Introduction
As we enter the the second half of 2020, it seems that things are generally, well, up in the air for all of us to put it very mildly, which is why we thought the above header image seemed particularly apropos. COVID-19 has impacted all of our lives in such an unprecedented way that it’s hard to even fathom when life will get entirely back to normal for us. We’re all hoping for the very best in that regard, and our gratitude for those in the frontlines of this pandemic can never be overstated.
[COMPLETE]
Back of the Yards Issue 3!
[REVISE]
Make no mistake about it, Issue 3 will certainly be a focus of the upcoming Spring/Summer 2020 collaborations. As part of the Spring/Summer 2020 collaborations, we will be working with participating youth on all aspects of Issue 3, from early stage brainstorming (based on selected topics as described below), to scripting, to working with artists on concept sketches, to the actual illustrations, and then finally, production.
In short, everything is up for collaboration when it comes to Issue 3. In fact, the only thing we really know about Issue 3 at this point, is that we’re pretty certain we may be use some version of the mock cover below, but even that is subject to further collaboration with the youth as part of the Spring/Summer 2020 collaborations.
The Selected Issue 3 Collaboration Themes
(ii) “Neighborhoods & Their Residents“
(iii) Law Enforcement & Community Relations
[REVISE] Oh boy, yes, this may be a tricky one. But we’re going to give it our best and most honest shot. We want to get the perspective of participating youth regarding police and community relations. But perhaps even more importantly from our perspective, we want to facilitate a constructive dialogue in that regard, which is one of the reasons that we’ve recruited a current law enforcement officer (who we will introduce with a later blog) to be a part of this collaborative process. And on a related note, we do plan to create a new central character for the Back of the Yards narrative that will be a police officer developed collaboratively between the youth and our participating officer.
(v) Dreams & Quests
And last, but certainly not least, we wanted to go big with a topic, and what better topic to go big with than “Dreams & Quests.” As we learned early on during the project, dreams were one of the most prevalent themes from our early collaborations with youth at the beginning of this project. So we incorporated that theme at the very core of the ongoing Back of the Yards comic story narrative. And by including the same topic here for the next round of collaborations, we want to continue to build upon themes introduced by the new participating youth, and perhaps use this topic as a platform to dive into their imaginations.
The Current Collaborations
Law Enforcement & Community Relations
- Short Comic Feature on the Early American Police (Northern Watchman & Slave Patrols)
- Develop Back of the Yards Comic Scene – Dialogue Between the Elders