WP2: Final Draft

Author's Note:

Comics are my favorite part of the Sunday newspaper. For this project, I chose a comic from one of my favorite comic artists, Dan Piraro creator of Bizarro. After learning how aesthetic and rhetorical techniques employed by the artist help to create an argument for everyday life through a combination of text and visual components, I have begun to look at what I once thought were created just for a good laugh.

After careful analysis of my comic and picking out the tools that aided the argument within the comic the most I was ready to begin my first draft. My rough draft was mostly a compilation of my ideas that lacked any real structure. After the first peer review, I was given some great comments from my peer reviewer to help further the ideas I had already presented on a local level. One of the ways that I worked to improve my first draft was to revisit the topics I had covered in the body of my essay, such as the rhetorical use of text, and as suggested by my peer reviewer, Sarah, add these topics to my thesis so that they were also covered in my introduction. In the body of my essay, I also looked at organization. I felt that some of my topics had been too grouped together, so I split several paragraphs up to create small paragraphs in which to focus on each device used in the comic. The two places that I made these divisions were in the paragraph about text and the paragraph that dealt with visual constraints. I wanted to see how creating small blocks of text with less ideas presented within them would work for the second draft. One of the smaller changes from the first to the second draft, but that I thought made some of the most difference was at the end of the conclusion. As suggested, again, by Sarah, “maybe instead of just asking the question [at the end of the paragraph], either before or after elaborate a little more on how it [misreading historical artifacts] is present in other aspects of our society”. She suggested including other places where our society had misread a text and developed it into some form of entertainment, such as The Davinci Code. Her suggestions on this part of my essay helped to enhance the “so what?” portion that is the ultimate question I was trying to answer. The first draft was very weak in this area, but her suggestions helped to tie this portion of the essay back in with the introductory paragraph.

There were many more changes that occurred between the second and final drafts. In my introduction, I made sure to again tamper with my thesis statement. As stated by my second peer reviewer, Amberley, “the whole thesis statement is a little long. Try to simplify this so that it is clear and concise!”. I felt the same way but was not sure exactly how to go about this change. With her help, I decided to make my one thesis statement into two sentences so that I could include all the information without loosing the meaning. The body of my second draft also went through several major revisions. After using smaller paragraphs in the second draft, I decided to return to the basic original structure. Some of the paragraph divisions I made for the second draft did not help to remove confusion, they only added to it. While completing this, I also made some major additions to each paragraph by expanding on each idea as suggested by Amberley, “I think just expanding on your subjects could really help…detail your essay a little more. You have a good foundation, just building it up a little will help!” This expansion helped to fully explain each idea and provide evidence to how each topic I touch upon helped to further the argument of the comic. After expanding on each topic individually, I was able to make some of the needed global changes in paragraph divisions. However, these divisions were based on necessity to help the reader break from one idea to the next instead of focusing on one part of an analysis in each paragraph.

Through every revision, as I was improving my essay, I also discovered that comics can contain more commentary than I thought possible. The superficial argument usually gives way to deeper meaning within the comic that is highly affected by how the artist manipulates the medium. This discovery has lead me to look at the comics page a little closer on Sunday mornings while flipping through the paper.

Draft 2

Draft 1

Statement of Purpose

Final Draft:

The apocalyptic movie has become a staple within the film making industry. Fans of this genre flock to the theatres to experience the thrill and the more realistic the drama, the better. But, the most successful of these movies are the ones that create a fictional narrative based on historic artifacts or events, such as the very real 2012 phenomenon that prompted the creation of the movie, 2012. This film is based on the fears that arose as people discovered that the Mayan calendar, created some three thousand years ago, ended on the Winter Solstice of the year 2012. This arbitrary end to such an influential and superstitious culture’s calendar caused people all over the world to develop their own hypothesis for why the calendar ended on such a date. The consensus was that the Mayans knew something would happen on that exact date centuries later, causing the world as we know it to cease to exist.

As well, the apocalyptic comic has also become a staple within the entertainment industry. Or rather these comics are just a commentary to the apocalyptic phenomenon that arose with the turn of the twenty-first century, Y2K. The always socially and culturally conscious, comic series, Bizarro, developed by Dan Piraro has come up with its own explanation for what has become known as the ‘2012 Phenomenon’. The aesthetic and rhetorical use of logos through text and visual constraints, as well as pathos through humor help to develop the argument (or explanation) created within the December 21, 2009 Bizarro comic. This argument is that as a society we misread and negate the material constraints of a text and instead lay our own narrative over that text that undermines the importance and original purpose for that specific communication, in this case the Mayan calendar.

The first part of the panel that is noticed when viewing the Bizarro comic is the text. The hierarchal arrangement of the dialogue bubbles in the top middle of the panel attracts the viewer’s attention. This attention-grabbing technique works “because we have learned to read from top to bottom and left to right.” (Wysocki and Lynch 287) The placement of the dialogue bubbles, one over the top of the other, and the direction of the communication between the characters, from left to right, also comes into play with the techniques of visual hierarchy. Another reason that the eye is first drawn towards the dialogue is because of the simplicity of this area of the comic. The stark contrast between the black text and the cream background creates a simple, but attention-grabbing use of logos within the frame of the comic. This hierarchal and aesthetic approach to logos speaks to how we could misread a text. With the placement of the text above the visual elements, the viewer could misread the dialogue especially because it is supposed to work in conjunction with the visual images. The text could also be misread because of an anomaly in language.

There are two main ways in which the text is incongruent with the visuals and the context in which the characters are portrayed. The first way in which the text differs from the drawings is in the language. Based on the drawings, the characters in the panel are supposed to be Mayans. But, the text is written in English. This use of the English language caters to an English-speaking audience of mostly Americans. If this comic were to be accurate, historically, they characters would not be speaking English, they would be speaking in the Mayan language. This use of a predominantly American language instead of a historically accurate one aids in the creation of the argument that historic events and artifacts are misunderstood in current culture. Another anomaly created in the text is the way in which the dialogue is written. By using the phrase “freak somebody out,” a modern dialect is created within the comic and the use of contemporary slang creates a universalizing effect. This inconsistency between the historic content of the image and the vernacular used in the text also furthers the argument that misunderstandings occur when present-day society creates their own interpretation for historical artifacts and does not take into account the culture from which that piece arose.

The argument of the comic is also furthered by the visual constraints in which it was created. The use of a single panel is the main visual constraint of the comic. Whereas most comics contain three panels in which the story is told, this Bizarro comic is contained in just one. This limited area forces the commentary to be summed up in one small square. This undersized area also creates a focused effect on the argument of the comic at hand, allowing it to be more obvious to its readers. While a focus on the argument is an important part of how this comic is formed, there is a more important parallel created through the use of one panel to a specific element within the comic itself.

The Mayan calendar depicted in the frame of the comic is an important component of the visual structure. Its historically accurate and detailed depiction proves that this image is important to the overall argument created within the comic. As shown in the image at the left, this calendar was created in a circular fashion so that there was a finite amount of room available to its creator for the time in which he (or she) was incorporating. As so eloquently said by one the characters, “I only had enough room…”. Just as the comic only had one frame to tell its story, the calendar was also limited by the finite amount of room to keep time. This analogy created between the frame of the comic and the confines of the calendar aids in the argument of misunderstanding as well as the negating of material constraints. By using a single panel of a comic, a common art form of modern culture, it helps to explain how the ancient calendar could also have been constrained by its medium in a similar manner. In other words, the comic helps to “explain the unknown by the known”. (Wysocki and Lynch 306) This relationship between the various parts of the comic is not confined to the calendar and framing.

The interaction between the inaccurate narrative and argument that the comic is working to portray is what appeals to the pathos of the audience via humor. The narrative that has been laid over the Mayan calendar in popular culture for the reasons behind the end of the Mayan calendar on the Winter solstice is that this is when the Mayans thought the world would end. The humor is held in the argument within the comic, that they actually just ran out of room on their stone to continue moving through time. They way that this message is told to the audience through slang dialect by the character’s dialogue also adds to the humor. Another part of the comic that adds to the pathos used to further the argument is the portrayal of the characters. These characters are caricatures of what actual Mayans look like. This overall comedic theme throughout the panel helps to further the argument by appealing to the pathos of the audience in an everyday and humorous way that is communicated to a variety of audiences. This type of lighthearted communication is more likely to make an audience accepting of the argument that a creator is trying to form and this is especially true with the Bizarro comic.

Many comics contain an argument, whether it is underlying or in your face. Dan Piraro, creator of the Bizarro comics, has a more ‘in your face’ style than other comic artists. In the December 21, 2009 comic, this argument is as evident as ever. The argument of this particular comic is that as a society, we tend to misread and negate the material constraints of a text and instead lay our own narrative over it that undermines the text’s original purpose and importance. This argument is created through the utilization of the aesthetic and rhetorical techniques through the use of text, visual constraints, and pathos through humor. Now it has been suggested that as a society, we tend to overlay our own assumptions on the unknown in history. Not only do comics comment on this misunderstanding, but other parts of the entertainment industry as well, in books and movies. One of the most well known historical misunderstandings that has been popularized by the entertainment industry is the DaVinci Code novels and movie series. What else in the course of history has been misread and where else in the entertainment industry has this been displayed?

Works Cited:

Piraro, Dan. Countdown to Catastrophe. 21 Dec. 2009. BizarroBlog. blogger.com, 30 Dec. 2009. Web. 28 Mar. 2010.

Wysocki, Anne Frances, and Dennis A. Lynch. Compose, Design, Advocate. N.p.: Pearson Education Inc., 2007. Print.

WP2: Second Draft

The apocalyptic movie has become a staple within the film making industry. Fans of this genre flock to the theatres to experience the thrill and the more realistic the drama, the better. But, the most successful of these movies are the ones based on true events, such as the very real 2012 phenomenon that prompted the creation of the movie, 2012. This film is based on the fears that arose as people discovered that the Mayan calendar, created some three thousand years ago, ended on the Winter Solstice of the year 2012. This arbitrary end to such an influential and superstitious culture’s calendar caused people all over the world to develop their own hypothesis for why the calendar ended on such a date. The consensus was that the Mayans knew something would happen on that exact date centuries later, causing the world as we know it to cease to exist.

As well, the apocalyptic comic has also become a staple within the entertainment industry. Or rather, just a commentary to the apocalyptic phenomenon that arose with the turn of the twenty-first century, Y2K. The always socially and culturally conscious, comic series, Bizarro, developed by Dan Piraro has come up with its own explanation for what has become known as the ‘2012 Phenomenon’. The aesthetic and rhetorical use of logos through text, visual constraints, and pathos through humor help to develop the argument (or explanation) of the December 21, 2009 Bizarro comic, that as a society we misread and negate the material constraints of a text and instead lay our own narrative over that text that undermines the importance and original purpose for that specific communication, in this case the Mayan calendar.

The first part of the panel that is noticed when viewing the Bizarro comic is the text. The hierarchal arrangement of the dialogue bubbles in the top middle of the panel draws in the viewer’s attention. This attention-grabbing technique works “because we have learned to read from top to bottom and left to right.” (Wysocki and Lynch 287) The placement of the dialogue bubbles, one over the top of the other, and the direction of the communication between the characters, from left to right, also comes into play with the techniques of visual hierarchy.

Another reason that the eye is first drawn towards the dialogue is because of the simplicity of this area of the comic and the stark contrast between the black text and the cream background. This hierarchal and aesthetic approach to logos speaks to how we could misread a text. With the placement of the text before the pictorial portrayal of the characters and their props the text, the viewer could misread the dialogue especially because it is supposed to work in conjunction with the visual images. The text could also be misread because of an anomaly in language.

There are two main ways in which the text is incongruent with the visuals and the context in which the characters are portrayed. The main way in which the text differs from the drawings is in the language. Based on the drawings, the characters in the panel are supposed to be Mayans. But, the text is written in English. This use of the English language produces a universalizing effect for the reader, but it is false because these characters would not be speaking English, they would be speaking in the Mayan language. Another anomaly created in the text is the way in which the dialogue is written. By using the phrase “freak somebody out,” a modern dialect is created within the comic and the contemporary slang also has a universalizing effect. Both of these contrasting effects between the language and the images adds to the argument of misunderstanding that can occur when interpreting historic events and artifacts in a modern context.

The argument of the comic is also furthered by the visual constraints in which it was created. The main visual constraint in which the comic is confined is that it is a single panel. Whereas most comics contain three panels in which the story is told, this Bizarro comic is contained in just one so that all of the commentary must be summed up this one small square. This small area also creates a focused effect on the argument of the comic at hand, allowing it to be more obvious to its readers. This constraint of the size of the comic is especially reflective of a visual image within the panel.

The image that this is reminiscent of is the Mayan calendar depicted within the comic. This calendar was created in a circular fashion so that there was a finite amount of room available to its creator for the time in which he (or she) was incorporating. As so eloquently said by one the characters, “I only had enough room…”. The Mayan calendar was also only able to hold so much time with its circular, finite shape, just as the comic only had one panel to make its point. This similarity between the constraints created by the medium speak to how a historical artifact can be misread so that another, maybe inaccurate, narrative has been laid over the top of the artifact to create meaning for its audience.

The interaction between the inaccurate narrative and argument that the comic is working to portray is what appeals to the pathos of the audience via humor. The narrative that has been laid over the Mayan calendar in popular culture for the reasons behind the end of the Mayan calendar on the Winter solstice is that this is when the Mayans thought the world would end. The humor is held in the argument, that they actually just ran out of room on their stone to continue moving through time. They way that this message is told to the audience through slang dialect by the character’s dialogue also adds to the humor. Another part of the comic that adds to the pathos used to further the argument is the portrayal of the characters. These characters are caricatures of what actual Mayans look like. This overall comedic theme throughout the panel helps to further the argument by appealing to the pathos of the audience in an everyday and humorous way that is communicated to a variety of audiences. This type of lighthearted communication is more likely to make an audience accepting of the argument that a creator is trying to form and this is especially true with the Bizarro comic.

Many comics contain an argument, whether it is underlying or in your face. Dan Piraro, creator of the Bizarro comics, has a more ‘in your face’ style than other comic artists. In the December 21, 2009 comic, this argument is as evident as ever. The argument of this particular comic is that as a society, we tend to misread and negate the material constraints of a text and instead lay our own narrative over it that undermines the text’s original purpose and importance. This argument is created through the utilization of the aesthetic and rhetorical techniques through the use of text, visual constraints, and pathos through humor. Now that it has been suggested that as a society, we tend to overlay our own assumptions on the unknown in history. Not only do comics comment on this misunderstanding, but other parts of the entertainment industry as well, in books and movies. One of the most well known historical misunderstandings that has been popularized by the entertainment industry is the DaVinci Code movie series. What else in the course of history has been misread and where else in the entertainment industry has this been displayed?

Works Cited:

Piraro, Dan. Countdown to Catastrophe. 21 Dec. 2009. BizarroBlog. blogger.com, 30 Dec. 2009. Web. 28 Mar. 2010.

Wysocki, Anne Frances, and Dennis A. Lynch. Compose, Design, Advocate. N.p.: Pearson Education Inc., 2007. Print.

WP2: Rough Draft

The apocalyptic movie has become a staple within the film making industry. Fans of this genre flock to the theatres to experience the thrill and the more realistic the drama, the better. But, the most successful of these movies are the ones based on true events, such as the very real 2012 phenomenon that prompted the creation of the movie, 2012. This film is based on the fears that arose as people discovered that the Mayan calendar, created some three thousand years ago, ended on the Winter Solstice of the year 2012. This arbitrary end to such an influential and superstitious culture’s calendar caused people all over the world to develop their own hypothesis for why the calendar ended on such a date. The consensus was that the Mayans knew something would happen on that exact date centuries later, causing the world as

we know it to cease to exist.

Apparently, the apocalyptic comic has also become a staple within the entertainment industry. Or rather, just a commentary to the apocalyptic phenomenon that arose with the turn of the twenty-first century, Y2K. The always socially and culturally conscious, comic series, Bizarro, developed by Dan Piraro has come up with its own explanation for what has become known as the ‘2012 Phenomenon’. The aesthetic and rhetorical use of text, visual constraints, and pathos through humor help to develop the argument (or explanation) of the December 21, 2009 Bizarro comic, that as a society we misread and negate the material constraints of a text and instead lay our own narrative over that text that undermines the importance and original purpose for that specific communication, in this case the Mayan calendar.

The first part of the panel that is noticed when viewing the Bizarro comic is the text. The hierarchal arrangement of the dialogue bubbles in the top middle of the panel draws in the viewer’s attention. This attention-grabbing technique works “because we have learned to read from top to bottom and left to right.” (Wysocki, Lynch 287) The placement of the dialogue bubbles, one over the top of the other, and the direction of the communication between the characters, from left to right, also comes into play with the techniques of visual hierarchy. Another reason that the eye is first drawn towards the dialogue is because of the simplicity of this area of the comic and the stark contrast between the black text and the cream background. This hierarchal and aesthetic approach to logos speaks to how we could misread a text. With the placement of the text before the pictorial portrayal of the characters and their props the text, the viewer could misread the dialogue especially because it is supposed to work in conjunction with the visual images. The text could also be misread because of an anomaly in language.

There are two main ways in which the text is incongruent with the visuals and the context in which the characters are portrayed. The main way in which the text differs from the drawings is in the language. Based on the drawings, the characters in the panel are supposed to be Mayans. But, the text is written in English. This use of the English language produces a universalizing effect for the reader, but it is false because these characters would not be speaking English, they would be speaking in the Mayan language. Another anomaly created in the text is the way in which the dialogue is written. By using the phrase “freak somebody out,” a modern dialect is created within the comic and the contemporary slang also has a universalizing effect. Both of these contrasting effects between the language and the images adds to the argument of misunderstanding that can occur when interpreting historic events and artifacts in a modern context.

The argument of the comic is also furthered by the visual constraints in which it was created. The main visual constraint in which the comic is confined is that it is a single panel. Whereas most comics contain three panels in which the story is told, this Bizarro comic is contained in just one so that all of the commentary must be summed up this one small square. This small area also creates a focused effect on the argument of the comic at hand, allowing it to be more obvious to its readers. This constraint of the size of the comic is especially reflective of a visual image within the panel. The image that this is reminiscent of is the Mayan calendar depicted within the comic. This calendar was created in a circular fashion so that there was a finite amount of room available to its creator for the time in which he (or she) was incorporating. As so eloquently said by one the characters, “I only had enough room…”. The Mayan calendar was also only able to hold so much time with its circular, finite shape, just as the comic only had one panel to make its point. This similarity between the constraints created by the medium speak to how a historical artifact can be misread so that another, maybe inaccurate, narrative has been laid over the top of the artifact to create meaning for its audience.

The interaction between the inaccurate narrative and argument that the comic is working to portray is what appeals to the pathos of the audience via humor. The narrative that has been laid over the Mayan calendar in popular culture for the reasons behind the end of the Mayan calendar on the Winter solstice is that this is when the Mayans thought the world would end. The humor is held in the argument, that they actually just ran out of room on their stone to continue moving through time. They way that this message is told to the audience through slang dialect by the character’s dialogue also adds to the humor. Another part of the comic that adds to the pathos used to further the argument is the portrayal of the characters. These characters are caricatures of what actual Mayans look like. This overall comedic theme throughout the panel helps to further the argument by appealing to the pathos of the audience in an everyday and humorous way that is communicated to a variety of audiences. This type of lighthearted communication is more likely to make an audience accepting of the argument that a creator is trying to form and this is especially true with the Bizarro comic.

Many comics contain an argument, whether it is underlying or in your face. Dan Piraro, creator of the Bizarro comics, has a more in your face style than other comic artists. In the December 21, 2009 comic, this argument is as evident as ever. The argument of this particular comic is that as a society, we tend to misread and negate the material constraints of a text and instead lay our own narrative over it that undermines the text’s original purpose and importance. This argument is created through the utilization of the aesthetic and rhetorical techniques through the use of text, visual constraints, and pathos through humor. Now that it has been suggested that as a society, we tend to overlay our own assumptions on the unknown in history. What else in the course of history has been misread and where else in the entertainment industry has this been displayed?

Works Cited:

Piraro, Dan. Countdown to Catastrophe. 21 Dec. 2009. BizarroBlog. blogger.com, 30 Dec. 2009. Web. 28 Mar. 2010. .

Wysocki, Anne Frances, and Dennis A. Lynch. Compose, Design, Advocate. N.p.: Pearson Education Inc., 2007. Print.

WP2: Statement of Purpose

Comics add humor to our everyday lives amidst the newspaper pages full of death and despair. Although, intertwined among these humorous anecdotes there is often a small amount of commentary on life or modern culture. This way of going about social commentary through the combination of text and visual imagery is created in a way that many other communication forms could not fully form. In the Bizarro comics, created by Dan Piraro, this tends to be a common theme present in many, if not all of his panels and his December 21, 2009 comic is no exception. There is a message created through the use of commentary on a culturally relevant topic.

When creating my analysis of the Piraro comic, I have to be purposeful in my approach. Even within the narrow constraints of the panel in which the comic is drawn, the comic is not lacking in support for its argument. I hope to live up to these same standards within my own piece of writing. I want to create a piece that will inform and educate my audience about how the specific argument of the Piraro comic, that as a society we misread and negate the material constraints of a text and instead lay our own narrative over the text that undermines the importance and original purpose of that text, is formed through the use of rhetorical and aesthetic techniques, such as pathos through humor, text, and visual imagery. On a more broad level, I hope that my writing will inform my audience about various visual and rhetorical techniques are applied within comics to create an argument and that this information will help them to see the social commentary within and have a better understanding of the modern comic.

With these ambitious goals in mind, it is important for me to consider who my audience will be. On a primary level, the individuals who will be viewing my piece will be my teacher and my peers in my English class. These people are similar to myself and many have cultural lenses similar to my own through which they will be viewing the comic and my writing. These people will also be equipped with the knowledge of the same terminology that I will use when analyzing the rhetorical techniques. This combination of similarities between my primary audience and myself will allow them to understand what I am referring to within each part of my writing as well as see the same types of tools used to create the argument. But, on the other hand, these similarities will make them tough critics of my work, as they are equipped with the same knowledge that I am.

The context in which my primary audience will view my analysis is also an important consideration. I can imagine that this audience will be located in their office or dorm room and will be viewing my work in a peer review context. Knowing of this inevitable critique of my work will force me to consider its easiness to understand, depth, and level of polish and will make it a better piece with a more purposeful drive.

On a secondary level, the audience that might also be viewing my writing will be other bloggers or internet users. I do not know what their cultural or educational backgrounds will be. I will also be unaware of the context in which they are receiving it, whether they stumbled upon it while on the internet or whether they were seeking out blog posts. With all of these variables in mind, when creating this piece I will have to be sure that the ideas within my paper are translatable to a wide variety of people in a wide variety of contexts.

The comics we encounter everyday contain underlying social commentaries. I hope that through my analysis of one of these “everyday” comics by Dan Piraro I will shed light on one cultural anecdote. But if I am unable to fulfill the goals that I have set forth for myself, I will have not enlightened my audience with a few of the many rhetorical techniques used to create argument within the Piraro comic or any other comic they may come across. So­– I do hope that my purpose for this piece is fulfilled, that I have effectively translated this purpose to my audience in their own context, and that I will have made the ordinary comic upon the pages of our newspapers, extraordinary.

Blog Post 16

After a cursory analysis of several hits off the popular search engine, Google, I discovered that there is much more hype about our impending doom than I had originally realized. In present day culture, most everyone has heard of the upcoming apocalypse occurring on December 21 (or 23, there are opposing views) of 2012 that parallels the end of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar created by the ancient people, the Olmec, but is popularly associated with the Mayans. This calendar is linear and made up of 13 b’ak’tuns or about 5,125 years. There is no real explanation for this seemingly arbitrary end date, but some experts believe that this day must have help great importance to the Mayan people. Today, it is just another apocalyptic end to our modern world, very similar to Y2K that was supposed to occur with the dawn of the twenty first century.

Instead of capitalizing on Y2K, Hollywood let that catastrophe lie, probably because so many around the world actually believed that it would happen. In the case of 2012, there arose a movie in 2009, 2012, that created a realistic story of natural disasters all coming together to end the world as we know it. As well as the entertainment industry feeding off of this doomsday frenzy, many authors and website creators are adding to the fire. Facebook pages have arisen, as well as a variety of websites listing the possibilities of how our world might end, why in 2012, countdowns to our end, and so on.

In relation to my comic, all of this background information adds to the understanding of the humor in the comic, the artist’s own explanation of “why 2012?”, and a variety of other aesthetic elements. First of all, the characters in the panel are drawn in such a way that it can be assumed by the audience that they are ancient Mayans. Their clothing, accessories, and lack of footwear and the use of color all work to convince the audience that they set in an earlier time, but the accessories also add to the understanding that they are a rich and powerful culture as well, which is typical of the Mayans. The coloration of the characters also adds to our understanding of their ethnicity. They are dark skinned and have dark hair, both stereotypical characteristics that we associate with these ancient people and the region that they originate from.

After looking at pictures of the actual Long Count calendar and acquiring information about it, it is interesting to see that the calendar representation within the comic is circular and displays typical Mayan style artwork with the face in the center and the triangles to represent sunrays. In the photographs and descriptions of the Long count calendar, it was obvious that the calendar was linear in fashion and in one description it was emphasized that it is not the typical circular Mayan calendar. It is interesting that the artist still chose to represent the calendar as circular in the comic. This is probably a decision that he made with his audience in mind, the average American newspaper or blog reader. This stereotypical representation of a Mayan calendar allowed him to keep the explanation of the images in the comic to a minimum and allow the viewers to focus on the dialogue between the characters.

I am glad that I looked into the cultural relevance and history of the 2012 phenomenon. It has allowed me to better analyze the character interaction as well the other images within the comic. It also gives me a better understanding of the thought behind its creation and meaning behind it.