The Oak: A Junior Visual Narrative Comic by Christopher Mintz (2017)

This illustration centers around the juxtaposition between the natural world and the industrial one, however it also tries to show that harmony can be brought between them. To start the comic depicts the growing of a tree, and the innocents it has of the world. However, this quickly changes into hatred toward the industrial world for making a road through the forest and the cars that use the road and pollute the forest. The final scenes end with the tree realizing that there is a good side to the industrial world too, because without the road the fire fighters could not put out the fire. The last scene ends with the tree seeing things in a new light and no longer only displaying hate to the industrial world, but more of an understanding.

This piece was an adaptation of my three page graphic novel made in english class, this one however was cut down while still displaying the same feeling. There was more planning about, what panels would be needed to show the story, and what the panels would look like. After making rough drafts of the individual panels and the overall composition, we transferred them from our sketchbooks onto a larger sheet of paper, from there we burnished them onto an artboard and colored it in. Finally we scanned them into the computer and re-made them in Adobe Illustrator.