A head-and-shoulders illustrated portrait of Kayode. He is smiling with his mouth closed, has medium dark skin, and short curly hair. He's wearing a light blue collared shirt.

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

AND ALSO EVERY OTHER PROJECT IS ALSO DUE THIS WEEK AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...

May 4, 2026

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.

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?

Shrek cards, neopets cards, and Pope Leo XIV cards

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

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.

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

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!!

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.

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

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