When it came to working on the extra credit assignment for this class, I knew that I would want to spend my time working on something of actual meaning and merit, as opposed to a disposable, slice-of-life kind of narrative. After reading through some of the novels that were assigned - Maus, Fun Home, Stitches - I realized that the closer a work was to being emotional true, the more it resonated with me. To that end, I decided to focus on a very deep, emotional issue from my own personal life: the death of my mother. Though it has been two years since her death, I have found that the grief I feel from it has a habit of morphing and changing, constantly restructuring itself. Even two years on, it still feels somehow "new" in certain ways. It is my belief that the circumstances surrounding her death - which were sudden, unexpected, and statistically unfair for a better lack of words - are what has given the grieving process an added longevity. That was something I wanted to explore here.
In terms of the actual structuring o the comic, I knew I wanted to use some form of minimalism. By paring down the use of color to only specific elements, I would give those things a kind of special power. When it came time to put the actual page together, I first wrote out of the script in word. Then, I opened up my art program (Manga Studio, a cheaper, more illustrator-friendly version of Photoshop), and began to place the panels and text. Once I had a general feel for how the flow of the page would go, I began to sketch in the art. After a couple of hours, with some minor post-production editing, the page was finished.
**note: if you're having trouble reading the text, right click on the image and open it in a new tab to see it at the full size **
I really liked your short comic, it was touching and brilliant.
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