We all know them, the senior superlatives of the yearbook. A place where seniors can poke fun or give praise to their peers. It’s where a student’s quirky personality traits and original ideas are brought to the forefront through humorous titles and distinctive photos, and where they name one another “Most School Spirited” and “Most Dependable,” alongside the “Class Biggest Lead Foot” and “Teacher’s Nemesis.”
This has been a time-honored tradition for schools, reunions, and even work companies. It’s a great way to present someone with a light-hearted award that means something on a personal level. However, with all time-honored items there is one important thing to remember… they have an expiration date. There are only so many people you can give the coveted “Most Likely to Succeed” recognition before it starts to lose its luster. After all, they just named two other people the year before, and the year before that, and the year before that…
This year, when approaching your yearbook creation and seeking distinguishing senior superlative titles, open a book… a comic book that is. Like yearbooks, comics offer expression through images, text content, and graphics. There are various types of comic books that will serve to inspire creative, never-been-done-before ideas for your yearbook.
Comic books can be a great inspiration for creating fresh and new senior superlative ideas. Image source: Flickr CC Sam Howzit
These comic ideas can help display the characteristic culture that is your school. Much like your senior class, comics are filled with dozens of iconic, interesting, devious, and delightful characters. They have heroes, they have villains; they have leading stars and supporting characters. One great way to incorporate comic ideas is to use them to pump life back into your senior superlatives. You can do the same “most likely” section while relating all of the qualities back to those of comic book characters. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Most Likely to Play the Villain
- Biggest Nemesis
- Most Likely Damsel in Distress
- Most Likely to Be the Hero
- Biggest Do-Gooder
- Most Likely to Try and Take Over the World
- Most Likely to Save the World
- Super Couple
- Most Dynamic Duo
- Partners in Crime
- Most Likely to Solve the Case
- Most Likely to Get Caught Wearing a Cape & Tights
- Most Likely to Live a Secret Life
- The Underdog
- Biggest Daredevil
- Dual Personalities
- Most Likely to Have an Alter-Ego
- Most Aliases
- Mad Scientist
- Most Likely to Be in a Lab Experiment Gone Horribly Wrong
- Most Reformed Bad Guy (or Bad Gal)
- Most Likely to Kick Butt
You can take the superlative one-step further by incorporating diverse graphics and color patterns that are common in comics. There are several ways to achieve this.
You may want to go for the more retro look – with purposed pixilation and grainy dots. You could go for a harsher Sin City look, which has that gray-scaled “rainy” feel. Both of these looks could be achieved through fun Photoshop effects. You may want to take a simpler approach, by adding speech bubbles to use for the superlative titles and student names. You could also use some well-known comic book fonts in a rectangular box, for that relatable feel.
When it comes to the creating the images themselves, it could be fun to play out what that superlative is all about. For the “damsel in distress” you could do a photo shoot at local (unused) train tracks. Have the student lie down with rope around them, pretending to yell for help. You could even incorporate the hero into this shot, by having them appear and untie the ropes. Use the school to your advantage as well. For example, anything with a scientist or lab could be shot during chemistry class. You could also shoot straight on photos, but graphically add colorful/cartoony costumes, capes, and outfits for a comic book look.
How else can you bring the fun of comics book to your yearbook? Leave your ideas in the comment’s section below!
