Comic essay.
How can the bland word “essay” (sorry, essay fans) exist in the same sentence
as the blissful word “comic?” The short answer: Stephen McCranie, cartoonist. The
long answer: keep reading.
As a creative,
McCranie fulfills all three components in the componential model of creativity.
In English: he has what it takes to be creative, which depends on more than
just talent alone. According to Amabile, the three key components of creativity
are domain-relevant skills, creativity-relevant process, and intrinsic task motivation. Again, what
does that mean in English? And what does this have to do with comic essays? Hold
on tight, and we’ll find out.
McCranie has
done a myriad of projects in the cartooning world, and he began from a humble
place. Drawing inspiration from another kid who would doodle comics during
church, he started out drawing comics when he was six. As he got older, he
eventually graduated with a degree in Fine Arts and became the cartoonist he is
today. That’s a part of what Amabile calls domain-relevant
skills. McCranie acquired knowledge in his domain of art both formally,
through schooling, and informally, through watching others make art.
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| Early Days |
With
gathered knowledge under his belt, McCranie went on to make Mal and Chad
(kids graphic novel series), Space Boy (sci-fi webcomic), Doodle Alley, and
more cool stuff that I’m probably forgetting.
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| https://malandchad.com |
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| http://www.webtoons.com/en/drama/space-boy/ |
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| https://doodlealley.com |
But back to
Doodle Alley! Doodle Alley is McCranie’s process blog and home to his “comic
essays.” Here, he shares what he’s learned as a creative and goes beyond the
domain of art by creating “comics that nourish,” or comic essays, in hopes of
helping budding creatives find “sustainable creativity.” (Yes, he used all
those phrases in quotation marks.)
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| Is Anybody Listening? |
In one of
his comic essays, he stresses the importance of setting goals and “reverse
engineering.” In essence, that means beginning at the end and setting little
goals on how to get there. Well, he phrased it better than I did.
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| Plan Backwards, Live Forwards |
Hard work is
a part of what Amabile calls creativity-relevant
processes. An orientation towards working hard is key to creativity, and
planning is one way to keep at working hard consistently over a long period of
time. McCranie has kept at his cartooning projects for a long time (Space Boy
debuted on Webtoon on March 5, 2015!). His reverse engineering has been serving
him well in regards to working hard!
But why
bother working hard? What drives McCranie to create? Sure, cartooning is his
job and he has to do his job to make money, but it’s more than that. This
something more is what Amabile calls intrinsic
task motivation. To understand how McCranie fits into this, let’s start
with an old saying: “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man
to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” Does McCranie agree with this? Not
quite!
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| Who You are Determines What You Do |
What
McCranie stresses here is the importance of the heart. As cliché as it sounds,
he believes that doing what you love is a key part of sustainable creativity
and impacting others.
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| Who You are Determines What You Do |
When talking
about intrinsic task motivation,
Amabile highlights the “intrinsic motivation principle of creativity” which
says that “people will be most creative when they are motivated primarily by
the interest, enjoyment, satisfaction, and challenge of the work itself
(intrinsic motivators).” And that’s what keeps McCranie going.
Now, where
were we? Oh, that’s right. Comic essay. McCranie is how the words “comic” and
“essay” can exist in the same sentence. And they’re not that boring either! In
fact, you’ve just read a few pages of said comic essays. Go you!
Sources:
Amabile,
Teresa M. “Beyond Talent: John Irving and the Passionate Craft of Creativity.” American Psychologist, vol. 56, no. 4,
Apr. 2001, pp. 333—336.
This was such an interesting post! I love the idea of turning essays into art--it makes them much more entertaining to read, and it seems like a really unique way to channel your writing into something more creative. Also, I really love the comic about the fish proverb. It speaks to me for some reason. Overall, great post!
ReplyDeleteI love this! Comic essays are such a good idea, and it's cool to see how McCranie uses them to express both his art and his thoughts. I also think it's really neat that he manages to keep all of these projects balanced! It shows that he's really just doing this because he loves it, not because he's looking for fame. Definitely an interesting post!
ReplyDeleteThis post was so interesting. I like how McCranie, without realizing it, hits the major points from the Amabile article in his comic essays. I've never seen an essay in comic form before but I think it would be amazing if more people began to follow this example, it would definitely make me a more avid essay reader!
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