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 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, did this all begin and evolve into a comic in the first place? Read on…
(and you can expand the flipbook below by hitting the expand symbol in the lower right hand corner of the flipbox).
Having completed Issue 1 as essentially a proof of concept, we immediately turned our attention to the development and production of Issue 2. Our thought at the time was developing Issue 2 would provide an even stronger foundation for us to then re-engage broader collaborations with youth in the Chicago community.
For Issue 2, one of primary storyline objectives was to introduce Mr. Carl Castaneda. As previously covered, Mr. Castaneda was created by Len Kody as the connective tissue that holds all the disparate narrative structures of Back of Yards together by framing the Back of the Yards comic series in a context that mimics the one in which it was created.
Production of Issue 1 would begin in 2018 and final edits to scripts and illustrations were completed by 2019. The issue was largely self-funded and was, more or less, a proof of concept for the project team.
The comic issue itself is divided into two parts. The first part is the actual comic script panels, 25 pages in length. The second part of the comic is a supplement that essentially tells the “story behind the story,” i.e., the underlying collaborative process that led to the comic itself. We felt this underlying context was essential to provide a framework for future collaborations with other participating youth.
Which brings us to the our subsequent development of this new virtual studio framework and with that, your Featured Collaborations presented just below!
With this set of collaborations, we will be developing Issue 3 together, virtually. And to do that, we have developed Featured Collaboration summaries which we present on the Back Page of our Explore the Studio, and each of which you can access the Back Page by clicking on the button to the left!
We also include the Issue 3 Working Script here for your reading pleaure.
Want to learn more about this new comic series and related collaborative opportunities? Just click to “Read More” on the back of the Studio Card to your right!
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
