“About Robb.” JumpStart Comics by Robb Armstrong, www.robbarmstrong.com/robb-armstrong-biography. Accessed 16 Sept. 2023.

Earlylife:

Robbin (Franklin) Armstrong was born on the 4th of March 1962, in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. He is an African-American cartoonist and is best known for creating ‘Jumpstart’. JumpStart’s positive depiction of African-American life is refreshing. When he was three years old, he found his vocation for drawing and fell in love with the comics, Peanuts by Charles Schulz. He was so captivated by the stories that were told through simple but detailed drawings, and for the next few years, he started to perfect his own rendition of Charlie Brown. Drawing did not come easy to Robb at all, but with steady work and a prevalence he mastered drawing the Charlie Brown and Snoopy characters. He also started to draw characters from the Flintstones and more characters from the TV. Armstrong’s mother, Dorothy Armstrong, she was a seamstress and even though she struggled to raise five children on her own in a rough neighbourhood, she always praised her son’s creations and made it known to enrol him in private art classes. When Armstrong was young, his older brother died at 13, this was after a terrible subway accident. After this, his mother was distraught and moved his family to Wynnediled. Armstrong won a scholarship to a private school Shipley. That was recently transitioning from all girls to starting to enrol boys. This was a major culture shock for Armstrong culturally and academically. He was one of the only African-American kids attending the school. Due to Armstrong being one of the only coloured children at the school the neighbourhood kids used to shun in and call him “white” for attending the private school. Due to the pressure from the school and his friends, he ended up failing seventh grade and had to repeat the year. This is when he really turned to art as an outlet to get away, the kids in his school praised his work and knew he was talented.

Inspiration:

He drew inspiration and credit from a former teacher Chris Wagner, and he thanked Wagner for helping him grow artistically. While at school he started to recreate comic superheroes such as The Hulk. She really pushed him to think of his own characters with his own concepts and his stories. This quote really stuck out to him of what she said, “She got to me, and I started to understand the creative process at a young age”. When Armstrong had a break from school he met the political cartoonist Signe Wilkinson she allowed Armstrong to shadow her as she worked, she really helped Armstrong to be more expressive and develop his style, everything that has happened in Armstrong’s life has made him better. Wilkinson recalls only being a few years older than Armstrong was. Wilkinson saw years ago that Armstrong was great and would do great things and that he did. At the age of 17, he became the Philadelphia Tribunes’ first client as they had no comics. After graduating from Shipley, Armstrong attended Syracuse University. His first year in college was not the best because, during his first year, his mother died of cancer at the age of 49.

Schooling :

When Armstrong was in Syracuse he put all his energy into a comic named Hector. He created it for the schools newspaper The Daily Orange. He Started this while he was a fresher, he later became the art director of the newspaper. The Story of Hector was a cynical, lazy kid who was accompanied by Meatball and Julias; who was a dog with human ears. Due to the story line, when the characters did not work outside of the college he spent the next four years rewriting it. Armstrong knew how to push himself with is earlier years and due to this, The newspaper helped him to push himself with his creativity and with his ideas mentally. While he attended Syracuse he studied Advertising and fine arts. When Armstrong was young he had a job at a local newspaper for advertising in Philadelphia. As I said Armstrong had many influences such as Schulz, who he thought of as a hero. This where he got his passion for comics and drawing. In 1994 as part of the animated television special “You’re in the Super Bowl”. Schulz gave one of his black characters the surname, after Armstrong.

Jounrney to Jumpstart:

When Armstrong left college, he reshaped Hector into Jumpstart . Jumpstart was the chronicles of the lives of the Cobbs family. They were a black family living in Philadelphia, the family Joe a city cop, Marcy a nurse their daughter Sunny a girl wonder, JoJo who was there son who aspires to be president and twins Tommi and Teddy “who have been communicating together since the womb”. The strip consists and swirls around the family, grandparents work, peers and management and of course the Philly cheese steak sandwiches. This comic explores the ordinary moments of the family and their lives and trails. This helps to reveal their failures and successes and the heart, joy and wisdoms of their lives. In 2010 some of Armstrong work was featured in the Original Art of the Funny Papers exhibition at Syracuse University’s XL Projects gallery in Armoury Square, Armstrong was also awarded an honorary doctorate from Pennsylvania’s Holy Family University in 2012.

A few months before he became syndicated a former editor gave him his idols number, Morris Turner an African American cartoonist who created Wee Pals, this. Was the first of a racially integrated cartoon strip. His look soon changed because in October 1989 Armstrong became syndicated with the United Feature Syndicate. “I had actually started sending out my work to syndicates when I was still in college but getting a comic strip syndicated is extremely difficult. It’s like becoming a poet. It’s like really crazy to aspire toward making a living in this particular way,” The comic appeared in around 69 papers within six months of its launch. Since the launch there has been around 10,000 comics have been created. Since 2018 it has been syndicated in over 300. newspapers throughout North America. Including papers, from The Boston Globe. In 2020 Armstrong. Jumpstart revolves around the trials and tribulations of a middle-class black family in Philadelphia, which is made up of a city police officer and a nurse who has four children.

His first professional gig was when he created “JumpStart “April on 1989. It quickly became syndicated in 1990 by the Universal Press Syndicate. “Jumpstart” is a humorous, that revolves around his life. The theme of this comic is all about family, relationships and various social issues. He has been celebrated in many ways from the genuine depiction of ups and downs. He has the ability to infuse humour into everyday situations. He has received recognition and accolades for his work. His comic has experienced various developments in his comic. The biggest changes in the comic have been the characters. The characters have changed by growing to reflect real-life children’s experiences. Such themes have changed as they address social issues. His artistic style has evolved over time it has become more refined and detailed. Armstrong has developed his signature style through a combination of personal experiences.

It is a unique combination of personal experiences cultural insights and a deep understanding of what makes the humorous and relatable content. Armstrong has been known for being philanthropic, he has been a speaker known for sharing his insights such as creativity, and the power of storytelling.  He as talks about motivation and keynote speeches and how to overcome challenges. He is known for his work in the field of education. He promotes literacy and education, and he has donated time to various programmes. Armstrong’s work extends from just his work, to his talents and influences to make a very positive impact in many ways, what makes him remarkable is his dedication to education and his ability to give back to the community that he is a part of.

To sum up everything that has been said so far, Robb Armstrong was awarded a scholarship to attend Shipley school. This made him more confident in being an artist, During his senior year in high school he attended a three-week internship. With Wilkinson. He was syndicated in 1989 at the age of 27. Unlike other people he still draws his strips by hand as he feels more dynamic. His comics focus on truths about his life and all ages and race. And in 2022 he won the Arents Award it is the highest alumni honour.

Robb Armstrong TED talk

 

DIFFERENCES:

• There are many differences from creating this visual then the exhibit, I found it a lot easier to navigate how to use the timeline. As you had the information already there and you just needed to fill the information into the boxes. A virtual exhibit is a platform for where you can display information it can include all forms from media to text. Where on the other hand a timeline is a format to represent events in chronological order. You can see a line of events in a linear format.

Comic strip profile

 

This strip is made up of three scenes with only two panels. They are joking about customising the names of the ice creams, thinking he will be able to keep the truck. This strip has very bright colours and is very minimal, but you know what’s going on, there are many facial expressions. You can also see the comics stamp at the bottom right. Two speech bubbles can be seen in each panel of this comic, and it’s fascinating to note that text takes up the majority of the panel space. How many ice cream containers there are in the first panel is another thing to note. and in particular the simple expressions. Despite the lack of detail in the characters’ faces, he does an excellent job of capturing the illusion of a facial expression. As you can see from one of Armstrong first comic that he created while in college his style has not changed that much. It has only got better with the development of the characters. But he has the not changed writing

 

Wikidata Profile

The Wikidata profile of Robb Armstrong includes details about his life and career, but it omits material about his early years, which I believe should be included because it helped shape the cartoonist he is today. I believe that the internship he completed should be highlighted because it is an interesting aspect of his career.  The next section discusses the languages he speaks, and I was intrigued to learn that he spoke Spanish, which I had no idea he did. It is fairly brief and omits his work prior to becoming a cartoonist. Moreover, there is a copyright tag that he uses when he completes his work.

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7340766

 

 

TimelineJs:

timeline src=”https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G8X9YhKrjHjknHnUiJJlcjo5ubCZAiAja0F76ZXyvEA/edit” width=”100%” height=”650″ font=”Default” lang=”en” version=”timeline3″

The biography of Robb Armstrong, an extremely gifted African-American cartoonist who created the comic Jumpstart, is shown in this timeline. This is a timeline showing what he has accomplished for being so young. He was born in the early 1980s. especially considering how quickly his comic was chosen for syndication. This timeline enables us to see Armstrong’s route to success. Since his comic is partly based on his life and the accolades he has received, it includes every detail of his life, from the time of his birth to other comics he has created and a brief account of his personal life. It demonstrates Armstrong’s commitment and how Jumpstart evolved over the years to become the comic it is today. There are plenty of noteworthy things to say about Armstrong, like the fact that he struggled with drawing at first but eventually became proficient with patience and hard work. When Armstong couldn’t get “Hector” syndicated, he continued with it after graduating and eventually started “JumpStart.” To maintain a dynamic feeling in the artwork, he continues to draw his comic strip by hand. His own family, ordinary interactions, and chance talks are where he draws inspiration and humour. His accomplishments are also highlighted in this timeline; the most noteworthy being that he was syndicated within six months after the debut of his comic strip. While there are several highlights in Armstrong’s work, the main one is that he gained recognition for his efforts and his first.

Student Bio:

Emily Murphyis an exchange student at the University of Richmond. She is a visiting student from Dublin, Ireland.  She is joint majoring in rhetoric and communications and Geography. She has thoroughly enjoyed the digital humanities course, and I have loved incorporating all my courses together and linking them together. She would love to pursue a career in Media and do an internship with a major media company. She would also use everything she learned from her courses and put them into practice especially her discussions from digital humanities. She also really enjoyed researching her cartoonist Rob Armstong, and expanding her knowledge on comics.

Works cited:

Hillinger, Charles. (27 January 1991).  “Jumpstart Creator is Beating the Odds” The Los Angeles Time,

Walker, Julia (14 October 2020). “Cartoonist Robb Armstrong reminisces time at SU, discusses new book”. The Daily Orange.

“About Robb.” JumpStart Comics by Robb Armstrong, www.robbarmstrong.com/robb-armstrong-biography. pulp_new. “Cartoonist Robb Armstrong Reminisces Time at Su, Discusses New Book.” The Daily Orange, 15 Oct. 2020, dailyorange.com/2020/10/cartoonist-robb-armstrong-reminisces-time-su-discusses-new-book/.

pulp_new. “Cartoonist Robb Armstrong Reminisces Time at Su, Discusses New Book.” The Daily Orange, 15 Oct. 2020, dailyorange.com/2020/10/cartoonist-robb-armstrong-reminisces-time-su-discusses-new-book/.

Axelrod, Jim. “The Surprising Story behind Franklin, the First Black ‘Peanuts’ Character.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 2 Aug. 2018, www.cbsnews.com/news/the-surprising-story-behind-franklin-the-first-black-peanuts-character/.

Woods, Abby. “Robb Armstrong Cannot Be Stopped.” Cue The Culture, 24 Sept. 2022, cuetheculture.com/robb-armstrong-cannot-be-stopped/.

“Why Not Go to Work in Your Underwear Just like Me? Robb Armstrong at Tedxdrexelu.” YouTube, YouTube, 10 June 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4zRgt1vqSU.