Welcome to the Back Page! If you are visiting here now, then you’ve probably already visited our Studio’s Main Page, and it is here where we provide you with an overview of our current Featured Collaborations, and with that, present you with related opportunities to collaborate with us and others!
The collaborative backdrop of our Featured Collaborations is our inaugural comic series, The Back of the Yards, which was created as a result of our initial in-person collaborations with participating youth in the West Side of Chicago. Now, as you may or may not know by now, this project didn’t even start out as a comic project, much less a “virtual studio.” No, in fact, this project started as a modest community project intended to connect artists with youth to generally collaborate with one another on independent creative projects. That simple premise then evolved into a broader comic-based project based on those initial collaborations with participating youth in the West Side of Chicago, ultimately spawning the development of Issue 1 of our new comic series!
Armed with the initial characters flushed out and more fully developed, Len and Jimmy began developing a working manuscript along with a team of artists that had been recruited by Jimmy, including John Golden, Dan Dougherty, Manny Dominguez, Eric Nyamor, Andrew Dimitt and Kanila Tripp. It was this group that would work together to bring those original comic ideas to life in the form of one single comic narrative that we would eventually name as “The Back of the Yards” comic series.
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.
And we've included Issue 1 here for your reading pleasure to help further set the collaborative stage!
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.
In other words, the young characters in the original participating youth’s story ideas would all go to the same school. And they would all be familiar with each other, too, because they are all part of the same afterschool arts program led by the same mysterious facilitator, providing a foundational storyline that could be built upon collaboratively by other participating youth (and others) over time.
And, once again, to help set the collaborative stage, we present you with the pre-production copy of that Issue 2 for your reading pleasure!
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 the following Featured Collaboration summaries, each of which you can access below by clicking on any of the corresponding Studio Cards also presented below.
We will also be hosting virtual Zoom workshop sessions between participating artists and invited collaborators. And we will post regular updates of these ongoing collaborations on our “This & That” blog on the website.
Finally, to set the stage for your Issue 3 Featured Collaborations, we present you with the following Issue 3 Working Manuscript which can be found within the Back of the Yards Studio Card to read at any time. And we will regularly update as we incorporate your collaborative feedback and submissions over time with this set of Featured Collaborations!
We start here by providing you a broad overview of the featured collaborations in the flipbook below and then present you with the corresponding Studio Cards. You can access any Featured Collaboration by then simply clicking on the corresponding Studio Card. Finally, we have also created supplemental worksheets for each Featured Collaboration which you can also access below for each individual collaboration [TBD], or you can link to a Master Featured Collaboration Worksheet PDF here [TBD].
As described above, with this first Featured Collaboration, we will help you to create new comic characters either for your own independent projects, or if you’d like, you can submit those characters to us for the potential of being selected for further development with us, and even possible inclusion in our next Back of the Yards comic series!
We will do this by providing you with a digital template in the form of Studio Card #1 that walks you through a basic character development process, starting with the developing some basic characteristics development, and then building to more in depth core value and character archetype development for your new character.
You can access that digital template by clicking on the Studio Card to your right!
You can also access a corresponding PDF worksheet for this collaboration by clicking here [TBD].
And finally, you can track progress of this Featured Collaboration, related announcements, scheduled Zoom workshops and highlighted collaborative submissions by click on this link to the This & That project blog! [TBD]
As we also touched above and in various other parts of this project site, across history and cultures, we can observe that 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 a roadmap for life itself, and with that, for the creative stories that we have developed over time and will continue to develop well into the future.
And it is with this Featured Collaboration, that we will present you with a digital template to help you develop your own Hero’s Journey. We do that by presenting to you some of the basics of the Hero’s Journey, as developed by creative pioneers like Joseph Campbell and Christopher Vogler. And this virtual walk-through will include a journey through the 12 phases of the Hero’s Journey as commonly used for story development.
And it is within that same digital template that we will help walk you through the development of our Hero’s Journey – perhaps even for the character or characters you created as part of our Featured Collaboration#1!
You can access that digital template by clicking on the Studio Card to your left!
You can also access a corresponding PDF worksheet for this collaboration by clicking here [TBD].
And finally, you can track progress of this Featured Collaboration, related announcements, scheduled Zoom workshops and highlighted collaborative submissions by click on this link to the This & That project blog! [TBD]
Having walked you through the first two featured collaborations to help set the collaborative stage by introducing you to some basic concepts and tools for character and Hero’s Journey development, we then bring you to Studio Card #3 – our Back of the Yards comic series! It is here that we will try to build upon some of those basic creative tools by inviting you to collaborate with us on our comic production.
And more specifically, with your collaboration, we will:
1. Bring Issue 2 (already fully illustrated) to final production, and
2. Present you with a working manuscript for Issue #3 of the comic series to develop into a final script for production and illustration development.
You can access all of this, including all of the background you need for the Back of the Yards comic series (much of which you have probably already seen above), simply by clicking on the Studio Card to your right!
You can also access a corresponding PDF worksheet for this collaboration by clicking here [TBD].
And finally, you can track progress of this Featured Collaboration, related announcements, scheduled Zoom workshops and highlighted collaborative submissions by click on this link to the This & That project blog! [TBD]
As more thoroughly described above, we long ago knew we wanted to incorporate the themes of law enforcement and community relations within our Back of the Yards comic series. As a very practical matter, we knew we couldn’t continue our comic-based narrative, based in our fictional Back of the Yards neighborhood in the South Side of Chicago, without incorporating law enforcement into the ongoing narrative in some central way.
But even more relevant to us was the hope that by incorporating law enforcement and with that, some of the issues that continue to permeate all our urban centers, we could hopefully promote some sort of more balanced dialogue and understanding into our modest little comic series. So, with that context in mind, we are presenting you the following related featured collaborations for Issue 3.
First, we invite you and participating youth from after school programs to submit questions to us, which we will then present to police officers from Chicago and other parts of the country. These questions, along with the responses from the participating police officers, will form the basis of an ongoing dialogue over the next 3 to 4 months as Issue #3 of the Back of the Yards comic is developed in parallel. The objective of this dialogue collaboration is to try to promote a balanced discussion and hopefully with that, some better understanding between all participants. We will also publish excepts from this ongoing dialogue in the supplement of Issue 3 of the Back of the Yards comic series.
And in parallel with this ongoing dialogue, as part of the second set of related collaborations, we will work with you to create two new characters for our comic series together, both police officers and each to be first introduced in Issue #3 (with perhaps some of the dialogue captured above also incorporated into a comic scene with those officers).
You can access all of this, along with some corresponding further collaborative background, simply by clicking on the Studio Card to your left!
You can also access a corresponding PDF worksheet for this collaboration by clicking here [TBD].
And finally, you can track progress of this Featured Collaboration, related announcements, scheduled Zoom workshops and highlighted collaborative submissions by click on this link to the This & That project blog! [TBD]
Here, we take a quick interlude between Featured Collaborations to present a video, which we plan to rotate regularly to present you with different tools and concepts that may help with your collaborative and creative journeys. This particular video actually builds upon themes that were presented in the shorter video on the Main Page, i.e., information stacking. To quickly recap in that regard, the Main Page video presented the topic of information stacking as a creative tool, which essentially sets forth a 3-step process of (1) absorbing information, (2) writing down ideas and (3) last but certainly not least, building connections.
With this video, we are presented with the idea that it is the building of those connections that requires our own unique interpretation of the information and ideas we observe. And it is from that interpretation that art is created! But hey, enough of our interpretation of the video – just click below, and I promise you it will make more sense!
With this quick featured collaboration, we’re further developing the “Ordinary World” of our Back of the Yards Fictional Comic Neighborhood (Phase 1 of the Hero’s Journey) …and you can be a part of that collaborative process!
As described in our Studio Card #3 Introduction to the Back of the Yards comic series, the fictional “Back of the Yards” neighborhood is inspired by the real historical Back of the Yards neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. 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.
And with this featured collaboration, you can help us to further create and develop our fictional Back of the Yards neighborhood by submitting places from your own neighborhood. These places can be stores, churches, parks, restaurants … literally any place from your neighborhood. The collaborative key will be that when you make your submission, explain to us why this place is important to you? As with everything relating to this collaborative project, context matters.
You can access all of this by clicking on the Studio Card to your right!
You can also access a corresponding PDF worksheet for this collaboration by clicking here [TBD].
And finally, you can track progress of this Featured Collaboration, related announcements, scheduled Zoom workshops and highlighted collaborative submissions by click on this link to the This & That project blog! [TBD]
For our next featured collaboration, we visit one of our originally developed characters for the Back of the Yards comic series – Dexter Colemen, a/k/a Dex, for short.
Dex is part of a trio of Elders that meets just about every day and night in front of the General Store in our fictional Back of the Yards neighborhood, along with his two elder cohorts, Big Earl and Peaches. Dex is perhaps best described as the irascible trickster of the three Elders. He is just always one step ahead of the other two, with quick wit, and biting barb and perhaps more than a few plates in the air at any given time. And with that, yes, Dex may have found himself on the other side of the law from time to time. Heck, he may even be on that other side now.
And that’s where you enter the scene! With this featured collaboration, you will help us develop Dex’s back story a bit more. Just what is Dex’s score? What has he been up to in the past? What is he up to now? Could Dex be a confidential informant? If so, do his fellow elders know? Or is there even more to it than that? In other words, with this collaboration, you will be helping us to further develop Dex’s own Hero’s Journey.
You can access all of this by clicking on the Studio Card to your left! You can also access a corresponding PDF worksheet for this collaboration by clicking here [TBD].
And finally, you can track progress of this Featured Collaboration, related announcements, scheduled Zoom workshops and highlighted collaborative submissions by click on this link to the This & That project blog! [TBD]
We close our featured collaborations for Issue 3 with some light-hearted fun and a wide-open creative space for collaborative development. This where you can essentially have as much creative freedom as your heart desires in collaborating with us. Indeed, with this final featured collaboration, we ask you to help us create an entirely new Hero’s Journey for a comic that is within a comic! Let us explain.
In our working manuscript of Issue 3, there is a contemplated scene that briefly shows Andre reading a comic and then stowing away that comic within his backpack. It is with this collaboration that we are:
1. Going to create the back story of that mock comic that Andre is reading – The Monahans!, and
2. Submit your own illustrated backgrounds for this mock cover.
Ultimately, the collaborative premise here is that over time, our Back of the Yards comic here, Andre, will refer to this fictional comic series – The Monahans! – as he wrestles with his own reality within the Back of the Yards comic series. But that all starts with your initial collaborations here!
You can access all of this by clicking on the Studio Card to your right!
You can also access a corresponding PDF worksheet for this collaboration by clicking here [TBD].
And finally, you can track progress of this Featured Collaboration, related announcements, scheduled Zoom workshops and highlighted collaborative submissions by click on this link to the This & That project blog! [TBD]
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
