Comic Strip Endnote
by Julianne
We chose to incorporate a comic strip in the project because we thought more visual genres would compliment our web page more than many works with a lot of text. In addition to the comic strip being a good visual component of out webpage, I thought a comic strip would help us reach the audience in a fun and playful way. I discovered that it is often difficult to determine who the audience for the piece will be, because J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter has been read and enjoyed by people of all ages in so many countries. In a way, I think that this piece speak to most fans of the series, as it is a humorous play on the character Voldemort’s nickname. I do, however, realize that very young fans may not ‘get’ the joke.
This comic strip was not my original idea as it has flourished on the Internet for a while. I decided I wanted to draw this for our project when I discovered it on Reddit[1]. I did, in other words, experience myself how this comic appeals to a Harry Potter fan, and decided it would be fun to redo it as a part of our project. To connect the comic strip to some of the research we did for this project, I would like to talk about the Harry Potter fan-community. In the book Harry, a History Melissa Anelli talks about how it is not only the Harry Potter series who made history, but also the community who formed around the series. Anelli is the administrator of one of the series largest fan platforms on the Internet, named the Leaky Cauldron. She writes with passion about her experience as the Harry Potter phenomenon grew like a tornado thanks to millions of ordinary people across the globe. As the series was still being written, fans gathered to discuss the series between the releases and now that the series are finished there is still a huge community transfering the young wizard’s story into popular culture. Because of Harry Potter’s dedicated fans, the stage has been set for bands like Harry and the Potters to tour the world, children and adults alike attend online schools like the Potter Academy, books, like Anelli’s, are being written and sold in millions, and fanart and fanfiction is being eagerly created.
The research we did on J. K. Rowling’s works shows that there is a huge community that still actively search out material derived from the Harry Potter series, and that will enjoy humorous creations like this comic strip. The research we did shows that in response to Rowling creating the Harry Potter series, the fans have created something that moves beyond the books and into popular culture as a whole. This comic strip is a small piece of that response. The strip uses characters and knowledge from the Harry Potter books and turns it into a knock-knock joke. In this way I show how something that was originally explicit to the series, now is part of other aspects of popular culture. Though the joke itself was not my original idea, the drawings are original and mine.
[1] www.reddit.com is an online forum where one join different subreddits to discuss and share practically anything.
We chose to incorporate a comic strip in the project because we thought more visual genres would compliment our web page more than many works with a lot of text. In addition to the comic strip being a good visual component of out webpage, I thought a comic strip would help us reach the audience in a fun and playful way. I discovered that it is often difficult to determine who the audience for the piece will be, because J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter has been read and enjoyed by people of all ages in so many countries. In a way, I think that this piece speak to most fans of the series, as it is a humorous play on the character Voldemort’s nickname. I do, however, realize that very young fans may not ‘get’ the joke.
This comic strip was not my original idea as it has flourished on the Internet for a while. I decided I wanted to draw this for our project when I discovered it on Reddit[1]. I did, in other words, experience myself how this comic appeals to a Harry Potter fan, and decided it would be fun to redo it as a part of our project. To connect the comic strip to some of the research we did for this project, I would like to talk about the Harry Potter fan-community. In the book Harry, a History Melissa Anelli talks about how it is not only the Harry Potter series who made history, but also the community who formed around the series. Anelli is the administrator of one of the series largest fan platforms on the Internet, named the Leaky Cauldron. She writes with passion about her experience as the Harry Potter phenomenon grew like a tornado thanks to millions of ordinary people across the globe. As the series was still being written, fans gathered to discuss the series between the releases and now that the series are finished there is still a huge community transfering the young wizard’s story into popular culture. Because of Harry Potter’s dedicated fans, the stage has been set for bands like Harry and the Potters to tour the world, children and adults alike attend online schools like the Potter Academy, books, like Anelli’s, are being written and sold in millions, and fanart and fanfiction is being eagerly created.
The research we did on J. K. Rowling’s works shows that there is a huge community that still actively search out material derived from the Harry Potter series, and that will enjoy humorous creations like this comic strip. The research we did shows that in response to Rowling creating the Harry Potter series, the fans have created something that moves beyond the books and into popular culture as a whole. This comic strip is a small piece of that response. The strip uses characters and knowledge from the Harry Potter books and turns it into a knock-knock joke. In this way I show how something that was originally explicit to the series, now is part of other aspects of popular culture. Though the joke itself was not my original idea, the drawings are original and mine.
[1] www.reddit.com is an online forum where one join different subreddits to discuss and share practically anything.
Research connecting to this piece
Anelli, Melissa. Harry, a History: The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon. New York: Pocket, 2008. Print.
"PotterAcademy.com - Online Harry Potter School." Potteracademy. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2012. <http://potteracademy.com/>.
"Harry Potter News, Books and Films - The Leaky Cauldron." Harry Potter News, Books and Films - The Leaky Cauldron. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2012.
"PotterAcademy.com - Online Harry Potter School." Potteracademy. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2012. <http://potteracademy.com/>.
"Harry Potter News, Books and Films - The Leaky Cauldron." Harry Potter News, Books and Films - The Leaky Cauldron. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2012.