Tori Yama Literary Journal

This organization is unique because it isn't quite real. It was created as an online project for a Junior college student's Writing Arguments class. But if it was a legitimate literary journal, it would focus on literature with an emphasis in creative writing. This journal exists to explore the various mediums within the broad spectrum of literature. The goal is to touch on and argue their literary value and importance along with discussing elements that make up each medium. Educators, writers of "what is literature" type books, and people who have a deep and genuine interest in the literary field should find this journal interesting and informative.

The central focus of the journal for the months of April and May is to advocate that literary minds accept and acknowledge webcomics as a legitimate medium within literature. Carla Vangrove, the author of this issue's essays and articles, argues that leaving webcomics out of the literary field means dismissing an entire medium and the new elements it could potentially bring to literary studies.

The first step in making a medium more accepted and acknowledged is to teach others about how it fits within the literature field. In order to teach, the information must be written out and put out there for others to read. Carla argues that teachers of literature and writing would especially benefit from including webcomics and comics in their courses to broaden the spectrum of study as well as bring a new teaching tool into the educational environment.

The journal releases new issues every two months. When a new issue is released, the journal's website changes to reflect the new theme. The theme for April and May of 2011 is webcomics and how they fit into the literary spectrum.

This journal’s navigation bar should bring readers to various informative areas. For readers’ convenience, there is a ‘Comic Terminology’ page that can be referenced for terms used within articles or for the general purpose of learning a little bit about comics before delving into the articles themselves. The 'Home Page' is merely a brief introduction to Tori Yama Literary Journal and this issue's theme and featured writer/s. Essays and articles on the issue's topic can be found under 'The Journal', where a list of articles is available in chronological order for readers' convenience. The ‘Works Cited’ page applies to the entire web site collectively (including the articles), and may be referenced as needed. There is also a 'Contact Us' page in case our readers wish to get a hold of us.

An additional page with links to referenced complex narrative webcomics can be found at the end of the navigation bar if one wishes to explore the literary potential of webcomics for themselves.