As the Crow Flies
As The Crow Flies is a unique example of digital literature that relates well to the intended audience and brilliantly achieves its purpose.
This is a free webcomic, electronically accessed through a website, created in the United States by Melanie Gillman. The digital platform enables it to be shared and discussed by audiences across the world. Additionally, the online format allowed Gillman to continually add detail and update chapters, extending this text as they continued to create the story. The text has consistent features with other webcomics including the layout, structure and overall design. As The Crow Flies includes colour illustrations and written text (English). The story sensitively explores complex themes as it follows teenagers searching for self-identity and belonging while on a religious youth camp.
Gillman (cited in Carlson, 2017) states that this text was inspired by their personal experience of youth camps. They highlight that the purpose and motivation for the text was to promote and support people of colour and this has been successfully achieved through the careful character depictions and the relationships that they share. Gillman’s strength in portraying character perspectives, allowing reader’s to be completely immersed in their thoughts has been attributed to the success of As The Crow Flies (Oliver, 2017). This articulate piece of digital literature meets the readers’ needs, using natural dialogue and detailed visuals that capture and engage the reader.
Interestingly, few digital texts continue to use manual mediums for the creation of their content, opting for faster, easier digital alternatives. Gillman skilfully incorporates a distinctive illustration style, using coloured pencil drawings, making this text creative, deep and highly artistic. The author reflects that this slow process perhaps added years to the full release of the text (cited in Carlson, 2017). This unique approach of intriguing, coloured pencil illustrations is credited by many readers as a strength of As The Crow Flies.
In contrast to other digital texts created during the time of its origination, this webcomic explores queer relationships. It is suggested that Gillman perhaps paved the way for other texts to explore ideas around sexual orientation, particularly that of teenage characters. In the current digital world, these texts are becoming more readily available. The depictions of such characters are a notable strength of this webcomic as the visuals that Gillman has created emphasises character’s detachment from themself, others, and their surroundings. This encourages the reader to become completely immersed and gain awareness of the real-world issues that arise, promoting strong connections with the text and beyond.
The intended teenage audience connects with the text through relatable content including character struggles. It is suitable (but not limited to) any youth who are establishing their identity, their sexual orientation or exploring different faiths. The text also introduces characters from different backgrounds and genders, promoting strength for minority groups. The story uses both obvious and subtle examples to enable readers to understand the unconscious bias that minority members of the community face, including exclusionary behaviour. Gillman crafts this text in such a way that it strengthens the reader’s own empathy, esteem and identity, another reason for As The Crow Flies’ long-term success.
McGeehan, Chamber and Nowakowski (2018) note that powerful digital literature will take advantage of features of the digital world, beyond what is possible in print. Through this webcomic, Gillman has barely achieved this with limited inclusion of multimedia features or interactivity. This text remained current beyond its initial release, receiving regular updates until December 2017, thus allowing for the inclusion of future-focused design elements. The use of sound or other interactive features may have propelled this as an outstanding digital text.
This digital text is still well worth reading and is freely available to readers with internet access. The digital features of the webcomic do not distract the reader from the storyline (as McGeehan, Chamber and Nowakowski, 2018 note is a key feature of digital texts). It is highly recommended as it is user friendly and easily accessible on various devices. As The Crow Flies is supportive of the way young people learn to read and McGeehan, Chamber and Nowakowski (2018) note this is an essential aspect for successful digital literature.
There has been limited issues of controversy surrounding this text. It may be worth reviewing before its inclusion in some religious settings due to characters questioning Christian identity and inclusion. This text is appropriate and beneficial for all teens. It would be useful for parenting teenagers who are exploring their identity, whether that be ethnicity, religion, sexual preferences or otherwise. The story and visuals provide deliberate opportunities for self-reflection which would support this process. It is a useful webcomic for upper primary or high schools to teach self-esteem, identity, history concepts or visual art inspiration.
As The Crow Flies has been widely well received and is highly recommended. This long running, thoroughly engaging digital text promotes the reader to make change for the betterment of self, others and the environment.
References:
Carlson, J. (2017). Interview with Melanie Gillman of as the crow flies. Comics worth
reading. https://comicsworthreading.com/2017/05/26/interview-with-melanie-gillman-of-as-the-crow-flies/
Gillman, M. (2012). As the crow flies. [Webcomic]. Melanie Gillman.
https://www.melaniegillman.com/comic/01-25-2012/
McGeehan, C., Chambers, S. & Nowakowski, J. (2018). Just because it’s digital,
doesn’t mean it’s good: evaluating digital picture books, Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 34:2, 58-70. https://doi.org/10.1080/21532974.2017.1399488
Oliver, A. (2017). As the Crow Flies – Melanie Gillman’s critically acclaimed YA
webcomic exploring gender, sexuality and marginalisation comes to print via iron circus. Broken Frontier. https://www.brokenfrontier.com/gillman-crow-flies-iron-circus/
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