Studio Card #4: The Hero’s Journey (Part I) – A Call To Action

The Hero's Journey (Part I) A Call to Action
Brief This Studio Card production was developed by the Made Collaborative Studio as part of its comic series the Back of the Yards. With this Studio Card, we present you with a summary of the Hero's Journey, which is a framework that helped many to develop their own creative projects through the centuries and with that, it is our hope this summary may help participating youth with their own creative projects.
When The Made Collaborative Studio began as a modest grass roots project started by a ragtag group of participating artists in Chicago and was designed to provide a unique collaborative opportunity for after school programs and participating youth from our urban communities.
Who This Made Collaborative Studio project technically started over 10 years ago as only a kernel of an idea in the mind of the project’s founder on one of his many bus rides home and through much trial and error over the years, evolved into the Made Collaborative Studio virtual model that exists today.
Why The Made Collaborative Studio was created to help promote creative thought and provide a unique (and free) collaborative experience for afterschool programs and participating youth alike.

Quick Introduction

Welcome to the adventure, fellow travellers. As we hope you’ll soon discover in the course of this Collaborative Series, stories and storytelling are an important part of our human existence. The natural, narrative flow of a story—from beginning, to middle, to end—seems to be part of our DNA. The stories we tell ourselves play a large role in how our brains make sense of the world.

Many stories throughout history and across cultures have followed the format of the “Hero’s Journey.” From Hamlet to Harry Potter, from Buddha to Spider-Man, the basic formula of the Hero’s Journey (and our intuitive, almost unconscious knowledge of it) appears to be universal across all humankind. That’s because, when you look closely, the Hero’s Journey isn’t just about how dreams and stories work. The Hero’s Journey is a roadmap for our lives, as well. That’s why stories are so important to us. It’s why some stories are so important they build nations, religions skyscrapers and cathedrals around them. 

The Twelve Phases of the Hero’s Journey!

And so we begin sharing those concepts here, with this Studio Card Presentation, by giving you a broad overview of the 12 phases of the Hero’s Journey.  Joseph Campbell originally outlined 17 phases of the Hero’s Journey, but for our purposes, we will focus on the most recent iterations of the Hero’s Journey, which further distills the process into the 12 following phases:

Phase #1: The Ordinary World

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 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. Another of our collaborative projects about Neighborhoods and Their Residents deals exclusively with this aspect of the story.

Phase #2: The Call to Adventure

This is the part of the story when there is an incident that essentially initiates the story by introducing our hero with a challenge or problem that their hero’s quest will seek to overcome.

In Star Wars, the call to adventure comes in the form of Princess Leia’s message, delivered by R2-D2, “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.

Our hero Andre hears a call to adventure the night he ascends a translucent staircase to a mysterious craft in a dark South Side alleyway.

Phase #3: Refusal of the Call

The hero hesitates to accept the call to adventure. This could be because they don’t feel they have the skills to take on the quest or they don’t want to leave the life they know.

In The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Frodo is reluctant to leave his comfortable and familiar life in the Shire in order to face the unknown dangers that await him on his journey.

Phase #4: Meeting The Mentor

The hero meets a wise, usually older, woman or man. The mentor guides the hero in gaining the supplies and knowledge needed to embark on the adventure. However, the mentor can only go so far with the hero.

In The Matrix, this is where Neo meets Morpheus, who tells him to take the red pill or the blue pill.

Mr. Casteneda is a mysterious mentor to creative young students of promise at New City High. Another of our collaborative projects will probe deeper into the intriguing background of this character.

Phase #5: Crossing the Threshold!

The hero commits wholeheartedly to the adventure and integrates into the special world. There is no turning back from this point.  In Spider-Man, Peter crosses the threshold when he catches the thief who killed his Uncle Ben and realizes, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Let’ s Collaborate!

Table of Contents

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This Studio Card production was developed by the Made Collaborative Studio as part of its comic series the Back of the Yards. With this Studio Card, we present you with a summary of the Hero's Journey, which is a framework that helped many to develop their own creative projects through the centuries and with that, it is our hope this summary may help participating youth with their own creative projects.
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Who
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Why
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Submit Your Artwork

Some special pieces may be selected to appear in the Back of the Yards comic book. iPad/iPhone users, submit images from FILES (NOT from Photo Library). 

Submit Your Artwork

Some special pieces may be selected to appear in the Back of the Yards comic book.

UPLOAD YOUR IMAGES BELOW 

Submit Your Artwork

Some special pieces may be selected to appear in the Back of the Yards comic book.

UPLOAD YOUR IMAGES BELOW 

Submit Your Artwork

Some special pieces may be selected to appear in the Back of the Yards comic book.

UPLOAD YOUR IMAGES BELOW 

Submit Your Artwork

Some special pieces may be selected to appear in the Back of the Yards comic book.

UPLOAD YOUR IMAGES BELOW 

Submit Your Artwork

Collaborate with professional artists by contributing some artwork of your own! Some special pieces may be selected to appear in the Back of the Yards comic book.

UPLOAD YOUR IMAGES BELOW