Creating Student Comics Inspired by Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis

Deceptively, graphic novels are much more complicated to make than they might look. This is what many sophomores in World Literature learned after attempting to create their own comics inspired by the unique style of Marjane Satrapi, the author of Persepolis, a graphic novel depicting her own childhood experiences growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.

A page from Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.

It is impossible to understand just how many seemingly mundane and tedious decisions go into making each individual panel, let alone each page. From the facial expressions of the characters and the scale of each component, to the use of speech bubbles and the size of the panel, every single decision requires intention.

For the assignment, Ms. Smith asked students to draw a comic (at least one page) to “Depict a time where you had an experience or realization that changed your perspective, a time when you learned something pivotal about the world around you.” Some sophomores choose to take a more personal approach, while others depicted more universal experiences like the January 6th, 2021 insurrection and the COVID-19 pandemic. Either way, each student was able to learn a lot about the extensive time and effort put into every graphic novel through this hands-on experience.

Here are some of the comics created by the sophomores (Class of 2024):

Comic By Anonymous

PHOTO BY ANONYMOUS

Comic by Acacia Blyth

PHOTO BY MS. SMITH

Comic By Kaya Long

PHOTO BY KAYA LONG

PHOTO BY KAYA LONG

Comic by Emily Atkins

PHOTO BY EMILY ATKINS

PHOTO BY EMILY ATKINS

Side Note: If you are looking for an enjoyable and evocative work of historical nonfiction (with pictures on every page), or simply an engaging graphic novel, I would definitely recommend Persepolis!