Goodbye March
Hello April
Hello.
This one is hard to write, don’t know where to start. I started my new job, which has been a refreshing challenge so far… refreshing in the sense that I’m having some difficulties… but I know it’ll work out… I think I know… It’ll be good…
I was also SOOOO busy drawling. I was drawling every night for hours, finishing up my most recent “memory” episode! I’ll elaborate later in this newsletter. Newslater.
These past few weeks, I have been pretty dedicated to my career and drawling so I don’t have many personal updates…
Except Yvonne made this bomb ass fucking meal that nourished me deep into my bones holy shit. She also made this chicken noodle soup from alcohol that was oh so delicious, I wish to eat it in my dreams every night.
Memories
I posted the 6th episode of my “memories” series last Wednesday! You can watch it here:
This episode was written by my dear friend Shun, who recalls a moment when her mom, in a desperate rage, uses an unconventional method to teach her dog, Gon, to stop biting people. It’s such a funny and cute memory, and I was honored to draw it. I encourage you to watch it before I go into the details.
For the last episode, I highlighted some thoughts about the process and a few readers expressed that they loved that! So I will do the same today.
I had particular difficulty with this episode because I had to draw a dog. IDK why but drawing dogs has always been a challenge for me. They be having a lot of unique shapes in their build that are hard to draw consistently across different angles. I spent hours and hours trying to get the dog’s face right! Like for example, in this panel:
I had to draw this a billion times. Like these are four of the countless dog drawings that didn’t make the cut:
They just didn’t seem right.
I made a deliberate choice to be as expressive as possible with this memory. My style lends itself to be expressive by default, but I tried to dial it up for this story because of the emotions involved. There’s anger, frustration, and spite so I played into that as much as possible.
These were easily my favorite panels to draw. So dramatic!
The episode ends with a very tight and satisfying resolution: the dog learns to stop biting.
I struggled when brainstorming how to represent this conclusion. Do I show Shun and her family at peace? Do I just show the dog smiling? Do I show Shun’s mom rubbing her face on the dog to show that he’s harmless?
After thinking on it for a while, I came to realize that Gon was probably a little scared and shocked by the whole exchange.
In the earlier panels, I drew Gon with indifferent, cold, almost bored facial expressions, demonstrating that he knew he could do whatever he wanted. By the end of the story, I flipped it and drew him with more emotion. In doing so, I was able to showcase the shift in power dynamic.
After showing Shun the final video, she expressed to me that she loved the panel above. Apparently I drew her childhood living room pretty accurately.
I could tell that when she saw this, she felt a flood of memories and nostalgia and that really humbled me. I was thankful that my work could induce such a warm reaction from her. It meant so much to me.
This panel is my favorite. It’s so funny and stupid. She’s holding him like a sandwich. Also, it was a uniquely appropriate opportunity to draw an asian person eating a dog which I think it hilarious.
I had a great time drawing this. Thank you to Shun for trusting your heartfelt and hilarious memory with me.
Printing with Bad Student!
I’m dabbling into RISO printing!!!!!!! I wrote in a prior Pizza Pages that I was printing with Bad Student, a RISO studio based in Queens. We’ve been printing a zine together that I’m SOOOO excited to complete!
This will be my second zine and will feature most of the comics I’ve drawled since I moved to Brooklyn. It features work from 2022-2025!!
I’m so so so so so stoked about it, here’s a sneak peek:
Rex
This week, I recommend you read Invincible. I’ve been watching the cartoon since it aired, but haven’t read through the comics until recently and DAMN IS IS GOOD. The art is some of the most beautiful art I ever did see. The coloring alone…
Please read it and then email me, text me, call me, to talk about it because I think Yvonne is getting sick of me going “HOLY THIS IS SO GOOD INVINCIBLE IS CRACKED”
Thanks for reading. May all your dreams come true.