Open Research Comic
A mini-comic on open research practices
How the comic was made
Making the Comic
Making the comic was possible thanks to resources and tips shared by more senior artists. The comic script was drafted with the open access template from Greg Pack, with inspiration from the amazing Blambot by Nate Piekos. Blambot was also the creator of the font used in the comic (Milk Moustache), used under license permission.
The comic was drafted with pen or pencil and paper, inked and coloured in Procreate (Savage Interactive) with borders and lettering completed in Adobe Illustrator (Adobe, Inc.). The inking brush was a modified Elder brush created by artist Georg Graf von Westphalen. The cover image was made using chalk pastel and charcoal on cotton paper, also by Kelsey.
Acknowledgements
‘About Open Research’ and Ada the owl was created by Kelsey Bezaire and Dr Helen Gray. Kelsey was a PhD student in Behaviour Informatics at Newcastle University and Dr Helen Gray a Research Associate also at Newcastle University. The website was created by Steve Boneham, Open Research Training and Development Officer. Many thanks to Nicola Simcock, Research Culture Manager, for support and help in seeing this project through. Also thanks to Prof Lucy Asher for naming Ada and supporting both authors in the project, and Dr Rich Francksen for the owl facts. Members of the Discord Group Comic Creatives UK also provided artistic feedback on the pilot page.
Pins and stickers were printed by Pinfold Promotions and the print copy by Newcastle University Print Services.