Visual Arts + Tech

Aidan Minnihan

Dummies is a short comic book focused on a hobbyist ventriloquist on the cusp of college. Throughout the narrative, across flashbacks and scenes in the present, the protagonist reflects on how the act of bringing her puppet to life helped enrich her life, coming to terms with just how much the hobby and her puppet mean to her. Puppetry is an artform with a long history that stretches into the present day, yet when the actual act of puppeteering is portrayed in fictional media, it is rarely depicted in a positive light. The overall goal of Dummies is to make the reader empathize with a character whose life is made better by being a puppeteer, providing a new perspective on the long-lasting artform.