| Brief | Welcome to the Issue #3 Collaborations! This anchor Studio Card introduces Back of the Yards, a Creative Commons comic series developed by the Made Collaborative Studio. Set on Chicago's West Side, the story follows a young man whose seemingly supernatural encounter leads him on a journey to discover what is real, what lies beneath the surface of his neighborhood, and how the lives of those around him are connected. With this Studio Card, we invite you to explore the world of Back of the Yards and help shape Issue #3 through a series of creative collaborations. |
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| When | Our story moves between past and present, exploring how events, relationships and decisions from earlier generations continue to shape the lives of characters today. As we develop Issue #3, we'll uncover more of the neighborhood's history and the mysteries connecting its past to its present. |
| Who | Meet the students, neighborhood Elders, families, law enforcement officers and other personalities who inhabit Back of the Yards. From Andre Davis and Tamia Parker to characters whose stories have yet to be fully revealed, each brings a different perspective to the neighborhood and its unfolding mysteries. |
| Why | Every neighborhood has stories worth tellin g— and every person has something to contribute. Through our Studio Cards and creative Workshops, we're inviting collaborators to help develop the characters, places, artwork and story possibilities that may shape Issue #3 and the future of Back of the Yards. |
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.
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.
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.
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.
More than a decade after the first two issues of Back of the Yards, we’re returning to the neighborhood—and to the collaborative spirit that started it all.
Issue #3 builds on the characters, relationships, and mythology established in those earlier stories. But this time, we’re intentionally leaving parts of the story open.
We have a direction, developing storylines, and a Working Manuscript to guide us. But there are still characters to discover, places to create, relationships to explore, and questions left unanswered.
That’s where you come in.
We’re opening the Studio again, inviting a new generation of young creators and collaborators like you to help shape what happens next.
Below is our current Issue #3 Working Manuscript. It’s not the finished story—and that’s the point.
Every neighborhood has places that become part of its story.
The corner store everyone visited after school. A basketball court. A neighborhood restaurant. A front porch. A barbershop. An alley that served as a shortcut home.
These places may never appear in a history book, but for those who grew up around them, they’re unforgettable. They’re the details that make a neighborhood feel real.
As Issue #3 develops, our characters will explore new corners 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 share a memorable place from a neighborhood you know and help inspire a new location in our story.
Our goal is to feature at least three collaborator-inspired locations in Issue #3, with opportunities for more in future issues.
Names and details may change as these places become part of our fictional world, but their inspiration will come from real neighborhoods and real memories.
And if your contribution helps inspire a location featured in the comic, you’ll receive credit for helping bring it to life.
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.
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.
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).
Some special pieces may be selected to appear in the Back of the Yards comic book.
UPLOAD YOUR IMAGES BELOW
Some special pieces may be selected to appear in the Back of the Yards comic book.
UPLOAD YOUR IMAGES BELOW
Some special pieces may be selected to appear in the Back of the Yards comic book.
UPLOAD YOUR IMAGES BELOW
Some special pieces may be selected to appear in the Back of the Yards comic book.
UPLOAD YOUR IMAGES BELOW
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
