Help Students Publish a Class Comic Anthology!

Hey guys! This is John Spillman, and I am a teacher at Oak Grove High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Currently, I teach several classes relating to graphic design and video production. I always try to give my students interesting, relevant and creatively challenging projects each semester, and this semester I have put together some interesting ideas to show off the talent of my Visual Design 2 students. Visual Design 2 is a course the second course in a course series focused on digital and print media. As such, I would like to guide my students through the publishing process both online and in print. We would like to do this by publishing a graphic novel anthology on Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing and have a presence at the 2023 Heroes Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina on June 16th-18th. These are some lofty goals, but we are working hard to make them happen. The publishing project serves as a culminating project in Visual Design 2 and tasks students with doing the following: • Formulating an original story idea to present in comic book format using only 4 pages • Creating rough layouts for each page's panel setup • Sketching, inking and coloring their 4 pages using Adobe Photoshop • Designing thought and word balloons and other assets in Adobe Illustrator • Bringing together these assets in Adobe InDesign to prepare them for publishing • Revising layouts using constructive feedback • Finally, publishing the comic anthology on Amazon's KDP • Printing physical copies of the comic anthology to take to the 2023 Heroes Convention in June • Create promotional materials for our project including a website, banners and art prints for each student We have made progress on one of our major goals and have secured our very own table in Artist's Alley along with other writers and artists from the comic book industry including those from Marvel, DC and Image Comics at Heroes Convention 2023. Many people from the comic book industry will be attending this convention, and we could get my students' work in the hands of creators at each of the above companies! It is for this reason that we need your help to prepare to show off the work of my Visual Design 2 students. However, we still need to raise funds for publishing and promotional costs related to this project. It is my hope that you will be a part of helping us achieve these goals and be a part of recognizing the immense talents of my students this semester. Thank you in advance for any help you can provide, and look out for updates along the way!