My first reaction to this is, "this seems really familiar." This comic seemed like a neat little summary of our class minus the technical stuff. So basically its a giant hook, showing the great appeal of radio. At least that's what it seems like to me. I like how they go through how they make stories and all of that, but I really enjoyed the blurbs that cut in between the regular story. I found them to be super helpful for someone who is genuinely interested in getting into radio, or even someone who just wants to do this type of stuff for fun at home. Its true this doesn't delve into much of the technical stuff we've done in class, which has been some of the most helpful things we've done and why I can't say that this comic is a summary of the class. But at the same time, the extremely technical stuff is the stuff that would scare some people away pretty quickly.
I always find it interesting how the story structure of radio works, and I think Ira did a very good job of explaining a general structure to radio stories, and then explaining why this way works. Its true that in most other mediums, blatantly stating the point at the end is almost an insult to the media consumer. Points and meanings are supposed to be more subtle. But in radio it works. It just works. I also really agreed with one quote that said, "radio is a very visual medium." Or something to that regard. It was interesting to see the contrast of the story the lady was telling, and then how he would get her to describe everything. And even in this comic form, I could tell how much more complete the story was. This bit just made a lot of good points that we've gone over in class, including a lot of good techniques for interviewing (some learned in class, some learned by experience already).
Overall this was a very engaging introduction to how things are done at 'This American Life,' and a possibly persuasive tool for getting someone to join radio. I enjoyed it a lot.
Josh Hernandez
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