Running Head: COMICALLY ENTERTAINING

COMICally Entertaining

Jason Nguyen

University of California: Santa Barbara

WRT 2 - Academic Writing

Valentina Fahler

August 30, 2020

this analytical essay, we will be evaluating the transformation of an academic piece of writing

into a non-academic genre. In this case, the primary academic piece of writing being translated is

the article: ​The Affective Labor and Performance of Live Streaming on Twitch.tv​ by M. Johnson

and J. Woodcock, an academic paper highlighting the psychological aspects of live streaming on

Twitch from the perspective of streamers. I will be taking this piece and translating it into the

genre of a comic strip. This transformation seeks to introduce the findings of the paper to a new

audience of younger readers interested in the aspects of popular culture by making the reading

more relatable, understandable, and entertaining. The transformation of genres between the two

writing pieces introduces a variety of downfalls and successes that the primary source couldn’t

capture completely. An example of a major downfall during the translation process being

information that is “lost in translation”.

When translating the text, I realised that the information could not possibly be translated

completely in the context of a comic strip. Comics typically contain a majority of images and

visuals compared to the writing content of an academic article. The academic article included

lots of background information on Twitch and quotations and reports Twitch streamers

themselves. However, the comic strip genre cannot afford to give loads of information in its

small amount of panels ​and​ fit these pages with the appropriate eye-catching visuals.

Additionally, in order to integrate most of the educational content of the article, I had to

implement that information into the “plot” which I chose to be a story of two brothers. The story

shows the older brother explaining to his younger brother what Twitch is and how streamers are

successful on the platform. This addition of a plotline to the comic allowed me to keep most of
COMICALLY ENTERTAINING
7
the educational content and the main points of the psychological aspects of Twitch streaming.

However, I had to omit most of the quotations and first person accounts of streaming given by

the interviews, which works as a disadvantage due to the lack of credibility from a first person

source. In conclusion, the translation portion of the project proved the difficulty in

communicating the same content whilst changing the medium and genre of the writing. This is

evident in certain portions of text being lost in translation and new text being created as well.

However, lost information was not the only challenge of the translation as there were many more

unexpected difficulties along the way.

Challenges of the translation were not only limited to the text, other challenges arose

during the drafting process such as storyboarding the plotline, drafting dialogue, and the

drawings. Challenges of the comic genre began to appear from the beginning of my translation.

Deciding what story to create and how to communicate that story using a comic book genre of

text through dialogue and visual imagery was a difficult task. However, I discovered that a story

would be the most fitting format for communication due to the nature of comic strips using

dialogue as the main medium of text. I overcame the translation obstacles by creating an

educational and explanatory comic strip as opposed to other comics depicting comedy or

over-the-top action. In addition to this, the drawing process for this project was also a problem

for me. However, this was also overcome through the planning process when I realised what

genre of comic strip I wanted to create. This meant that I could simplify the drawings, as the

main appeal is the information, whilst the drawings are serving a complimentary purpose. All in

all, the drafting process of the comic strip was the hardest part of the project, but it was quickly

overcome by content analysis, figuring out the comic’s story, and organic implementation.
COMICALLY ENTERTAINING
8
Additionally, the class readings were also a major factor in overcoming the challenges of the

comic drafting process.

The class readings were a major factor in the drafting process, with examples and

guidelines of what rules to adhere to. An example of this being the reading by Scott McCloud

“Thinking with Pictures”, which inspired me to create the translation into a comic genre.

Guidelines discussed in McCloud’s reading include: the movement and transitioning between

scenes, the different choices you have to make during the creation of comics, and many other

aspects of the comic strip genre as a whole. I used these readings in my creative and writing

process to make sure I followed the rules of comic writing and to make the translation as

seamless and comprehensible as possible. Another reading that I utilised was the article on

multimodality by Melanie Gagich. I used this reading to my advantage when compiling the

comic strip, which utilises the visual and spatial aspects of modality. The visual aspects of

modality include images drawn by the artist and the spatial aspect being the size and format of

certain images or texts including framing and “fourth wall breaks” as discussed in McCloud’s

reading relating to comic creation. Aside from the readings, other skills such as metacognition

during writing and using the skills of outlining and planning helped me during the writing and

drawing process. Another class skill that assisted in the process was keeping your audience in

mind.

The audience being targeted in the primary academic article are people interested in the

psychological aspect to social media platforms, especially live streaming, whilst the translation

seeks to appeal to the younger generation of readers interested in popular culture, social media,

and live streaming. By making the translation into a simpler form of a comic strip, I can
COMICALLY ENTERTAINING
9
introduce a visual mode of communication to better communicate the ideas in the reading and

capture the focus of the target audience. Being someone who is interested in these things, I can

attempt to predict what type of media that I would be more likely to consume. I decided that

another form of pop culture: comics, would be more appealing compared to the long worded

texts shown in academic articles. While the academic article presents lots of information and

recollections from interviewees, the way that the authors communicate that information, through

long paragraphs of text and no visual modes, makes the text a hassle to read through and frankly

more boring. The genre of comics however, appeals to the audience of younger generations

today, which focuses on receiving loads of information quickly due to the easy accessibility of

the internet. By creating captivating visuals, humorous drawings, and cute,relatable characters,

artists of comics are able to communicate their stories and messages more effectively to today’s

audience by keeping them entertained. Overall, the standard of communication to the masses

today is much different than communicating findings to other scholars or readers. Utilizing

visual modes of communication paired with entertainment appeals to a broader range of readers

as compared to walls of texts targeted towards the niche audience of psychological researchers.

While replacing the old audience with a newer one, I noticed that the primary source had areas of

old and new built into itself as well.

When translating the primary source of the academic article, I found that some aspects of

the genre were “new” whilst some remained “old”. An aspect of “new” genre that I found in the

primary source was its content, which pertained to the rise of a new and upcoming social

platform that was exponentially rising in popularity. However, I found that most of the primary

source was reminiscent of the “old” genre of social science academic articles, albeit lacking in
COMICALLY ENTERTAINING
10
some aspects. The article specifically has many instances of data presented in the form of text

whilst lacking the statistical data of graphs. Information is instead presented in the form of

quotations from interviews which is a “newer” aspect of the genre as compared to the “old” form

of data collection of surveys. In conclusion, the duality of the primary source is showcased in the

“new” and “old” aspects of the genre of social science academic articles.

Overall, the genre translation project showed me many things about the writing process

and genres in general. I learned the difficulties of translating genres and the struggles of

conveying the same amount of information using a different format and the limitations of other

platforms in addition to their strengths. I also learned about the different guidelines and

unwritten rules of the comic genre whilst expanding my own knowledge of the academic article

genre and how genres translate into attracting different audiences. Finally, the process of

overcoming and bypassing the struggles of genre translation have shown me the different

approaches to writing as well as how to translate my writing skills into different mediums of

work.
COMICALLY ENTERTAINING
11
References

McCloud, S. (2006a). ​Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and

Graphic Novels​ (Illustrated ed.). William Morrow Paperbacks.

Driscoll, D., Stewart, M., & Vetter, M. (2020). ​Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing

Volume 3 (3).​ Parlor Press.