[LIVEBLOG 🔴] Making My ENTIRE Comic Portfolio BEFORE THURSDAY by Kayode D. '27

HELLO.

I have found myself in quite the predicament. This semester, I’ve been taking 21W.306: Making Comics and Sequential Art. I love comics. I wanted to make a blog where I talked about the class and the comics we studied and all of the art I made this semester…except I haven’t made that much art. Whoops. In the procrastination-induced choice between doing Thermodynamics homework that I have to do for my major, or drawing comics for the fun class that is not necessarily required, I ended up choosing thermo on most days. So to no one’s surprise, I find myself with a lot of comic work to do before Thursday Night. Whoops!

But I’m not too worried!! I can do it!! Drawing Comics isn’t too hard, it just takes time. [Which is something I’m realizing I don’t have a lot of left.]

Saturday, May 2nd

[Can i retroactively liveblog? Saturday is when I had this idea, but today I am actually implementing the liveblog, and I will continue to do so until I finish my work, or meet an untimely fate, whichever comes first.]

What did I do on Saturday? I had Summer RA training in the morning! I’m a Summer RA for MacGregor this summer, which means I get free housing [hooray] with built in friends. The training was pretty straightforward. I’m excited for this summer!!

Then, I went to the Stud[ent Center] and LOCKED THE FREAK IN. Here’s the comic work that I did:

Here's the remake of HW1 that I did. There's no text yet but I don't want you to see the original comic first, haha

It's a comic about last summer when me and my sister went to get gas [and pizza, but i didn't include that in the comic] and she said that she honestly doesn't miss me that much when I'm at college. I get it, she's in middle school and growing out of being a little kid, and I'm not there for this developmental stage of her life. It's kind of sad, but I thought it would be a good moment to capture in this comic...now you have to see the originals 🫣

I made this in two hours the night it was due.

Comics take a LOT of time to make. I also didn't realize that there's no easy rectangle tool in photoshop for Ipad, but there is on laptop.

Sneak-peak of my final project comic. I wanted to work on this last page, but it's hard!!

This is the page that I'm stealing colors from. Professor Wiser encourages us to do this: find a comic page we like the colors of and copy the color scheme. I want the fire on the last page to be visceral. and this page immediately came to mind. From Absolute Batman, Issue #2.

Previous Next

I am not an artist. I think that I really enjoy writing comics, but I’m not super jazzed about drawing the comics. Kudos to the bloggers who do this without their GPA on the line.

Bed!!

Sunday, May 3rd

Today I went to Church with some friends that I went to South Africa with in January [BLOG COMING SOON], and we got coffee afterwards! I got a Vanilla Iced Coffee, which was pretty good! And I don’t even like coffee!

Afterwards, we went separate ways and I went to Newbury Comics😼. I just got paid!! And I’m blogging about comics so why not??

Hey Hey!

I love Newbury Comics. Favorite Store hands down. Did you know it was founded by MIT Alums?

Only the Best of the Best get to come home with me

Previous Next

These are 2007 Shrek the Third Scratch and Stink Trading Cards. They're pretty neat! I always buy a pack when I see them at Newbury [obviously], and so far I've gotten the Shrek, Donkey, and Gingy Holo Scratch and Stink cards!! And a few temporary Tattoos :p

These are neopets cards that I got for free with my purchase. I don't know anything about neopets, but I did get the Faerie Paint Brush, which I have heard of before. Neat!

This was absurd. If it was Pope trading cards, I would understand. A pope TCG would be fun. But no, this is specifically Pope Leo XIV Trading Cards. What's inside, you ask? They're all paintings and photos of him. There's holographic cards and tiled mosaic cards, a lot of the Pope. How fun.

THIS IS SO COOL. It's Romeo and Juliet AND GODZILLA. It's the Shakespearean Story, except Godzilla is also there. We talked about it in class so I had to get it when I saw. SO COOL!

I like collecting the seasonal holiday collections. They're like a bunch of short comic stories put together, themed around a holiday. A lot of bang for your buck, and not a series you feel the need to collect. Cool!!

This is the Valentines Day DC collection. A lot of the art is really cool, and the one shot for Supergirl as a normal high schooler was really cool. I would want to read her series, I think. Cool!!

This is the Absolute Batman Annual-- Every year, they do a similar thing to the holiday comics, but for one cahracter / series. This is a bunch of short stories involving Absolute Batman. I haven't read it yet, but I know it contains the complete works of Absolute Condiment King. So COOL!!!

This is a compact for Dark Night Returns. Compacts are like reprintings of older famous comic series', into a smaller book, and only $10. I usually don't get these but Robin looks so fun in this that I had to.

LOOK AT THE ART!!! IT"S SO GOOD!!!! Every page is so colorful in a way that Batman doesn't often get. I love how they use the colors, especially how Robin contrasts with Batman. So coolio, dude.

Previous Next

The only comic series I am currently reading is Absolute Batman [AND IT”S SO GOOD, I WOULD RECOMEND THIS TO ANYONE], so I usually don’t buy a random comic in a series I don’t know anything about. So I LOVE when I find a standalone comic, like the Hellboy one-shot, or the Annuals / Holiday Specials. So cool!!

When I got home, Caleb M. ’27 called me because he needed help with a photoshoot across campus. He’s taking a photography class, but I’ll let him talk about it when the time comes.

Here's where he did the shots. It only took like an hour to help out, and it was really cool!! I won't spoil the pictures [because I don't have them] but here is the location we shot at.

This is the mural witha better view. From the List Visual Arts Center Website: https://listart.mit.edu/art-artists/walker-memorial-mural-1923-30

Previous Next

After this, I had to get work done so I went to the Stud to work for a bit. I had to step out for a Cru Worship Practice for the end of the year [I think I’m overcommitted, haha. This probably won’t catch up to me, right?]

And then it caught up to me. I went back to keep working, and looking at my calendar more closely I realized the err of my ways. Like Icarus, I had flown too close to the sun, and my wax wings had begun to melt.

Everything is due this week. 

• Full Comic Portfolio, due Thursday.
• D-Lab Stretcher Design Review, Wednesday
• 50 Yo-yos, manufactured, assembled, and drop-tested by Tuesday.
• Yo-Yo manufacturing class EXAM, Wednesday
• Thermo Pset, Thursday Morning
• UROP meeting, Friday
• [REDACTED] Project, ASAP
• MEETING with President Sally Kornbluth, Monday

……..meeting with President Sally Kornbluth, Monday?

Meeting with President Sally Kornbluth, Monday.

For my UROP, I’ve been making the MIT Trading Card Game, making prototypes to test and interviewing people for card content for the big run of Version 2 at Orientation in the fall. A few weeks ago, I was walking across campus when a dog jumped up at me. It was like a Chihuahua so I wasn’t too worried, and it seemed friendly. The owner apologized, and when I looked up, it was the MIT President, Sally Kornbluth!! I said it was no worries, and suddenly got the idea to pitch the Trading Card Game to her. She loved the idea, and I asked if she’d be free for an interview for a card in the next few weeks. She said yeah!! So I got her email and set up an interview! Rejection Therapy! That meeting was today.

Meeting with President Sally Kornbluth, Monday!

This is the coffee table in the waiting room. It's all very professional. There was also candy in her office. Yum!!

Previous Next

Her office is NICE! It was a lovely conversation, and if you want to hear what it was like, Emiko P. ’25 wrote a great blog last year that pretty closely matches her responses to my questions. Check it out!!

Now I’m in the D-Lab after lecture, where we worked to finish our stretcher. It’s going to be a long race to the finish line, but I’m not too worried. We built the thing!! I’m sitting in the workshop typing and eating sour patch kids from a big bucket.  I’ll update this occasionally… as I find respite from the onslaught of work, or whenever something interesting happens….so stay tuned!! Like and Comment and Subscribe. Obama out.

…

I locked the freak in. Here’s a comic I made [colors tbd] :

This was in-class work that I redid digitally. It had to show a bunny as the main character, so I made this basketball comic. Looked better in pencil, I think.

I also worked on some other stuff, but that will have to wait until it looks better. Bye!

Tuesday, May 5th

Hello!! Today I went to my 2.008 Design and Manufacturing FINAL LAB. We had to submit our final project, 50 manufactured identical yoyos. Ours are Beyblade themed. I would show a picture, but my phone is dead and I realized that a rock got stuck deep in my only USB-C charger. So I’m cooked!!

 UPDATE, i got a new charger. Here’s the yoyo. So cool :] the red piece inside is on a ball bearing and spins independently, so when you yo the yoyo, it comes up and the inside keeps spinning…except I think we got a bad batch of bearings because it doesn’t spin enough.

After this, I went to the MIT D-Lab to do a final test with our stretcher. Again, I took videos and photos but my phone is dead and charger is broken. Whoops!! Today is going great!!

 Here’s the stretcher, when we did out final tests outside. This will be a blog, trust trust trust…

I’m going to work on comics until my devices die, and then go get food. And then more comics? I have an exam tomorrow at noon to study for, too. So many things!! I’m not worried tho? I know it’ll get done. God is good!! No matter what!!

…

The following event transpired after this update:

• I got a laptop charger from my friend, Mide T. ’27
• I went to the stud and drew a bunch more comics [see below]
• [actually none of them were really finished at this point, so take a gander at the cover I made for my portfolio:]

 This is the cover I made for my portfolio. I think it’s pretty neat.

Wednesday, May 6th

Hello. Where to begin.

I woke up at 9 AM. I had an exam at 12:30, for the yoyo class. And so I spent all morning making a cheat sheet and studying. Unfortunately, that exam was very difficult 😔😔. But it’s ok!! We persevere!! [they were asking things I’ve never heard before. Like I do not know what the time limiting factor for getting small details out of sand casting is? I probably should have known though, apparently..]

After that, I went to the MIT D-Lab to prepare for our final presentation of our stretcher [see above]. I’ll write more when it’s not 1:30 AM and I’m less tired.

After this, I went to Blogoholics Anonymous, where the admissions bloggers hang out and chat and such. Me and Aidan talked about comics and movies and the point of marriage. What a day!

Then I went to the stud and drew comics. Here are some:

This was a classwork I'm adding as page filler. Looks neat enough!

Previous Next

 Inside jacket design

Halfway through all of this, I went to Masseeh Hall Dining for some late night. Late night is open from 10-1, and lets students get food late! Usually they have burgers and fries and hotdogs and chicken tenders. It’s not the best food, but it’s reliable! Sometimes they have variation like popcorn chicken or good pasta or…

Brussel Sprouts

[I didn’t take a picture, I was too disappointed :/ ]

They had other food too of course, but sometimes they’re playing too much. Now why would I want brussel sprouts at 1AM Maseeh Hall? Once, I went to Maseeh on a Saturday night at 8 PM [that’s how you know I was going through it], and after swiping in I saw the only food that was out was a big pot of green stew, and a bowl of pears. And a big old Ladle. The food is usually very good and not like this, but I think about that dinner quite often, actually. It really hit me hard.

Anywho, after getting back with some grilled chicken, I ran into some friends from the yoyo class!! Their yoyo is so cool:

Team Yubba Yubba!!

Their yoyo is made to look like a Yubba Bubba Bubble Gum Tape dispenser. They really pulled all the stops, they made the components for at least a hundred yoyos, in different colors and with different decals, too. AND, they got some bubblegum scent oil, so the yoyos [and also all of stud 5 lobby] smelled like bubble gum. Yum!!

OK. I’m going to bed. Adios!!