These past few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of sketching to finalize the layout of the zine. I am in the process of making and coloring the final drawings. It has been a lot of fun so far and very generative to experiment with different styles and mediums. I’ve been experimenting with layering pencil and ink drawings with digital manipulations and abstract photography. Blending traditional 2D art mediums with the digital has reinspired my visual direction for the comic.
I’ve also been messing around with potential sculptural installations to display the comic, so readers can interact with the comic alongside and within recreated settings from the story. I want to bridge the gap between an individual reading experience and the physical world, and I’m looking forward to testing possible installations later this month.
I also rethought the scope of my comic and decided to treat this first volume as a sort of pilot episode introducing the central players of a much longer story. By narrowing the scope of the comic, I gain more freedom in visual storytelling, since the simplified story relies less on dialogue and narration. Plus, I’m able to dive more deeply into one specific aspect of mental health representation. I’ve also decided on a name: Deathpowers.
I’ve had a lot of fun planning out the next few volumes of this comic and the larger arcs and storylines I can build using the characters, motifs, and visual language I’m establishing in this first volume. I watched Undone, an animated show involving intergenerational trauma, psychosis, and time travel, which also inspired me in thinking about nonlinear ways I could grow the comic.
Aside from the comic, I’ve been organizing my research and beginning my final paper. I’m looking forward to continuing work on it throughout this month and making the video as well.