{"id":9947,"date":"2018-07-17T15:56:08","date_gmt":"2018-07-17T19:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/?p=9947"},"modified":"2019-01-11T00:05:37","modified_gmt":"2019-01-11T05:05:37","slug":"marvel-characters-by-adam-kubert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/labs\/marvel-characters-by-adam-kubert\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvel Characters by Artist Adam Kubert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/h2>\n

Using data\u00a0pulled from the Marvel Database API, I focused on all the different Marvel characters featured in issues\u00a0by artist Adam Kubert.\u00a0My network visualization in Gephi provides insights into\u00a0the body of work over Adam’s career at Marvel.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Marvel Developer Portal<\/p><\/div>\n

Inspiration<\/h2>\n

Looking at the example of connections amongst jazz musicians from LinkedJazz.org<\/a>, I had initially wanted to use the Marvel Database to create a similar chart of comic creatives. Each book, much like a jazz album, uses a group of creatives from a greater pool. Several creatives will work together over time on different books.\u00a0 After pulling the data, I decided to go in a different direction for this lab, and focus on the network of characters\/properties instead.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Network relationship between Miles Davis and John Coltrane.<\/p><\/div>\n

Process<\/h2>\n

Data Collection<\/h3>\n

The Marvel Database has an API where a developer can make calls containing certain parameters and get a JSON object in return. \u00a0Using Adam Kubert\u2019s Creator ID, I was able to bring up information on all the comic book issues he had worked on. \u00a0This information included the creative team, the number of pages and main characters to name a few. \u00a0I decided to focus on a social network of the characters he had worked on over the years. \u00a0He is most noted for his work on X-Men, especially Wolverine, and I felt it would be interesting to see a visualization of the character connections in Gephi.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Dataset in OpenRefine<\/p><\/div>\n

After placing the JSON object into Sublime, I then copied just the array that contained the issues and pasted it into OpenRefine. In this program, I reduced the rows to just the characters and issue number. I then deleted any one-to-one relationships in an effort to prepare it for R-Studio.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Console in R-Studio<\/p><\/div>\n

In R, I followed the directions for creating a weighted table with source and targets. This was the table that I would then bring into Gephi.<\/p>\n

Data Visualization<\/h3>\n

Importing the spreadsheet into Gephi I was able to create a visualization of the data. I ran statistics on average degrees, modularity and average path length.\u00a0 Using those values I was able to adjust the node size based on degrees and with modularity, able to show different groups through color. I worked through different layouts filtering the number the number of degrees.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Force Atlas 2 Layout of Character Network<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Fruchterman Reingold Layout of Character Network<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Adam Kubert’s Character Network<\/p><\/div>\n

Tools<\/h2>\n

OpenRefine.org – Editing datasets
\nSublime – Code\/Text Editor
\nR-Studio – Performing Permutation of Data
\nGephi – Creates Relational\/Social Charts<\/p>\n

Sources<\/h2>\n

Marvel Developer Portal<\/a><\/p>\n

Result<\/h2>\n

The resulting visualization showed not only which characters Adam Kubert worked with the most, but the different teams along with alternate universe storylines. The center of the visualization focuses on the X-Men (green) and then branches out from there into the Age of Apocolypse (teal)\u00a0 and Wolverine (orange) storylines.\u00a0 New Mutants (pink), Avengers\u00a0 (purple) and the Fantastic Four (blue-green) are colored differently.\u00a0 The Ultimate storyline exists as it’s own subset to the side in brown.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Network visualization of characters featured in Marvel comics by artist Adam Kubert.<\/p><\/div>\n

View interactive visualization here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Future Considerations<\/h2>\n

The chart gives a clear idea of which characters Adam Kubert works on more than others.\u00a0 I would still like to purse create a visual for an ego-centric network of creatives that work on Marvel properties with Adam Kubert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction Using data\u00a0pulled from the Marvel Database API, I focused on all the different Marvel characters featured in issues\u00a0by artist Adam Kubert.\u00a0My network visualization in Gephi provides insights into\u00a0the body of work over Adam’s career at Marvel. Inspiration Looking at the example of connections amongst jazz musicians from LinkedJazz.org, I had initially wanted to use…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":533,"featured_media":9972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[149,342],"tags":[39,207],"coauthors":[348],"class_list":["post-9947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-labs","category-networks","tag-gephi","tag-marvel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/marvelGephi_noLabels.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paBdcV-2Ar","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/533"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9947"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9984,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9947\/revisions\/9984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9947"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=9947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}