Heartless creature

This is something else I've been working on – when I’ve had the time between studies...  It’s a first attempt at a graphic short story. It’s a very mixed up kind of thing though – not quite a story, not simply an illustration. So far there’s no narration and no real dialogue. It’s a little like a one-sided conversation and I feel like I’ve drawn in all the shrugs and silences I sometimes get as replies from the teenager who I’m drawing this for.

She’s eighteen and will soon be off to college so I wanted to give her a story to take with her – something that suggests a beginning to the chapters up ahead... But it also draws on some of the stories she’s told me, her memories, her fears and dreams, what we’ve talked about... These are her stories and perhaps that’s why I’m reluctant to put them into words. She tells them far better than I can...

But of course this also isn't her story – it’s only based on her experiences, and thoughts and feelings. And it’s also metaphorical so it’s not meant to be real. But I do want her to recognise something of herself in the character – an expression maybe, a stance, her school uniform – and places, friends... There should be something true to it after all.

This is the first panel. The main character is looking out of the photograph at a paper plane just beyond the panel as it flies away. I’m using paper planes to suggest real planes and flights taking people she loves away from her. This time it’s her mom. But they also represent all their hopes and dreams and aspirations.

I wanted the photograph to suggest that we’re looking back to when she was a clear-eyed child. But, in her black and white stripes, I feel like I’ve almost made her a prisoner of that memory..! Especially as it’s also my hand holding the photograph. It’s a good thing she can see out of the photo...

This is another panel. She doesn’t always look so empty and distant but she can’t feel (or taste) a thing here. 

Any comments and suggestions about my kind-of-comic would really be appreciated as I’m still figuring things out..! Will put up some more panels soon...