2011 draws near! I’m most excited because it means I’ll be Graduating from CCS in a few months! While I love the school and my time here, I’m looking forward to getting out into the world! Before that can happen, however, I need to finish my thesis, which brings me to the main event of this blog!

For my CCS thesis, I’m doing a 72 page, full color graphic novel. “Capek,” as it is titled, takes place in space where humans and robots have been feuding over planetary territory for many years. Capek, a small salvage robot, finds a human baby on the Great Belt, a string of space debris that psychically divides the human and robot planets from each other. Ignoring the Robot Council’s orders to leave the child to die in space, Capek decides instead to travel to the human planet and find its family.

Capek and baby Rusty.

I’m trying to tackle a number of issues in this piece, chief among them the concept of humanity. Technology is advancing rapidly, and we all know that machines will someday be able to think as well as we do. But can they ever FEEL the same way we do? Does humanity end with humans, or can machines think with their hearts as well?

I’ve never done anything this long before, which has been challenging from a storytelling perspective. I’ve broken up the book into three acts, which has helped it seem less intimidating. I expect to be done with the thumbnails and script in the next few days, then I’ll start producing pages! I’ll have updates on my progress (and maybe some samples!) soon!