This is a school project for an art history class from my first year of high school. It reminds me of how much I do not know how to go easy on myself. We were supposed to make something that referenced a few art works we had studied during the course. Pretty much the teacher just expected us to make our versions of a few famous paintings, or be inspired by them somehow. Something that could be finished in about four lessons.
At that age I cared little about what the course was about, if I could make a comic for it, I would make a comic. So, I drew a 50+ page, “Alice in Wonderland” type of story about a trip through the history of art. Obviously class time was not nearly enough hours to make this, so, given that I had school until 3 pm and dance classes or choir practise after that on most weekdays, I stayed up pretty much a whole week drawing this at home. But I’ve always loved that rush, it’s so rewarding in itself, even if I don’t get much sleep.
My drawing has improved some from my earlier comics, it’s not as shaky, and not everything is anatomically horrifying. The use of screen tones could be better, since I switched from traditional screen tones to digital ones after a few pages, and it’s my first time trying those out. The story is more coherent than my earlier ones, but definitely not devoid of clichés. I do think it’s pretty funny and sometimes cute, which was what I was going for, so, it’s not completely worthless.
This story was translated years ago, and I didn’t know how to translate the sound effects back then. :’D
I thought Mimosa was a cute name, and I had wanted to use it for a while. Had no idea it was also a drink.
A funny thing about this comic is that I always find myself having to explain that this is not autobiographical in any way. I never had a motivation problem at school, I was never a part of any cool kids’ group, I never would’ve had the guts to talk to a teacher like Mimosa does, and I never would’ve worn anything as short as her pants. Why do people assume that because she likes to paint, and I like to paint, she must be essentially me? Many people like to paint, and it wouldn’t have made any sense for me to make this comic about someone who had no interest in art.
I thought this joke was hilarious back then.
I wanted an excuse to draw shiny effects. 😀
My perception of historical Egypt was based on the animated movie Prince of Egypt.
This is the most clichéd scene in this comic, but I thought it was funny. ^^’ And well, I don’t think my use of manga techniques is that bad.
Also, I just really wanted to try to draw Mona Lisa.
So… apparently I realized, that Mimosa immediately being inspired to change her life was a simplistic solution, and I figured that making a joke out of it, would excuse it. Very typical of my stories at that age. Whenever something is kinda clichéd or too easy, make a joke out of it! (No, it does not excuse it.)
So. Apparently this is the kind of fantasy story where something weird happens and the main character never thinks twice about it, so let’s not latch on to that.
I think the Plato reference is an okay idea for a fantasy comic, but it would have been better if it was explored further. I do remember thinking that while I was making the comic too, but I was running out of time, which is part of the reason the ending is so rushed. But it’s probably not the whole reason, and I was still kind of treating this idea as a plot device rather than something to be explored.
My main issue with this story is the “solution” (the lack of it) to Mimosa’s problems. Basically, this comic makes it look like all her problems are due to bad attitude that can be magically fixed with a bit of perspective, and afterwards she’ll happily go to her math class and have no problems.
The problem is that this comic provides no background to how long she has been tired and unmotivated, and what the reason for it is. It could be anything, and it could have gone on for a long time, as well as a short time. She could be neurodivergent, she could have executive functioning difficulties, she could have depression, she could have anything that cannot be magically fixed with a change of attitude.
Okay, so that was not what I was going for with this comic. The story is about a character who has had a sudden slump in school work and I thought the reason was probably something like she got one bad grade in a subject she’d had no previous difficulties in, and up until that point school work had been relatively easy for her, so she wasn’t prepared for it. She didn’t know how to bounce back, so it started to affect everything except painting, which is where she escaped to.
The problem is, this isn’t in the comic. The story could be about anyone with very different circumstances, and if someone with, let’s say ADHD read this comic, in their head it would most likely reinforce the idea they’re already subjected to: that everything they have difficulties in, is their own fault.
So, yeah, first of all, that’s what I would change if I drew this comic again. I would make the main character’s circumstances clear.
But, the second thing is that even in Mimosa’s case the solution should be a little bit more nuanced. An attitude change isn’t usually so easy when you need it. It could only be possible after she has addressed the fact that she was shaken by her “failure”, and even though a dialogue with her “inner self” or something is not a bad idea, I would execute it differently, if I drew this comic again. It would be more beneficial to address the specifics of what had happened to her, rather than just make the blanket statement that she has a tendency to make things seem bigger than they are. Even if she’s prone to being dramatic, there’s a reason for that, and it deserves to be addressed.
Yeah, alright, it’s mostly a humour comic and there wouldn’t be space to discuss everything in depth, but it would at least need a nod in that direction, like maybe Mimosa went to talk to a teacher she trusted, and was encouraged to study harder again, after being shown that a few bad grades didn’t define her?
I also don’t like that absolutely everything went Mimosa’s way by the end. Suddenly Nina doesn’t care much about the other girls after all. It feels weak. But I guess I didn’t think the story would be able to take a more complicated solution. Oh well.
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