Lint

Write a 2 to 3-paragraph response on the blog on the following:

1.  Choose a page or sequence of panels that you find formally interesting.

2.  How sympathetic is the protagonist, and how does Chris Ware handle presenting a character who is unlikable at times? Use a specific example.

Reactions and questions for GB Tran after reading Vietnamerica

Post a 1-2 paragraph response and 2 questions you’d be interested to ask him.

Thoughts on story arc after finishing The First Chinese American

Post a response describing a way you think we could tell the story.  Include turning points, beginning and end points, the arc you see for Wong Chin Foo's character.

A Place Among the Stars

Write a three-paragraph response that includes one paragraph on each of the following.  Since there are no page numbers, you'll want to just describe the scene in a few words (e.g., "The scene where Jackie Cochran confronts Randy Lovelace while he's chopping wood").  

--find a particularly effective dialogue exchange, and explain why you think it’s effective

--find a full-page bleed that you find effective, and explain why.

--find a particularly effective transition, and explain why.

Less Than Whole simplified plot

Following some of the suggestions we made in class, I wanted to write out a short post about my vision for Less Than Whole.

Front cover idea: Main character or random person in wheelchair is straining to reach a sign saying "Less Than Whole." With a pen in one hand, they are caught in the act of trying to scratch out the "Less Than."

Plot arc:

Main character (Ed Roberts or Judith Heumann) is holding a meeting within the sit-in.
Exposition about the background of why they're doing it, flashback to the main character growing up, experiencing life in ableist culture. Graphic depiction of the daily effect of physical disability on life.

Other characters make their appearances, Black Panther members bring meals and talk about their experiences/ why this is an intersectional issue. Members of sit-in with invisible disabilities struggle with internalized ableism/ wondering if they really belong within this movement (possibly). People are sleep-deprived, dirty and idealistic.

Flash to what's happening outside the building: much more violent protests with people chaining themselves together and being arrested. Young people with various disabilities seeing and reacting to the news, backlash from people without disabilities.

Within the sit-in, people are beginning to lose hope, get dragged down by the horrible living conditions of the building. Ed Roberts gives a speech (http://www.disabilityworld.org/12-02_05/news/roberts504speech.shtml), news coverage begins to take notice.

End of sit-in, the protestors make their way out of the building, hold a press conference and give a verbal smack-down to newscasters who think it isn't a big deal. America as a nation is startled by eloquence from people with disabilities-- they do not fit the mold the media paints.

Protestors fly to Washington to make sure the legislation passes in its entirety.

Final epilogue: Follow main character through their career as they continue to fight for accessibility for all. Make it abundantly clear that they are fighting against ableist culture, rather than letting their disabilities define them. Show examples of the concessions that these activists brought, pointing out how much further we still have to go.

BASIC BITCHES Y'ALL

Here's the link to the article on Stanford Arts Review: http://stanfordartsreview.com/the-bucket-hat-from-hell/

Resources for the MacGregor Girls

Web Resource: ChineseAmericanHeroes.org

The Six Assassinations of Wong Chin Foo

San Francisco (1873) - Wong Breaks Onto The Scene

• Fleeing the Qing government after his failed rebellion, Wong heads to San Francisco aboard the MacGregor
• He meets the 14 enslaved girls on the ship and decides to help them
• He notifies the authorities and they intervene to save the girls
• His actions garner the attention of local journalists, who make him the hero of an article on the girls’ rescue
• After the article is published, the Hip Yee Tong, the triad organization responsible for bringing the girls over, begins to plot Wong’s murder
• Meanwhile, Wong is interviewed by the Chronicle, allowing him to reintroduce himself to his adopted country, exaggerated life story and all
• Hip Yee Tong assassins strike at a shoe factory Wong is visiting, throwing him down a staircase but failing to kill him
• As Wong convalesces, the Chronicle publishes its profile of him, catapulting him into celebrity
• Wong leaves San Francisco to spread his ideas

Chicago (1879-1882) - Wong Answers The Chinese Question

• The “Chinese question,” which would in 3 years be answered by the Chinese Exclusion Act, dominates the national dialogue
• Newly arrived in Chicago, Wong decides to add his voice to the dialogue by staging a public debate
• Wong utterly trounces his debate opponent, a sailor named William Lewis who had sailed the Chinese coast, but also denigrates the Cantonese community
• Later, Wong intervenes in an ownership dispute between two Chicago Chinese - Li Bo, a Northerner like Wong, and Woo Wing, a Cantonese
• Wong wins the case for Li Bo, causing Woo to turn to the Six Companies of San Francisco
• While Woo and Wong battle in court, the tongs plan Wong’s assassination
• Wong is at a laundry when three assailants - Lew Long, Lee King, and possibly Chan Pond Tipp - attempt to murder him, slashing his head open with a hatchet/razor but failing to kill him
• Fearing for his life, Wong leaves Chicago to settle in Bay City, Michigan, where he opens a tea shop
• Eventually, Wong leaves Bay City to again take up his crusade

New York Part I (1883-1885) - Wong vs. Chan

• Having just launched his publication the Chinese American, Wong defends the Chinese American community from accusations of debauchery (rat libel or the corruption of young girls)
• However, he also uses his paper to go after vice in Chinatown - specifically, gambling
• As Wong exposes gambling houses, the Chinese criminal element decides to deal with him
• The gambling houses enlist Chan Pond Tipp, Chinese vice-consul candidate and one of Wong’s would-be assassins in Chicago, for the job
• (maybe story about Tom Lee?)
• After visiting his house to find it empty, Chan and his men track Wong down at a grocery store, where Chan attempts to shoot him
• Wong and Chan, two educated, Westernized, high-minded Chinese men, duke it out in court
• Chan wins the case, and Wong’s newspaper eventually folds

New York Part II (1888-1891) - Insanity

• The opium trade is a persistent problem in New York Chinatown, and Wong offers to help the Treasury catch smugglers but is turned down
• Walking through Chinatown a short time later, Wong is jumped by a group of gangsters, led by would-be tong usurper Lee Sing, who attempt to strangle him
• Wong attacks Lee Sing through the legal system while Lee Sing makes more attempts on his life
• Wong visits Mott Street regularly, where almost as regularly people attempt to kill him
• Some time later…
• Wong learns of Suen Yee, a young Chinese woman living in slavery on Mott Street
• Wong arranges the arrest of Suen Yee’s captor, Lee Khi, once again drawing the ire of the Chinatown underworld
• Wong attempts to start a Chinese theater troupe in Manhattan, but the venture is cut short when the San Francisco tongs send Chee Ah Lung, LEGENDARY ASSASSIN,  to kill his actors
• Opium dealer Chee Hing draws a pistol on Wong, who saves himself by dropping to the ground and grabbing onto an American boy

Resources for Less than Whole:

Here's a super short video clip that basically says the message we want to get across. It also mentions Ed Roberts, one of the characters I focused on in my original pitch. <http://www.itvs.org/films/lives-worth-living
>

Other resources for learning about Ed Roberts (who would make a good central character if we wanted to follow one person from childhood to this moment to beyond): <http://www.wid.org/about-wid/booklet%20with%20speech.pdf
> It gives you a good sense of his personality, which I really like.

There's also more resources (interviews) on other possible main characters, Kitty Cone and Judith Heumann, here (as well as some info on the disability rights movement in general):

http://www.rollingrains.com/archives/000513.html

http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt1w1001mt;NAAN=13030&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00019&toc.depth=1&toc.id=div00019&brand=calisphere

http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb9v19p0k9;NAAN=13030&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00064&toc.depth=1&toc.id=div00064&brand=calisphere

http://www.wherevertheresafight.com/timeline/issue/disability_rights

And I also found a website with research about how disabled characters are often treated within the graphic novel genre so we can recognize and avoid some of the problematic tropes. Seriously, on page 3 it lists all the tropes of disabled characters that were present in comic books. It's pretty interesting: http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/aaslpubsandjournals/slr/vol13/SLR_SeeingDifferent.pdf


And one last infographic about how disabilities are treated at Stanford, because it's super on-point: http://static.stanford.edu/2014/09/29/lack-sessibility-at-stanford/

These are all the resources that were on my original pitch, I just thought it would be helpful to include a description of what they were so you can pick and choose which seem interesting.