaborative series, we will also examine the residents of these neighborhoods, including early immigrants to present day inhabitants, and their corresponding influence and impact to our urban communities. |
| Why | In order to more fully understand some of the complexities of our urban centers, we must understand their neighborhoods, including the evolution of those neighborhoods and their residents. And, of course, we plan to incorporate some of these related themes into our ongoing comic series, Back of the Yards, with your collaborations. |
The Back of the Yards Comic
Back of the Yards is an original comic series built through collaboration.
Set in a fictionalized version of Chicago’s real Back of the Yards neighborhood, the series grew from characters, stories and ideas first imagined by young people participating in Made Collaborative’s after-school workshops—and developed alongside professional comic artists and writers.
Two issues later, the story continues.
And with Issue #3 now in development, we’re opening the creative process again.
A Quick Note on How We Got Here Before Jumping Into the Comic Itself ...
It started with a pretty modest idea.
Before there was a comic book, a Studio, or even much of a plan for what Back of the Yards might become, there were a handful of after-school workshops and a simple idea:
What if we asked young people to create – and then treated what they created as something that mattered?
There wasn’t a publishing operation behind it. There wasn’t a fully imagined comic-book universe waiting to be filled. The project began much more simply: sitting down with young people, talking about stories, drawing characters, imagining neighborhoods, and seeing what happened.
And some interesting things happened.
Characters began to emerge.
Andre Davis. Tamia Parker. Russell Patterson.
They weren’t created as pieces of a carefully planned comic-book mythology. They grew out of those early collaborations — ideas imagined by young people and developed through the workshops.
The challenge came afterward:
What do we do with them?
That question eventually brought professional artists and writers into the process. Working through what would become the Made Collaborative Studio, Len Kody and Jimmy Briseno began developing a larger narrative around those original ideas.
New characters emerged along the way. Carl Castañeda. Dex Coleman. Peaches. Big Earl.
They weren’t part of the original youth workshops. They were created by the Studio to give those original characters relationships, history, conflict and a larger world in which their stories could unfold.
Little by little, something that began with modest means and a handful of ideas started becoming a comic.
That became Back of the Yards.
And now, as we build Issue #3, we’re returning to essentially the same question that started all of this:
What happens when you invite other people into the creative process – and take their ideas seriously?
You can learn more about Made Collaborative and the project’s early origins on our About page.
But for now, we’d rather show you what came from those early collaborations. What began with a handful of young people, some ideas and a pretty modest experiment eventually became the first two issues of Back of the Yards.
So let’s start at the beginning.
Read the Story So Far
Issue #1
This is where the story begins.
At the heart of our first issue are Andre Davis, Tamia Parker, Russell Patterson and Draymond Carter. Andre, Tamia and Russell trace their origins directly to Made Collaborative’s earliest classroom collaborations, where participating youth helped imagine the characters, experiences and ideas that would become the foundation of Back of the Yards.
In Issue #1, we meet them as their separate stories begin to take shape. Andre is thoughtful and imaginative. Tamia is creative, strong-willed and independent. And Russell and his friend Draymond share an imagination capable of transforming the ordinary world around them into something much bigger.
Their stories may begin separately, but they are part of a world that is only beginning to reveal itself. This is where we first meet them — and where Back of the Yards begins.
Issue #2
As the stories of our original characters began to develop, the Studio faced a new creative challenge:
How do we connect them?
Issue #2 begins to reveal some of the answer. Characters including Carl Castañeda and the Elders – Dex Coleman, Peaches and Big Earl – were developed through the Studio (led by Len Kody, Jimmy Briseno and participating artists like John Golden, Dan Dougherty, Eric Nyamor and Tony Maldanado) to help build a larger narrative around the characters and ideas that emerged from those original youth collaborations.
Their arrival begins connecting individual stories to a much larger history – and suggests that what is happening to Andre, Tamia and the others may be part of something that began long before them.
The world of Back of the Yards is getting bigger.
Read Issue #2 below.
And Now In Development - Issue #3
And now, the story is still being written. More than a decade after the first two issues of Back of the Yards were created, we’re returning to the neighborhood – and returning to the collaborative spirit that started the project in the first place.
Issue #3 brings together the characters, relationships and larger mythology that grew from those first two issues. But this time, we’re intentionally leaving parts of the story open.
We have a direction. We have characters and storylines already in motion. And we have a Working Manuscript that provides the developing backbone for the issue. But there are still people we haven’t fully met.
Places we haven’t created. Relationships we haven’t defined. And questions about where this story goes next that don’t yet have answers.
That’s intentional. Because with Issue #3, we’re opening the Studio again and inviting a new group of collaborators – new participating youth and people just like you – to help us answer some of those questions.
Below is the current Issue #3 Working Manuscript. It isn’t the finished story. And that’s the point.
Enter the Workshop
HELP US BUILD THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Every neighborhood has places that become part of its story.
The corner store everyone stopped at after school. The basketball court that belonged to the older kids after dark. A restaurant where everyone seemed to know each other. A front porch. A church. A vacant lot. A barbershop. An alley that served as a shortcut home.
Most of these places will never appear in a history book. But ask someone who grew up there, and they’ll remember.
That place.
That person.
That thing that happened there.
Those are the details that make a neighborhood feel real. And as Issue #3 develops, our characters will move through new parts of our fictional Back of the Yards – places that haven’t been created yet.
That’s where you come in.
We’re inviting you to think about one place from a neighborhood you remember and use it to help us imagine a new location within ours. Some of the places submitted through this Workshop will help inspire locations that appear in Back of the Yards. We’re starting with at least three collaborator-inspired locations for Issue #3, with the possibility of more appearing in future issues.
Names may change. Details may evolve. People and stories may be reimagined. But the inspiration will begin with a real place remembered by you.
And if your contribution helps inspire a location that appears in the comic, you’ll be credited as part of its development.
So now think about your neighborhood growing up.
Not the whole neighborhood. Just One place. Maybe everyone knew it. Maybe only a few people did.
Maybe something important happened there. Maybe nothing important ever happened there.
But for some reason, you remember it.
What did it look like? Who was usually there? What happened there?
Why has it stayed with you?
Hold onto that place. Now it is time to put it on our map!
No drawing skills required. Just bring your imagination.
Want to Go Deeper? Open the Issue #3 Dossier and/or Explore the Studio!
You've seen the story. You've entered the Workshop. Now take a look behind the scenes.
The Issue #3 Dossier is our working development file for the next chapter of Back of the Yards.
Inside, you'll find the characters, places, history and mythology behind the story — along with some of the questions we're still exploring as Issue #3 takes shape.
It's part story guide, part development archive, and part invitation.
Because not everything inside these files has been decided.
Some of it is still being built.
And we will continue to develop Issue #3 through new Workshops, conversations and featured Studio Cards. And you can see what we’re working on any time simply by clicking below to Explore the Studio!
Table of Contents
11 | Issue #3 Collaborations
| Summary | For Issue #3, we're inviting you to help us create a comic inside our comic. The Monahans is a comic story Andre himself reads within the world of Back of the Yards — a comic within a comic if you will - but its characters, Hero's Journey and visual identity are still taking shape. We're inviting you to help develop its heroes, imagine their story and create artwork that could ultimately appear as part of The Monahans inside Issue #3 and going forward. |
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| When | TBD |
| Who | TBD |
| Why | TBD |
Quick Introduction
First, a Quick Introduction to the Original Mock Cover
TBD Upon Final Collaboration Approval
The Comic Premise
TBD Upon Final Collaboration Approval.
Let's Collaborate!
A Made Collaborative Production!
This Studio Card is part of the Back of the Yards comic series, a Creative Commons project developed by the Made Collaborative Studio. You can learn more about our Creative Commons license by visiting the Explore the Studio page, but in short, what this means is that as a Creative Commons project, you can copy, redistribute, remix, transform, and build upon the content for any purpose, even commercially, as long as you give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. And if you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license above.
If you’d like to explore the Back of the Yards comic further, you can see and access related Studio Cards below. And finally, you can also take a peek into our corresponding project board below, where you may find some of the collaborators tracking your input to our Studio Cards and related topics. Happy collaborating!
Table of Contents
Related Studio Cards
08 | Issue #3 Collaborations
Who is Eric Nyamor?
Studio Card #6: Our Young Dreamer
Who is John Golden?
07 | Issue #3 Collaborations
Studio Card #6: The Hero’s Journey (Part III) – The Return
Who is Manny Dominguez?
12 | Issue #3 Collaborations
09 | Issue #3 Collaborations
11 | Issue #3 Collaborations
Studio Card #2 | Creating Your Own Hero’s Journey!
| Brief | In the previous Studio Card, you took your first creative steps—bringing a character to life and exploring what makes them unique. Now, it’s time for their journey to begin. Every hero, from the first stories ever told to today, follows a path filled with trials, transformation, and discovery. Welcome to the Hero’s Journey! |
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| Scope | The first five stages of the Hero’s Journey form a Call to Action. We meet your hero, step into their world, and watch as a challenge disrupts the balance. Will they answer the call? Will they step onto the rocky road of adventure? Or will they cling to blissful ignorance? |
| This & That | The Made Collaborative has developed a storytelling template rooted in ancient methods intrinsic to human nature. We invite you to engage in the same process that urban youth and our cadre of professional collaborators have used to shape Back of the Yards. Join us in building a richer, deeper world—on the comics page and beyond. And who knows? Your story could become part of it. |
Every Great Character
Has Their Own Hero's Journey
Welcome to the Made Collaborative Studio! And we continue your collaborative journey here by picking up where we left off from Studio Card #1 (Creating Your Own Character(s)) to embark on a Hero’s Journey.
Got a great idea for a Hero’s Journey storyline? We invite all of you to submit here it to the Made Collaborative Studio and the most eye-catching ideas may be chosen for further development with our team of creative professionals. Some of your crazy characters may even appear in future issues of the Back of the Yards comic!
We will walk you through this process below, but first, we once again begin with a little creative inspiration to help set the collaborative stage, we present to you the early origins of one of the greatest Hero’s Journeys every presented on the big screen – the Black Panther…
We’ve Been Waiting for You!
Welcome to the adventure, fellow travelers. As you’ll soon discover in this Collaborative Series, stories and storytelling are essential to human existence. The natural flow of a story—from beginning to middle to end—feels wired into our DNA. The stories we tell ourselves shape how we understand the world.
Starting with the very basics – the Hero’s Journey is a story template where a heroleaves their “ordinary world” for an adventure, faces trials and tribulations in a special world, and then returns transformed with a new wisdom or gift for their community. In in its most common form, the Hero’s Journey can be described in 12 stages (as shown below). Key stages include Departure, where the hero receives a call to adventure and leaves their known world; Initiation, the core of the journey with trials, allies, and a decisive victory or ordeal; and Return, where the hero comes back to their ordinary world, often with a boon that benefits others.
Across history and cultures, many of the greatest stories follow a pattern known as the Hero’s Journey. From Hamlet to Harry Potter, from Buddha to Spider-Man, this universal formula transcends time and place. Why? Because the Hero’s Journey isn’t just about how stories work. It’s about how we work. It’s a roadmap for life itself. Some stories are so powerful they don’t just shape our imaginations. They build nations, religions, skyscrapers and cathedrals around them.
First, We Recommend First Grabbing Pen and Paper
As with all collaborations, as your first step we urge you to first get an old-fashioned pen (or pencil) and paper in hand. In fact, it might be good to have a journal notebook to help with all your collaborations to take notes, jot down ideas, and if you are so inclined, even start illustrations. It is with this type of brainstorming that often you will encounter your creative breakthroughs.
Taking notes will be particularly helpful with this Hero’s Journey collaboration as we will walk you through 4 steps to help you develop your own Hero’s Journey storyline framework, starting with Step 1 below (Developing Your Ordinary World). We have also created this PDF Worksheet [INSERT PDF LINK] for your convenience if helpful.
Once you have your pen and paper in hand or printed out your PDF worksheet, we can begin this collaboration.
STEP ONE
Developing an Ordinary World
& Teasing Out Your Main Storyline(s)
The hero is introduced to us in their ordinary world. The mundane, ordinary world is presented in stark contrast with the “special world” that the hero will enter when they accept their quest.
In Spider-Man, Peter Parker is introduced as a regular, particularly nerdy teen in the residential borough of Queens–quite the opposite of the New York-based superhero he becomes.
In our comic series, the “Ordinary World” is Back of the Yards, a fictionalized version of a real Chicago neighborhood with a community and a history all its own.
For each of the collaborative steps within this Hero's Journey Studio Card Page, we will refer you to a Hero's Journey Guide flipbook that we have created for your reference. Within this guidebook, you will see a summary of each of the corresponding Hero's Journey phases that we will refer you to as we walk you through the steps.
With this Step One, we will focus on (i) generally describing your main story idea and with that, (ii) developing the Ordinary World of your basic story idea.
So, with that in mind, we refer you to pages [_____] below!
Before going to the next collaborative step, take some time to collect your thoughts and notes on paper on the main storyline idea and your Ordinary World.
[TBD – Insert Len’s existing prompts from the existing Google Forms for each of these “Pen to Paper” prompts after developing the Hero’s Journey flipbook and Steps 1 through 4.]
STEP TWO
From a Call to Adventure to Crossing the Threshold!
This is the moment that sets the story in motion—a pivotal event that presents the hero with a challenge they can’t ignore. Their journey begins here.
In Star Wars, the call to adventure arrives through Princess Leia’s desperate message, carried by R2-D2: “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.”
In Back of the Yards, Andre’s call comes on a fateful night when he ascends a translucent staircase to a mysterious craft hidden in a dark South Side alleyway.
STEP THREE
STEP FOUR
A hero’s journey begins with a call—an opportunity, a crisis, or a moment of realization that changes everything. Sometimes it’s a whisper, other times a thunderclap, but it always leads toward something new. In your Ordinary World, what kind of call might set someone on a path to adventure?
3. Refusal of the Call
The hero often hesitates before answering the call to adventure. Fear, doubt, or attachment to the life they know can hold them back. Sometimes, they don’t feel ready. Other times, they don’t yet understand the path ahead.
In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo resists leaving the safety of the Shire, uncertain if he has the strength to face the dangers beyond his home.
Mr. Castaneda’s journey reflects this hesitation in a different way. He traveled to Mexico seeking wisdom, only to be rebuffed by the cosmic being he sought. Unready for the knowledge he desired, his path forward remained uncertain.
Whether through fear, uncertainty, or rejection, the hero’s first instinct is often to turn back.
A call to adventure isn’t always answered right away. The unknown is daunting, and stepping forward often means leaving something behind. Fear, doubt, responsibility, or even disbelief can keep a hero from taking that first step.
Before the journey begins, they must decide: stay or go?
4. Meeting The Mentor
The hero encounters a wise mentor—often an older man or woman—who provides the guidance, tools, or knowledge needed to begin the journey. But while the mentor offers wisdom, they can only accompany the hero so far. At some point, the hero must step forward alone.
In The Matrix, Neo meets Morpheus, who presents him with a choice: take the blue pill and remain in the familiar world, or take the red pill and embrace the unknown.
At New City High, the enigmatic Mr. Castaneda serves as a mentor to gifted young creatives, offering them insight and encouragement. Yet, much about him remains a mystery.
No hero starts their journey alone. A mentor appears to offer guidance, whether through knowledge, training, or an unexpected challenge. Gandalf helps Bilbo find his courage, Yoda teaches Luke the ways of the Jedi, and Mr. Castaneda serves as a cryptic guide to promising young minds at New City High.
But no matter how wise or powerful, a mentor can only do so much. In the end, the hero must choose their own path
5. Crossing the Threshold
Every hero reaches a moment of no return—the point where they step beyond the familiar and fully commit to the journey ahead. Fear and uncertainty may linger, but once they cross the threshold, there’s no turning back. They must embrace the unknown and face whatever challenges lie ahead.
In Spider-Man, Peter Parker takes this leap when he catches the thief who killed Uncle Ben, realizing the weight of his choices: “With great power comes great responsibility.” In that moment, he is no longer just Peter—he has stepped fully into his role as Spider-Man.
Now, it’s your turn. Storytelling itself is an adventure, a journey into uncharted territory where you shape the path ahead. Just like the heroes in the stories we love, you stand at the edge of something new.
Will you take the first step?
Let’ s Collaborate!
Are you ready to take the leap?
The time for hesitation is over, dear storyteller. You’ve crafted your character, explored their world, and maybe even glimpsed the path ahead. But a hero isn’t defined by where they start—it’s the moment they step forward that truly begins their journey.
Now, bring it all together. Set the stage. Show us how your hero crosses the threshold and embraces the adventure that awaits!
Draw the Journey
Stories come alive through images. Illustrate a pivotal moment from the first five stages of the Hero’s Journey.
It could be:
• A single image capturing the Call to Adventure or meeting the Mentor.
• A comics page showing the journey from the Ordinary World to Crossing the Threshold.
What does this moment look like? Show us the turning point.
Strong submissions may be featured in Back of the Yards!
Table of Contents
Related Studio Cards
Studio Card#17: Who is Draymond Carter?
Studio Card #10: The Street Corner Mentor
Studio Card #6: Our Young Dreamer
Who is Dan Dougherty?
07 | Issue #3 Collaborations
Studio Card #3 – Creating a Character (Part II)
10 | Issue #3 Collaborations
Studio Card #2 | Creating Your Own Hero’s Journey!
Studio Card #8: Neighborhoods & Their Residents
Studio Card #3 – Creating a Character (Part II)
Studio Card #8: Neighborhoods & Their Residents
| What | With this Source Card collaborative production, we examine the unique characteristics of our urban neighborhoods, including their unique histories, events and residents. |
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| When | We will examine past, present and future states of these neighborhoods in attempt to gain a better understanding of how these neighborhoods originally developed and evolved through the years. |
| Who | As part of this collaborative series, we will also examine the residents of these neighborhoods, including early immigrants to present day inhabitants, and their corresponding influence and impact to our urban communities. |
| Why | In order to more fully understand some of the complexities of our urban centers, we must understand their neighborhoods, including the evolution of those neighborhoods and their residents. And, of course, we plan to incorporate some of these related themes into our ongoing comic series, Back of the Yards, with your collaborations. |
Chicago...
“Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker,
Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders”
Ahh, Chicago. The city from which this modest little collaborative comic project was born. A city of neighborhoods as diverse as the residents that inhabit within.
The very idea of this comic was born on a bus ride home by its project founder one winter’s evening, and from there, would evolve into a fully formed comic by fusing the ideas of participating Chicago urban youth with the ideas and illustration of local Chicago artists.
Your Collaboration Workbook
As with all collaborations, we start by urging you to first get an old-fashioned pen (or pencil) and paper in hand. It is with this type of brainstorming that often you will encounter your creative breakthroughs and even more practically, taking notes will help you to organize and summarize your thoughts.
We have also created a Collaborative Workbook [INSERT PDF LINK] for your convenience if helpful, which you can access here by clicking below.
Creating Our Comic's "Ordinary World" -
The Fictional Back of the Yards Neighborhood
In many ways, Chicago represents the “Ordinary World” from which this collaborative comic project was born. In fact, this comic series central storyline takes place in a fictional neighborhood called “Back of the Yards” which is loosely based on the real Chicago neighborhood located in the South Side of the city.
More on that later, but first we present you with a quick introduction to what we mean when we refer to the “Ordinary World” by introducing you to a storytelling framework called the Hero’s Journey.
The Hero's Journey
As we will cover much more separately as part of this collabroative project, the Hero’s Journey is a story template where a hero leaves their “ordinary world” for an adventure, faces trials and tribulations in a special world, and then returns transformed with a new wisdom or gift for their community. In in its most common form, the Hero’s Journey can be described in 12 stages (as shown below). Key stages include Departure from the “Ordinary World,” where the hero receives a call to adventure and leaves their known world; Initiation, the core of the journey with trials, allies, and a decisive victory or ordeal; and Return, where the hero comes back to their ordinary world, often with a boon that benefits others.
It is this story template that we will build our own comic collaboratively going forward. In doing so, we will provide you more detail on influential creative pioneers like Joseph Campbell and Christopher Vogler. For now, we will just focus on that very first stage of the Hero’s Journey story template tool – the Ordinary World.
The Ordinary World
The Ordinary World is the very beginning of the Hero’s Journey. It is, as its name suggests, the setting from which the Hero is going through his or her daily life before their “Call to Adventure.” For Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, this setting was Luke’s family farm on the planet of Tatooine.
The movie, Black Panther, begins with an introduction to that comic story’s Ordinary World which began thousands of years ago in the nation of Wakanda within the continent of Africa. It was there that five African tribes warred over a meteorite containing the metal vibranium. One warrior ingests a "heart-shaped herb" affected by the metal and gains superhuman abilities, becoming the first "Black Panther" and ultimately setting the stage for the eventual Call to Adventure of the story’s hero – T’Challa.
But that movie’s Hero’s Journey storyline all starts with the introduction to the movie’s Ordinary World, which you can see here by clicking below.
In contrast to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars or T’Challa in the Black Panther, our comic’s first main character Andre is living his “ordinary” life as a young man in a fictional neighborhood called the “Back of the Yards,” which we loosely based on the real-life Back of the Yards neighborhood in the South Side of Chicago.
The Real Back of the Yards Neighborhood
The real Back of the Yards neighborhood extends from 39th to 55th Streets between Halsted and the railroad tracks along Leavitt Street in Chicago, and was until the 1950’s the largest livestock yards and meatpacking center in the country. Attracting the attention of novelists and activists alike through much of the 20th century.
And in many ways, the real Back of the Yards neighborhood is symbolic of so many of our nation’s urban centers. An influx of European immigrants looking for a better life, back when manufacturing jobs were plentiful. Followed closely by an influx of African-American migrants from the rural South. All creating a vibrant melting pot of cultures unique to our nation’s great urban centers.
Of course, those once plentiful jobs would soon begin to disappear due to economic forces beyond the control of those early residents. Steel would leave Cleveland. The auto industry would soon begin to abandon Detroit. A general exodus of manufacturing from Baltimore. It was just a different version of the same story for many of our nation’s urban centers.
And in the Back of the Yards’ case, it was the stockyards that would leave Chicago, leaving behind economic strain for those who could not also depart to the suburbs or elsewhere.
As part of Issue 1 of our new comic Back of the Yards series, we developed a short comic feature about the Real Back of the Yards, which we hope to replicate over time for different neighborhoods and their respective histories and residents, both within Chicago and beyond.
This short Back of the Yards comic feature, appearing in the supplement of Issue 1, was written by the project’s Creative Director, Len Kody, and illustrated by participating artist Dan Dougherty, and draws inspiration from a book called The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair, who spent seven weeks in the Chicago Stockyards (what is now the real Back of the Yards neighborhood) in 1904.
What remains at the Chicago Back of the Yards neighborhood today is a diverse, vibrant working-class neighborhood known for its strong Latinx community and deep roots in the city’s industrial past. While the area still faces challenges like poverty, aging infrastructure, and crime, it’s also seeing grassroots revitalization through community-led efforts and developments like the United Yards project. Local organizations are active in youth programs, housing support, and cultural events, helping preserve neighborhood pride.
Pen to Paper - Tell Us About Your Neighborhood!
Building our Fictional Back of the Yards "Ordinary World" By Learning More About Your Neighborhoods
And it is that tapestry of people, personalities and life experiences that makes every city and community special. The food they serve and eat. The history that betrays itself through each neighborhood’s architecture, giving clues about its residents and their journeys, both personal and ancestral.
And it’s also that same tapestry that may help us to continue to build upon our own fictional Back of the Yards neighborhood for our comic series. It’s in that context that we wanted to facilitate this Studio Card collaborative series, Neighborhoods & Their Residents working with participating youth, artists and others, to create comic content for our Back of the Yards comic series based on some of the unique characteristics of their neighborhoods.
Within this collaboration series, we will continue to explore different neigborhoods and communities throughout America, both urban and rural, with a look into their residents, their histories and culture. And with that context, our hope is that over time, we will be able to work with youth collaboratively to create future short comic features exploring some of those neighborhoods and their histories.
***
- Take some time to think about your own neighborhood growing up, whether now or in the past. What was/is the name of your neighborhood? What city? And how would you describe it in a short paragraph or two?
- As you think about your neighborhood, are there any particular places that more immediately come to mind? Like a church? Playground? A store? Restaurant? Any other landmarks? Try listing 3 to 5 such places from your neighborhood and provide a short description of what these places may have looked like and why they may be part of your neighborhood memories?
- Finally, neighborhoods are about the people that inhabit the communities, both past and present. Are there any residents from your neighborhood that you remember in particular? A teacher? A cousin or friend? A store owner? Anyone at all. Try listing 3 to 5 such individuals with a short description of them.
The Heartbeat of Every Neighborhood - Residents
As we opened this Studio Card page with, Chicago is a city of neighborhoods—each with its own unique character, history, and community. From the vibrant murals of Pilsen to the historic brownstones of Bronzeville, every corner of the city tells a story through its residents. These neighborhoods are more than just places on a city map; they’re home to generations of families, local businesses, cultural traditions, and everyday moments that define life in Chicago. Just as with every city and community. And in this video, we join Peter Santenello as he explores some of these diverse communities and how they shape the heartbeat of the city.
Let’ s Collaborate!
With this collaboration, you will have an opportunity to develop our comic's "Ordinary World" - the fictional Back of Yards comic neighborhood. You can help us to this by submitting to us places and residents from your own neighborhoods.
Especially creative submissions will be chosen for further development with the Made Collaborative team and inclusion in our comic book series, starting with the next Back of the Yards issue.
We'll also invite some collaborators to take part in our livestream sessions over Zoom.
Table of Contents
Related Studio Cards
Source Card #9: Crossing the Threshold Every Day
| What | This collaborative series is a peek into the issues facing law enforcement and community relations within our urban communities. |
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| When | We will begin Part I of this collaborative series with a snapshot of the early origins of modern day policing, setting the stage for a deeper dive into the present day issues in Part II of this series. |
| Who | This Source Card overview begins with a look at a man named Robert Peel who may not be a household name to many of us, but as it turns out, in many ways he may well be the founding father of today’s modern day police force as we know it. |
| Why | To facilitate a collaborative process that promotes just a little more understanding from all sides on a complicated set of issues facing our country’s urban centers. And along the way, with your help and input, incorporate some of these themes and issues into our Back of the Yards comic series. |
A Quick Introduction
With this Source Card collaboration, we’ll explore a range of topics centered on law enforcement and community relations. We’ll begin with a look at the origins of modern policing and gradually move toward examining the many challenges police departments face today.
As we explore these topics, you’ll be invited to participate—individually or alongside others. Our hope is to engage not only urban youth and their academic communities, but also subject-matter experts, including police officers themselves.
That’s the vision, at least—and we’ll discover together exactly where this collaboration leads. For now, let’s start at the beginning: the early roots of the modern police force and the work of a man named Robert Peel...
From Peel to Modern Day Realities
As noted in the brief introduction above, much of the credit for establishing the framework of modern policing goes to an early 19th-century English statesman named Robert Peel. And with that in mind, one can’t help but wonder what Peel himself might think if he were alive to witness the state of policing today…
Of course, saying that a lot has changed since Robert Peel’s day would be something of an understatement.
In Peel’s era, the newly formed police—nicknamed “Bobbies” in his honor—patrolled metropolitan streets armed with nothing more than wooden batons. Their most common encounters involved public drunkenness and the occasional street fight, with the underlying hope that their steady presence alone would be enough to deter crime…
Violence in our Cities
In the summer of 2020, total Chicago shootings that July were at a 75% increase as compared to previous July. And as I write this blog entry, just over the last weekend alone here in Chicago, at least 49 people were shot, seven fatally.
Violence in our cities is nothing new. And to be fair, the fact of the matter is that violent crime within the United States has actually been on a steady decline over the last 15 years. But that shouldn’t in any way diminish the very real challenges within our urban centers today, as further evidenced by a murder rate that was up 16.1 percent in America’s 25 largest cities in 2020.
And it is this volatility that police officers walk right into the front lines every day. As Chicago’s former superintendent David Brown put it just after a shooting of 3 Chicago officers, “when they leave home, they leave their loved ones and put their stars on and risk everything. They risk everything protecting us all.”
Systematic Pressures on All Sides
All of this is further complicated by modern drug-enforcement laws, which place additional frontline responsibilities on police officers. These pressures can create an environment where officers feel compelled to “produce” in order to meet job expectations. Yet in doing so, an unintended adversarial relationship often develops between law enforcement and the very communities they are meant to patrol and protect.
In his book Justice Without Trial, Law Enforcement in Democratic Society (1967, latest edition 2015), sociologist Jerome Skolnick maintains that any job description that calls upon a person to exercise decision-making authority in the face of physical danger may simply be asking too much of the practitioner.
Combine that danger with the systematic pressures police officers feel from above and from within, it would seem to be a wholly undeniable understatement to say that the job of a police officer is a profoundly difficult one.
But as we will try to further explore as this collaboration develops, the same systematic pressures that our police officers feel from above and within, as they also put their lives on the line daily, may also be contributing to the widely disproportionately negative impacts within our black and brown communities that exist today, which are equally undeniable.
Pen to Paper! - Help Us Create an Open Dialogue
As part of this collaboration—and to help shape two new police characters for our Back of the Yards comic series—we plan to facilitate an open dialogue between participating youth and both active and retired police officers. Excerpts from these conversations, paired with supplemental comic illustrations, will appear in the Supplement of Issue 3 and may even influence the dialogue or scenes involving the new officers and other characters in the series.
You can help us build this dialogue by reflecting on the prompts below. We’ve also created a workbook, accessible through the yellow button, that offers additional context and provides space for you to jot down notes if that’s useful.
After you’ve considered the prompts and gathered your thoughts, you can share your ideas with us through the “Let’s Collaborate” form at the end of this Studio Card page.
Prompt #1
As we reach out to both active and retired police officers to participate in this dialogue, what questions would you consider asking them? Take a moment to think about the topics or experiences you are most curious about, and how their perspectives could help inform the creation of our new police officer characters for the Back of the Yards comic series.
Prompt #2
From a law enforcement officer’s perspective, what opening questions would you ask a participating youth? Consider what you would want to learn about their experiences, perspectives, or ideas, and how these insights might help foster a meaningful dialogue.
Prompt #3
Do you have any additional suggestions for making this open dialogue more meaningful and productive for both participating youth and police officers? Think about ways to foster understanding, encourage participation, or create a positive and respectful exchange of ideas.
Law & Order - The Thin Blue Line
Beyond the day-to-day realities of policing in our modern communities, societies depend on law and order to preserve safety, stability, and the well-being of the public. Yet in a democracy, these needs must always be weighed against the dangers of excessive state authority—particularly the potential for police power to suppress or control dissent. Striking this balance has long been a challenge in the United States and elsewhere, especially within urban communities during periods of social tension and political upheaval.
Within Chicago, where this collaborative comic project was born, this tension has long been evident. The Chicago Lager Riot of 1855 and the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention protests both highlight tensions between maintaining public order and protecting civil liberties.
During the Chicago Lager Riot, working-class immigrants protested strict temperance laws and Sunday saloon closures imposed by city leaders. Police used force to suppress demonstrations, revealing how state authority could be used to enforce moral or political agendas at the expense of public dissent.
More than a century later, during the 1968 Democratic Convention, antiwar demonstrators clashed with Chicago police, whose aggressive tactics—widely televised—sparked national debate over “law and order” and the limits of police power.
The 1968 Democratic National Convention unfolded amid intense social and political turmoil. The Vietnam War, civil rights struggles, and the recent assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy had deeply divided the nation. Protests for peace and justice clashed with demands for “law and order,” making Chicago a focal point of the era’s unrest and polarization.
Both events illustrate the enduring struggle in American democracy to balance the state’s responsibility to preserve order with citizens’ rights to protest and express opposition to government policy. They also reveal the strain such conflicts place on police officers themselves, who are often caught between enforcing authority, maintaining public safety, and navigating the moral and political pressures of their time.
Chicago 1968 - A Comic by Len Kody
Long before he entered the collaborative scene with us as Creative Director at Made Collaborative, Len Kody worked with other comic artists – including participating project artist, Tony Maldonado – to develop a working comic anthology depicting the tumultuous events and characters leading to the 1968 Chicago convention protests. That comic is an ongoing creative work by Len and other artists (over 150 pages to date), but within the original comic storyline, Len created two fictional characters – both of whom were Chicago police officers.
Jimmy O’Herron and Frank Zomksi are two characters from Len’s Chicago 1968 comic. Each officer is deeply rooted in Chicago’s history—one of Irish descent, the other Polish—and both find themselves caught in the social powder keg of the 1968 Chicago protests. These two characters will serve to inform a collaboration to create a new police officer character for the Back of the Yards comic series, which we will introduce just below.
To help set the stage for this collaboration, Len has generously allowed us to include three excerpts from the original Chicago 1968 comic. Each excerpt features one or both of the O’Herron and Zomksi characters. You can access them by clicking the yellow button below.
Pen to Paper! - Help Us Create a New Comic Character
Creating the "Officer #1" Character
Within Len Kody’s Chicago 1968, the fictional police officer characters of Jimmy O’Herron and Frank Zomksi find themselves caught in the social powder keg that was the 1968 Chicago protests. It is through these two police officer characters that we see how these broader societal tensions may take a significant toll on police officers themselves, who often face immense pressure, public scrutiny, and the emotional strain of navigating volatile situations while attempting to uphold both public safety and constitutional rights.
With this collaboration, we will be creating “Officer #1” for our Back of the Yards comic series. This Officer #1 character will be an older, more senior officer – perhaps at the tail end of his policing career. And in addition, this new Officer #1 character will be related to, in some way, either Jimmy O’Herron or Frank Zomski from Len Kody’s Chicago 1968 comic. How exactly this new character is related, and what that relation even means to this new character’s other traits – all of that will be entirely up to you and others who participate in this collaboration.
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To help facilitate the development of this new character, we point you to a digital template that we previously developed – Studio Cards #1. You can access this template by clicking on the Studio Card to the right.
As you will see, this Studio Card digital template walks you through a simple 5 step process to shape your character ideas into a character ready for the Back of the Yards comic series.
The general framework of this digital character template is:
Step One – Creating Your Character’s Background and Basic Traits
Step Two – Developing Your Character’s Personality
Step Three – Developing Your Character’s Archetypes & Core Values
Step Four – You Character’s Biography & Other Interesting Facts
You can also access Issue #1 of the Back of the Yards comic in Studio Card #1!
02 | Issue #3 Collaborations
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Prompt One - Creating "Officer #1's" Character Background & Basic Traits
Step #1 - O'Herron or Zomsky?
Begin by making a key creative choice:
Choose one of the two officers from Len’s Chicago 1968 comic—O’Herron or Zomsky—to whom the new Officer #1 will be connected or related to in some way.
For example, given the difference in time from 1968 to the more current setting of the Back of the Yards, this relationship could be a nephew or niece, or even a child depending upon age. In any case, this relationship will help anchor your character’s physical presence, personality, and background.
Step #2 - Define Physical Characteristics
With that connection in mind (O’Herron or Zomsky), describe the physical traits of Officer #1.
Consider:
- What aspects of their appearance reflect (or contrast with) O’Herron or Zomsky?
- Height, build, posture, facial features, grooming, uniform details, or any distinguishing traits.
Step #3 - Basic Background Characteristics
Next, create the essential biographical details for Officer #1.
You may include:
- Name
- Age (Keeping in mind that this officer will be more senior, perhaps serving as an authority to other officers)
- Birthplace
- How is this new character connected or related to either O’Herron or Zomsky?
- Key family members (other than O’Herron or Zomsky)
- Brief personal history or defining life moments
- Any additional details that situate the character
- Feel free to refer to Studio Card #1 for guidance or style cues.
Step #4 - Bringing it Together
Using your notes from the steps above, write a two-to-three-sentence introduction that could appear in a screenplay the moment Officer #1 first appears. (If helpful, reference the Training Day description example in Studio Card #1 for tone and format.)
Prompt Two - Developing "Officer #1's" Personality Traits
Now that you’ve begun shaping Officer #1’s background and physical presence, take a moment to define who they are on the inside.
Write down five or more personality traits that you would use to describe your Officer #1 character to a friend or family member.
These can include attitudes, habits, strengths, flaws, or emotional tendencies. Feel free to draw inspiration from Studio Card #1 or from the personality cues you’ve already established in relation to O’Herron or Zomsky.
Think broadly—traits may be:
- Internal (e.g., anxious, idealistic, methodical)
- Interpersonal (e.g., sarcastic, gentle, confrontational)
- Professional (e.g., by-the-book, improvisational, ambitious)
Use whatever combination best reflects the emerging character and fits the tone of Back of the Yards Comic series.
Prompt Three - "Officer #1’s" Character Archetype & Core Values
Now it’s time to get to the core of your “Officer #1” character. Using one of the 12 archetypes presented within Studio Card #1, begin by defining the overarching archetype that best captures who this character is at their core—for example, The Stoic Hero, The Disillusioned Caregiver, The By-the-Book Boss, or The Reluctant Warrior. You may choose one archetype or blend several to create a more nuanced figure.
Once you’ve identified the archetype(s), outline the core values that guide Officer #1’s decisions, behavior, and worldview. You can draw upon their relation to either O’Herron or Zomski, and moreover, these values should reflect both the pressures and responsibilities of policing and the character’s personal moral compass. Consider values such as duty, loyalty, justice, restraint, compassion, integrity, or skepticism of authority—but feel free to propose others that fit your chosen archetype.
Your goal is to create a foundational identity for Officer #1 that can anchor their backstory, motivations, and role within the narrative. Please provide:
- The chosen archetype(s)
- A short description explaining why this archetype fits
- A set of 4–6 core values that define Officer #1’s internal code
Prompt Four - Lightening Round
Finally, just like in the Studio Card #1 template, it’s time for a “lightning round”! This is your chance to add details to your character’s backstory and explore the traits that make them truly unique. To help guide you, we’ve prepared 100 quick and easy questions, which you can explore in the Google Slide presentation below.
Of course, you don’t have to answer all of them—or even any at all! But we do encourage you to have fun with it and try to answer at least 10 questions to get your creativity flowing.
Let's Collaborate!
Here’s your opportunity to share your collaborative ideas with us! Using the form below, you can submit any notes or reflections you’ve developed in response to the prompts above—whether they relate to the “open dialogue” collaboration or the creation of the new “Officer #1” character.
We’ll be reviewing submissions regularly and selecting notable contributions for deeper exploration during our scheduled Zoom workshops.
Thank you again for participating. We look forward to collaborating more directly with some of you as we continue developing Issue 3 of the Back of the Yards comic series!
Table of Contents
Related Studio Cards
03 | Issue #3 Collaborations
04 | Issue #3 Collaborations
01 | Issue #3 Collaborations
Studio Card #8: Neighborhoods & Their Residents
Studio Card #10: The Street Corner Mentor
10 | Issue #3 Collaborations
02 | Issue #3 Collaborations
Studio Card #3 – Creating a Character (Part II)
| What | This Studio Card production is part of the Back of the Yards comic series, a Creative Commons project produced by Made Collaborative Studio, and features Carl Jung’s Archetypes of the Unconscious Mind. This Studio Card sets forth the 12 primary character archetypes which we hope help participating youth with their own creative projects and ideas. |
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| When | These 12 character archetypes can be used by participating youth for their own independent collaborations, just as they have been used by others throughout the course of time, from the ancient Greek plays to modern day Star Wars trilogies. |
| Who | These character archetypes are important to understand because unlike character stereotypes, which are superficial generic generalizations, archetypes are said to have been deduced through the development of storytelling over tens of thousands of years, indicating repeating patterns of individual and group experience. |
| Why | Character Archetypes can help one gain a better understanding and development of literary characters and stories for not only our Made Collaborative comic publications, but also independent collaborations of any participating youth and others. |
Quick Introduction
Sometimes dreams are bizarre. Some dreams are scary. Others are downright silly. Most of the time, your dreams don’t have anything to say that is especially deep or profound. They simply echo your everyday experiences.
But Dr. Carl Gustav Jung was a 20th-century Swiss psychologist who thought that dreams had something more to tell us. He explored the hidden and mysterious aspects of the mind and found that some dreams are energized by timeless motifs that have echoes in art, poetry and music throughout all human existence. These dreams may hold intriguing new insights into life and the world, Jung believed, because they come from the “collective unconscious.”
The collective unconscious is bigger and more fundamental than the mind of any single individual; it is the profound and timeless wisdom that all humans share. But, because our waking minds aren’t able to directly communicate with the collective unconscious, it will sometimes send us unexpected signs and signals in our dreams.
When you decode the images in these important dreams you may find yourself the beneficiary of some new or hidden knowledge. In the classic cases of these instances, prophetic dreamers will receive esoteric knowledge that can help their community through a coming crisis.
With this Source Card production, we will provide you an overview of each of the 12 primary character archetypes, starting with The Hero.
The Hero
The Mentor
The Ruler
The Ruler is also known as the King, the Queen, the Guardian, the Politician, etc. All of the archetypes go by many names because the simple and intuitive roles they describe belie significant complexity. Like real people, the archetypes of the unconscious contain both light and dark energy.
At their best, a Ruler provides structure and protection against the creeping threat of chaos and anarchy. But when does one’s quest for power make him or her a tyrant? At their worst, the Ruler’s “structure” is simply a prison. So you see that the Ruler especially, along with all the archetypes of the unconscious, has both good and bad aspects to them. Whichever aspects of the Ruler are manifest in a given story or situation depends a lot on context and the character that happens to be inhabiting the Ruler role at the time.
Much of the resistance the Hero first encounters when they leave the familiar behind frequently comes in the form of institutional “red tape,” close-minded laws or irrational traditions. In fact, as part of their initial heroic baptism, the Hero might find his or herself having to take a stand against a corrupt Ruler, government or philosophy that defines the boundaries of the Ordinary World.
In this way, Robin Hood classically combats the tyrannical Sheriff of Nottingham when the dashing archer and his Merrie Men rob from the rich and give to the poor on their quest to undermine the political and economic inequalities of their day. King Arthur, on the other hand, eventually became the Ruler as part of his Heroic Journey. A big theme of the Arthurian legends was Arthur’s quest to unite the feuding powers of medieval Britain to create a peaceful and stable homeland for his people. In some stories, the Hero rises to become Ruler but is eventually corrupted by that power.
The Explorer
The Explorer wants to see the world! If every story is a journey of some sort, the Explorer embodies the willingness—nay, the eagerness—to seek the novel, the exotic and the intriguingly unfamiliar.
In life, dreams and in stories, characters are constantly changing roles, archetypes are always exchanging masks. If the Hero crosses paths with the Explorer, the Explorer may provide the Hero with some helpful information from the wider world, thus becoming a Mentor and guide. The Explorer’s wanderlust may be what sends him or her on a journey in the first place, across the threshold of adventure; thus the Explorer may become a Hero, in some cases. On the other hand, the lonely life of the Explorer may make them a permanent misfit, never at home wherever he goes. This makes the Explorer quite different than a Hero, depending on your perspective, because heroes are usually a champion of a particular community.
In 1969, Neil Armstrong was the first human being to ever set foot on the moon. He eventually returned, of course. But, in that “one small step” he took onto the cold and distant lunar surface, he embodied the spirit of the Explorer for the 20th century.
The Dreamer
All of us were innocent Dreamers once. As we learn the ways of the world and become wiser, there is something that is lost, too.
The Dreamer experiences the world as we all did when we were wide-eyed children, when everything was still charged by the electric fairy dust of imagination. The Dreamer believes in a world beyond the one we can see. To some, these innocent young cherubs might seem very detached from the real world. The Dreamer can be incredibly naive. However, they do serve to constantly remind us (and possibly remind the Hero, as well) that paradise awaits at the end of the Journey when our present struggles have reached their conclusion.
Even if their childish aphorisms are ultimately untrue, they’re worth fighting for. So, the Dreamer often reminds the Hero what he or she is fighting for. The Dreamer can be a focal point for all the transformative potential that transcends the restrictive structures of the Ordinary World, making them the stewards of some very potent energies, indeed.
The adorable and innocent Baby Yoda character from the Mandalorian show is a good example of a Dreamer character. The show’s rugged protagonist fights to defend the green infant who unwittingly commands the powerful force. And yet another Dreamer is a man named Tucker …
The Rebel
The rebel wants to change the world by tearing down the status quo. Many of the other archetypes have a strained relationship with “the ordinary world” that often sets the scene for dramatic changes and amazing journeys later in the story: the Hero, the Creator, the Explorer, etc. What distinguishes the Rebel from similar archetypes is his or her fiery passion for immediate change and their willingness to engage in disruptive, even destructive behavior in order to achieve their goals.
Whether you view a Rebel character as either good or evil depends a lot on your perspective—one person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter. Many criminals engage in Rebel-like behavior when they break the law to advance their own agenda. Entrepreneurs, like Steve Jobs, have a rebellious streak in them too, because they defy expectations and subvert conventions that would otherwise restrict innovation and creativity in their industry—that’s why Apple’s slogan is “Think Different.”
Civil rights leaders and activists must all be Rebels, too, because they are trying to topple the established structures of institutional racism.
The Magician
The Magician is the master of the universe. He or she is sometimes depicted with the forces of nature bending to their will. Also known as the Wizard, the Visionary or the Healer, we see these Shaman characters in fiction and in real life.
The founders of the great Silicon Valley tech giants are often spoken of in the same terms as Wizards and Magicians—they imagined a different way of doing things and, using the mastery over occult forces (computer technology, in this case) they made those dreams a physical reality. Today, we are truly living in a world that was first dreamt of by Steve Jobs and the Google brain trust.
In fantasy stories, like the Lord of the Rings, the Magician role is inhabited by a literal Wizard. Gandalf guides the journeys of his hobbit allies, also taking on the role of Mentor, on occasion. Some see the Magician as the inevitable conclusion of the Hero’s Journey, a journey which we’ll discuss in detail later. As the Hero is transformed through his or her trials of initiation, they transcend the boundaries of crude duality and basic conflict.
Unlike the Hero, the Magician’s will is in accord with the will of the greater universe, and so they seek win-win solutions that dissolve differences rather than getting bound up in all that antagonistic tension. The Magician is sometimes the Hero’s shadow companion, using their unique talents to support the Hero’s crusade, as Merlin did with King Arthur.
The Trickster
There is a great tradition of comedy in American culture. We celebrate the Trickster because of his ability to speak truth to power and to turn expectations on their head. Also known as the Jester, the Joker, the Comedian or the Disruptor, this character does more than make us laugh.
The Trickster brashly points out the unseen absurdities that govern all our lives. These absurdities are unseen because most “normal folks” are either unable or unwilling to acknowledge any incongruities in their boring existence until the Trickster’s cutting quips make them impossible to ignore. The classic observational comedy of Jerry Seinfeld is so fondly remembered for taking the mundane silliness of day-to-day life—things like airplane peanuts, searching for parking and going to a restaurant—and presenting them in a humorous way that makes us see the preposterous assumptions we make all the time. Comedians like Richard Prior and Dave Chapelle spotlight institutional racial injustices in a similar way. They challenged the invisible and unspeakable mechanisms of racism operating in every aspect of our society by making them look stupid (which they are).
With their ability to help others see beyond the various veils of illusion, the Trickster often provides welcome “comic relief” in many movies and TV shows. They are the goofy friend or sidekick who release the pent-up tension of the pulse-pounding action and heart-rending drama with a few well-timed jokes. Trickster-Heroes like Deadpool use humor to outwit their opponents and confuse their rivals. Trickster-Villains like the Joker are a colorful contrast to absolute, black and white, law and order represented by Batman’s single-minded quest for vengeance.
The Sidekick
The “Sidekick” archetype is traditionally known as “the Lover,” but the “love” alluded to in this role can encompass many varieties of companionship. The Lover may literally be an intimate associate of the Hero, like a spouse or romantic partner. This role may also be inhabited by a dear friend or close associate to the protagonist.
Robin is Batman’s Sidekick because they fight crime together. They share a mutual affection, admiration and respect for one another along with whatever professional bonds they’ve developed in the course of their superhero duties. The classic love shared between Romeo and Juliet certainly fulfills our expectations of the Lover role more closely. Even though it was forbidden by their feuding families, Romeo and Juliet’s flaming passion continued to develop until the two could not live without each other. They chose to squelch their own lives rather than live without each other.
And therein lies the weakness of the Sidekick archetype. At his or her best, the Sidekick supports the Hero through the inevitable trials of the Journey. At their worst, the Sidekick can develop a self-destructive codependency as a result of their attachment to the Hero.
The Caregiver
The Caregiver can be a parent or an especially caring mother figure or father figure. More than a mere teacher (as the Mentor is), the Caregiver is a source of unconditional love and support. As such, the Caregiver often plays a vital role in the emotional stakes of a story. They personify the warm, loving feelings that are associated with home, which can motivate the Hero and in the last, most difficult steps of his or her Journey.
The untimely passing of a Caregiver also lends energy to the narrative and may become a memorable inflection point in the development of a particular character. Batman and Spider-Man both lost important Caregivers as part of their tragic origin stories.
When taken to a dark extreme, the Caregiver role can become distorted into an overbearing, tyrannical figure that stands as an obstacle in the path of the Hero’s personal development. Who can forget when Darth Vader uttered the memorable words “I am your father” at the surprise ending of Return of the Jedi? In that moment, Vader became more than just a political adversary to the young Jedi, Luke Skywalker, and his newfound friends in the Rebellion. As a Caregiver gone bad, Darth lends frightful immanence and palpable peril to Luke’s internal struggle to come to terms with his own enigmatic past.
Elsewhere in the Star Wars universe, on the popular Mandalorian TV show, we see an armored, gun-slinging bounty hunter become an unlikely Caregiver when he chooses to double-cross his client and instead save a strange, green, pointy-eared baby Yoda from being kidnapped by the mad doctors of the Galactic Empire.
The Everyperson
The Everyperson represents all that we have in common as fellow travelers through the human experience. They are the down-to-earth, “regular guy” or “girl next door” that does not have and great wealth or impressive power… and they don’t want then, either. That’s because the Everyperson is extremely fair. They are guided by a highly developed (though very conventional) moral code that stresses equality for all members of their community.
The Everyperson doesn’t appreciate it when either prejudice or privilege causes somebody to be treated unfairly. So, they sometimes find themselves as the unlikely champion of the oppressed. In these instances, the Everyperson moves towards the role of Hero not to seek glory or to revel in the glory of battle, but merely to set right the imbalances that would rob somebody of their basic human dignity.
Frequently, politicians take on manners of speech and dress that make them appear like a “regular guy” because people tend to trust the mild-mannered ways of the Everyperson. As bespectacled reporter, Clark Kent, Superman pretends to be an Everyman when he moves about the crowds of Metropolis so that nobody suspects that he is a flying god from another planet.
The Creator
Alternately known as the Artist, the Inventor, the Author and the Master of the Craft, this archetype is a visionary with the skills and the drive to make their vision a reality. Characters who inhabit the
Creator archetypes may take on other roles, as well. Pablo Picasso was an artist with a unique perspective on the world who took a very distinctive approach to his art. He was a consummate Creator but parts of his story read like the Hero’s Journey as well. When Picasso started his career, all painting aspired to emulate real life as closely as possible. But, Picasso was on the vanguard of a sweeping change in art and expression in the 20th century. He and other brave “Heroes” like him had to leave familiar forms of expression behind as old-fashioned portraits and landscape paintings frankly became obsolete when the photographic technology had advanced enough to replace them. Like the Explorer, Picasso probed new aesthetic approaches and discovered a completely original, innovative, abstract approach to painting that presented drama and emotion in a way that does not compete with the camera’s lens.
The Creator can also take on the roles of Sidekick, Magician or Trickster in your story, depending on what the scene requires. The Creator archetype is a popular one in movies and books because it provides an interesting opportunity to tell a story about telling a story. “Making of” documentaries and “Behind the Scenes” features capitalize on this same curiosity to see the Creator at work.
Let’ s Collaborate!
Table of Contents
Related Studio Cards
Studio Card #3 – Creating a Character (Part II)
04 | Issue #3 Collaborations
Google Form Widget
Studio Card #11: Our Gentle Giant Everyman
02 | Issue #3 Collaborations
Studio Card #3 – Creating a Character (Part II)
11 | Issue #3 Collaborations
Studio Card #6: Our Young Dreamer
Who is John Golden?
Studio Card #6: The Hero’s Journey (Part III) – The Return