When I write, I am not the greatest at looking at something and then try to gather what that said thing is trying to tell you. I believe that if the author/artist wanted you to know something they should come out with it instead of me trying to find it. With that being said, it easy to gather that this project might begin with a bumpy start.
When I saw this comic I immediately saw color and thought that it might be easy because I have history with symbolism. When I read the comic I quickly assumed that what the author was trying to say was as clear as day. However it did take me a while to find all the rhetorical appeals found in it. I was able to overcome this with other information we found in class and what I had read on the artist's web page.
As far as my actual essay goes, it was a bumpy road in the beginning as well. My original introduction and conclusion needed some major revisions because they are my weakness when it comes to writing an essay.
Since I used Luann as a guiding light for my essay, I changed it from, "When I read comics they were simplistic and great, what you saw is what you got, no hidden meanings to try and decipher; fast forward six years and a new age of comic has risen." to "When I read this comic it was simplistic and great, what you saw is what you got, simple jokes with great punch lines, no hidden meanings to try and decipher; fast forward six years and a new age of comic has risen." That way my audience only had to focus on one specific comic rather than all comics as a whole.
When I was peer edited I was told to maybe incorporate more color into the essay rather than right before my conclusion. So I changed my three-paneled breakdown from, "In the first panel it looks as if Jeffrey is yelling and trying to get a point across with his hands up to his face and open mouth, and the man in the corner is confused about what Jeffrey is saying or feels convicted by it." to "In the first panel (above) it looks as if Jeffrey is yelling and trying to get a point across with his hands up to his face and open mouth, and the man in the corner is confused about what Jeffrey is saying or feels convicted by it. The fact that the artist chose to use red could be a clue to what Jeffrey is feeling. Red is usually a symbol for passion, or in this case alarm, like a fire truck. He feels passionate about what he is going to say but is alarmed by his realizations." And the other two I changed in a similar way as well.
WP2: Rough Draft 2
WP2: Rough Draft 1
Statement of Purpose
Every Sunday my mother would go outside to bring in the weekly paper, Omaha World Herald, and the mail. My favorite part of this systematic process was the n
ewspaper aspect because of my delight in reading the notoriously entertaining section called: Comics. My poison? It was none other than Luann herself; a spunky teenage girl in the throws of hormonal imbalances, pesky brothers and less than informed parental units. When I read this comic it was simplistic and great, what you saw is what you got, simple jokes with great punch lines, no hidden meanings to try and decipher; fast forward six years and a new age of comic has risen. The comic I’ve chosen is called The Lord is My Nightlight by Jeffrey Rowland (below) from the website, overcompensating.com. Realizing this, I was able to 
create an argument that this comic was trying to make; perhaps your thoughts and your own knowledge can make you feel unsafe and that even if there is an explanation for what you are scared of your mind can still trick you into believing you’re not safe. Furthermore, when looking at this comic through a rhetorical lens and religious context one can find that “hidden meaning” and be able to “decipher” it to fully understand this artist’s masterpiece.
This comic begins with the man sitting up in bed, Jeffrey, screaming because he realized that at any moment he could be killed by a star, the sun, and its impending destruction and that “the very concept of safety is absurd because at any moment everything could just explode”, and
there is a man sitting in the corner that could be interpreted as the Lord because of the title of the comic and the halo like light around his head. The comic itself is called The Lord is My Nightlight; a nightlight is defined as “a small light source…placed for comfort…in indoor dark areas…(Nightlight)”. Using that definition one can ascertain that the “Lord” is there to comfort Jeffery, to quell his fears of impending doom, however, if you read the comic you find that he does no such thing. Aside from the nightlight aspect and looking at the conversation held between Jeffrey and the “Lord”, one can deduce that the “Lord” is almost like a parental figure in the comic and Jeffrey is his child. By reading the conversation between the two and looking at the different panels you see the “Lord” getting closer and closer to the bed and it makes the words he’s saying seem as though he is just saying them to get Jeffrey to lie back down and go to sleep; like any parent would do if their child woke up from a nightmare in the middle of the night.
The author’s name is Jeffrey and the main character in his comics is Jeffrey so it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to assume that the author has implanted himself in his very own creation. While perusing through his website I encountered some background on the author. There was a little section on the bottom o
f the page that said “I’ve read the bible three times and I stopped believing because it was just a book telling me what I can and can’t do.” With that information the last panel of the comic makes a lot more sense. Jeffrey is ending his tirade by saying, “Also there are people who make a lot more money than me that believe slavery should be legal.” Then the “Lord” tries to make things better by saying, “Would it make you feel better if I told you everybody gets to go to Heaven?” and Jeffrey replies with, “Not even a little.” After this short exchange it is evident that you can view this comic through a religious context. If you flip through the pages of the bible you will come across a passage in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 that lists those who will, in fact, not make it into Heaven:
9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
With this new found information it is not a wonder that he doesn’t feel any better. He has read the bible and knows the truth and knows that if he still believed in what it said than the “Lord” was indeed lying to him, and if the “Lord” can lie to him who else has been lying to him?
Knowing this, I was able to formulate a viable argument that this comic was trying to make that I had aforementioned; perhaps your thoughts and your own knowledge can make you feel unsafe and that even if there is an explanation for what you are scared of your mind can still trick you into believing you’re not safe. There are several examples in this comic that are in conjunction with my argument. Now, it may be common knowledge that it takes 20 to 30 billion years(CNN) before the Sun becomes a Red Giant and “will expand into a red ball and die, overwhelming Earth with the heat. Oceans will boil and evaporate, and other planets near the sun also will burn, leaving nothing but orbiting chunks of barren rock(CNN)” but it will not explode; however, with the knowledge Jeffrey has, and feels is correct, he believes he is faced with an unavoidable destruction. So Jeffrey believes that the Earth will die and his rationale behind it is that the Sun will explode; this “knowledge” he has does not make him feel safe. Also, in the last panel Jeffrey ends his tirade by saying, “And there are people who make a lot more money than me who believe slavery should be legal.” and the “Lord” retorts by saying, “Would it make you feel better if I told you everybody gets to go to Heaven?” and Jeffrey’s closing statement was, “Not even a little.” Jeffrey most likely replies that way because what kind of “Heaven” would allow people who want slavery to go there? And if you can own another human being and still get into Heaven, who else can just get in?
In the book, Compose, Design, Advocate, it states, “As you read, compare the written words in the captions to the drawings and what the characters say in the drawing. What do you learn from the captions that you don’t learn from drawings…and vice verse?(515)”. Looking back at the multi-paneled cartoon without the words you may view it differently. 
In the first panel (above) it looks as if Jeffrey is yelling and trying to get a point across with his hands up to his face and open mouth, and the man in the corner is confused about what Jeffrey is saying or feels convicted by it. The fact that the artist chose to use red could be a clue to what Jeffrey is feeling. Red is usually a symbol for passion, or in this case alarm, like a fire truck. He feels passionate about what he is going to say but is alarmed by his realizations.
In the second panel the green cat that was once clearly visible in the first panel is now almost fully out of the picture indicating that Jeffrey has repositioned himself to better communicate what he wants and you can gather that by his arms being out, palms up. In regards to color in this picture, the only color you see is the color on the characters and the bed Jeffrey is in. There isn't any color in the background indicating that the artist wanted you to only focus on whats happening in front of you.
In the third panel we see the completed movement the “Lord” was making. In the first panel we see him sitting in a corner which is evident by what seems to be his knees up to his chest, in the second he is leaned forward and moved closer to the bed and in the third panel we see him beside with his hand on the bed so the audience fully grasps what he is doing.
Also in the book Compose, Design, Advocate it touches on the importance of color and that color shows us quite a bit about a comic. In my comic the main characters, cat and bed are the only real source of color because the background is black; and the hues and saturation he used on the characters where bright. I believe that author did this because he wanted a visual hierarchy of Jeffrey, the “Lord” and then the cat, and because he made Jeffrey the biggest item in the first panel, he becomes the vector of attention.
With all that has been analyzed one realizes knowledge isn't always power and that, perhaps, this evolution of comics is not one that should be feared. The comics, such as the one I chose, are a great way to incorporate so much detail into such a small cartoon; thus providing an audience with a great source of entertainment but also education.
"CNN - Physicists describe grim end of the world - Jan. 15, 1997." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. Web. 12 Nov. 2009.
"Nightlight -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 10 Nov. 2009.
Wysocki, Anne Frances. Compose, design, advocate. New York: Longman imprints, 2005. Print.
