Featured Collaboration #1
Let’s Create a New Character(s)!
Studio Card #1!
We will do this by providing you with a digital template in the form of Studio Card #1 that walks you through a basic character development process. Within that digital template, you will be presented with the following related collaborations:
1. We will present a digital template that will help you develop your own new characters, and
2. We will provide you with an option to submit any new characters you may develop to us to include in the Back of the Yards comic series
Within our digital template, we start with the basics – name, age, birthplace, current residence, etc. We then build upon those basic characteristics to develop the new character’s personality and physical traits.
It is at that point that we dig deeper to develop the character’s core values and with that, we will present you with an overview of Carl Jung’s Character Archetypes, which, as you will learn, are universal, symbolic patterns that exist within the collective unconscious, shaping human behavior and experiences of all of us – your new character included!
Finally, to bring all together, we help you create your character’s biographical history, i.e., the character’s back story. And with that, you should have the makings of a new character, which you can continue to use and build on your own as part of your independent creative projects. Or…
If you’d like, completely at your option, we will provide you with an opportunity to submit your newly developed character to us. We will then select some of your submissions for further develop with you, along with concept illustrations by our participating artists. And, ultimately, again at your option, we will include a few of your new characters in our Back of the Yards comic series, starting with Issue 3!
You can learn more about this featured collaboration in the Worksheet provided in Chapter 12. But before you do, make sure to turn the page here to check out the next featured collaboration which is a natural collaborative bookend to this one – Creating a Hero’s Journey!
Featured Collaboration #2
Let’s Create Your Hero’s Journey!
Studio Card #2!
Across history and cultures, many of the greatest stories follow a pattern known as the Hero’s Journey. From Hamlet to Harry Potter, from Buddha to Spider-Man, this universal formula transcends time and place. Why? Because the Hero’s Journey isn’t just about how stories work. It’s about how we work. It’s a roadmap for life itself. Some stories are so powerful they don’t just shape our imaginations. They build nations, religions, skyscrapers and cathedrals around them.
With this featured collaboration, we will:
1. Provide you with another foundational digital template that will walk your through 12 phases of this Hero’s Journey as popularized by Joseph Campbell, and more recently further refined by Christopher and 2. We will use these 12 phases to help develop your own Hero’s Journey, which can be applied to the new character you may developed with our first featured collaboration in Studio Card #1
And like the Character development collaboration, we will also present you with an opportunity, completely your option, to submit those new Hero’s Journey collaborations to us, from which we may select one of two for further development either within the Back of the Yards comic series, or if you’d prefer, your own independent collaboration –perhaps a new comic series altogether!
Featured Collaboration #3
Back of the Yards – Issue 3!
Studio Card #3!
Having walked you through the first two featured Studio Cards, we then bring you to Studio Card #3 – our Back of the Yards comic series! It is here that, with your collaboration, we will:
1. Bring Issue 2 (already fully illustrated) to final production, and 2. Present you with a working manuscript for Issue #3 of the comic series to develop into a final script for production
First, with respect to the Issue 2. we have fully developed 25 pages of illustrated pages, and at this point, we will invite you to be a part of the production process as we finalize front and back comic covers, identify a printer and go to print production.
Separately, using concepts from the first two featured collaborations, you will be presented with opportunities to review and provide input and “notes” to the Issue 3 working manuscript over the duration of this collaboration. And eventually, with your help, this working manuscript will become a final script for illustrations and production. At which point, we will continue to provide you with opportunities to provide your notes and input all the way to final production and publication of Issue 3!
It is also from this initial Issue 3 working manuscript that we will identify a few more related featured collaborations in the form of the following Studio Cards:
• Studio Card #9 (Law Enforcement & Community Relations)
• Studio Card #8 (Neighborhoods & Their Residents)
• Studio Card #12 (Dexter Coleman)
• Studio Card [#14] (The Monahans!)
Just turn the page to learn more about each of these featured collaborations and how each of them will be integrated into the Back of the Yards comic series, starting with Issue #3!
Featured Collaboration #4
An Open Dialogue & Two New Characters
Studio Card #9!
I thought I’d start with these set of featured collaborations with picture I took in the early summer of 202. A picture taken by me in my hometown of Chicago, Illinois.
Just across that drawbridge is Chicago’s infamous Magnificent (Mag) Mile, Michigan Avenue. A famed stretch of real estate that hosts some of the finest shopping, food and other tourist attractions year-round. Yet on that day and week in 2020, Chicago had decided that nobody would be going to Mag Mile. Indeed, no one would be going anywhere.
The picture was taken just after the George Floyd tragedy and the protests that occurred in the aftermath. By the time this photo was taken, the National Guard had been brought into the city. And drawbridges throughout the city had been raised to cut off access to the city’s center from just about every angle.
Surreal may be an overused word these days, but there may not be a more apt description when describing the city that morning. And one couldn’t also help but think that those drawbridges were the perfect metaphor for the state of our country’s discourse of the time. Instead of talking with one another, let’s just cut the whole damn thing off.
It is in that context that at that time, we decided we were going to integrate the topics of law enforcement and community relations into our new comic series, the Back of the Yards. And as a very practical matter, we knew we couldn’t continue our comic-based narrative, based in our fictional fictional Back of the Yards neighborhood in the South Side of Chicago, without incorporating law enforcement into the ongoing narrative in some central way.
And when the events of 2020 occurred, and the corresponding protests, we felt these collaborations were even more relevant and timelier. So, it is with this set of featured collaborations that we present you with two related opportunities to collaborate with us as part of these 3 collaborations.
Within the Studio Card #9 Law Enforcement series, we present a brief overview of the early origins of the state police force, starting its early founder, Sir Robert Peel. This illustration by Eric Nyamor, depicts Peel traveling in time to observe his modern-day police force and the issues they face today.
First, we invite you and participating youth from after school programs to submit questions to police officers from Chicago and other parts of the country. These questions, the responses from the participating police officers, will form the basis of an ongoing dialogue over the next 3 to 4 months as Issue #3 of the Back of the Yards comic is developed in parallel.
The objective of this dialogue collaboration is to try to promote a balanced discussion and hopefully with that, some better understanding between all participants. We will also publish excepts from this ongoing dialogue in the supplement of Issue 3 of the Back of the Yards comic series.
And in parallel with this ongoing dialogue, as part of the second set of related collaborations, we will work with you to create two new characters for our comic series, both police officers and each to be first introduced in Issue #3 (with perhaps some of the dialogue captured above also incorporated into a comic scene with those officers).
You can learn more about those character collaborations in the corresponding Worksheet included in Chapter 12, or by simply visiting the Studio Card link above!
Featured Collaboration #5
Building the ”Ordinary World” of Our Fictional Back of the Yards Neighborhood
Studio Card #8!
And you can learn more about the real Back of the Yards neighborhood by visiting Studio Card #8, where we will also present you with an overview of Chicago’s early origins and and parallels to other urban centers and neighborhoods.
With this quick featured collaboration, we’re further developing the “Ordinary World” of our Back of the Yards Fictional Comic Neighborhood…and you can be a part of that collaborative process.
As described in our Studio Card #3 Introduction to the Back of the Yards comic series, the fictional "Back of the Yards" neighborhood is inspired by the real historical Back of the Yards neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. The real Back of the Yards neighborhood extends from 39th to 55th Streets between Halsted and the railroad tracks along Leavitt Street in Chicago and was until the 1950’s the largest livestock yards and meatpacking center in the country.
And with this featured collaboration, you can help us to further create and develop our fictional Back of the Yards neighborhood by submitting places from your own neighborhood. These places can be stores, churches, parks, restaurants ... literally any place from your neighborhood. The collaborative key will be that when you make your submission, explain to us why this place is important to you? As with everything relating to this collaborative project, context matters.
So, if you’d like to have any such place from your own past included in our fictional Back of the Yards comic, just take a little time to more fully consider what place or location meant something to you in your past and why. And whenever you then may be ready, refer to the corresponding Worksheet in this Chapter 12 to help make your submission to us! And we will be highlighting some of your submissions throughout this round of featured collaborations.
Featured Collaboration #6
Who Is Dexter Colemen … really?
Studio Card #12!
For our next featured collaboration, we visit one of our originally developed characters for the Back of the Yards comic series – Dexter Colemen, a/k/a Dex, for short. Where does one start when describing the character of Dex? Well, rather than recreating that character description wheel, let’s just lift what is already on his Studio Card page …
“Dex has a sharp mind. As steel sharpens steel, he keeps his mind sharp through constant use: chess in the park, all-night poker games and the occasional hustle. They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but that isn’t true of Dex—he’s probably the only one of the Elders who knows how to work a smartphone! Even so, he’s never learned his lesson. Dex has lost a step or two, but he stays one step ahead of the law, for now. ”
So, there’s a bit to unpack in that short little paragraph. First, as referenced, Dex is part of a trio of Elders that meets just about every day and night in front of the General Store in our fictional Back of the Yards neighborhood, along with his two elder cohorts, Big Earl and Peaches.
Second, you get a feel for Dex’s personality, which can perhaps best be described as a bit on the irascible side! In a good way. Dex is just always one step ahead of the other two, with quick wit, and biting barb and perhaps more than a few plates in the air at any given time. And with that, yes, Dex may have found himself on the other side of the law from time to time. Heck, he may even be on that other side now.
And that’s where you enter the scene! With this featured collaboration, you will help us develop Dex’s back story a bit more. Just what is Dex’s score? What has he been up to in the past? What is he up to now? Could Dex be a confidential informant? If so, do his fellow elders know? Or is there even more to it than that? In other words, with this collaboration, you will be helping us to further develop Dex’s own Hero’s Journey.
These are some of the questions that we invite you to consider and collaborate upon with us! We will collect some of your submissions and consolidate the same into a back story for Dex that we will ultimately publish on our website, and with that, begin to incorporate further into the Issue 3 script and beyond!
Featured Collaboration #7
Let’s Create a New Hero’s Journey!
Studio Card #14!
We close our featured collaborations for Issue 3 with some lighthearted fun and a wide-open creative space for collaborative development. This where you can essentially have as much creative freedom as your heart desires in collaborating with us. Indeed, with this final featured collaboration, we ask you to help us create an entirely new Hero’s Journey for a comic that is within a comic! Let us explain.
In our working manuscript of Issue 3, there is a contemplated scene that briefly shows Andre reading a comic and then stowing away that comic within his backpack. It is with this collaboration that we are:
1. Going to create the back story of that mock comic that Andre is reading –The Monahans!, and 2. Submit your own illustrated backgrounds for this mock cover.
As further background on this featured collaboration, it was during the development of Issue 2 of this project that one of our participating artists (Eric Nyamor) was separately commissioned to illustrate a mock comic cover for a family – the real Monahan family. And it also with this featured collaboration, that you can submit modified illustrations of the background for that Mock cover, one of which we will ultimately select to include for a panel in Issue 3!
An alternative background to the mock comic cover illustrated by Eric Nyamor. With this collaboration, we invite you to submit your own illustrated background to this mock cover., one of which will be included in Issue 3
In addition to updating the mock cover with any of your background art, we will also be taking submissions from you and participating youth to develop a corresponding Hero’s Journey storyline for this mock ”The Monahans” comic series, leveraging some of the concepts presented our earlier Hero’s Journey featured collaboration..
Ultimately, the collaborative premise here is that over time, Andre will refer to this fictional comic series – The Monahans! - as he wrestles with his own reality within the Back of the Yards comic series. But that all starts with your initial collaborations here!
Thank You!
That wraps up your Featured Collaborations for this round of Issue 3 collaborations. You can learn more about how to participate in each of these featured collaborations by visiting the corresponding Featured Collaboration Worksheets in Chapter 12 or accessing the Studio Card links on the project website.
And to help for further collaborative inspiration, we present a quick interlude by Len Kody in Chapter 11 on the power of examining one’s own Hero’s Journey, and the energy that unites us all in that regard.
Look for more information and related announcements, related scheduled Zoom workshops, and other comic updates on our website. And ultimately, your contributions to these Featured Collaborations will be documented and highlighted in Part 5 of these Project Chronicles coming in the winter of 2025/2026. Happy collaborating and thank you for your time, creative energy and consideration.
So now if you’d like to collaborate with us on any of these Featured Collaborations, just scroll down below and access any of the corresponding Studio Cards!