Thoughts on Comics and Illustration (Patreon)

This is probably my favorite barioru comic I've ever made.

My fanworks ended up getting a lot more attention than I expected, so secretly, I was kind of hoping someone would ask me something like, "How do you make your comics?" or just ask me anything about making comics in general.

But, of course, that never happened...

So I thought, well, nobody asked, but maybe if I write about it anyway, someone might read it. So here are some of my thoughts.

Before I start, I should probably say that I'm not particularly talented at writing, and I'm not even going to properly organize this before posting it. (I don't really read essays or this kind of writing very often, either.) So please don't expect anything professional or profound from this.

To me, comics are something that come out of me when I just can't hold something in anymore.

That probably sounds like I'm saying something along the lines of "Soccer is murder to me," so let me explain.

What I mean is that I don't really draw comics simply because I want to draw a comic.

You know how fan artists sometimes talk about suddenly being possessed by divine inspiration? Unless that happens to me, I don't draw comics.

Comics I force myself to make aren't very interesting. And honestly, when I read them afterward, I can always tell which ones I forced myself to make. (I'm talking about my own comics here, not anyone else's.)

Illustrations, or drawings that are simply focused on characters, are easy for me. So the easiest things for me to draw are solo character illustrations or couple illustrations.

The hardest things are drawings that involve text.

And among things that involve text, NSFW art is probably the easiest.

NSFW art doesn't necessarily need context. It just needs to be hot...

Honestly, even if I'm not turned on by it (I've never once gotten turned on by my own NSFW art...), if someone else gets even a little turned on by it, I consider it a successful piece of NSFW art.

Anyway, the reason I'm talking about all this is because there are basically two things I need before I can churn out a comic:

Something I absolutely cannot keep inside + words that come to me along with it.

If I try to hold it in, I feel like I'm going insane...

So I have no choice but to get it out of my system by making a comic. Almost like jerking off.

And once I've finally released the comic into the world, I somehow experience both post-nut clarity and a "HOLY SHIT, MY COMIC IS SO GOOD!!!" phase at the exact same time...

Anyway. I should probably actually talk about comics now.

When I'm drawing a comic, I don't think the artwork itself is that important.

What determines everything, to me, is the text.

If I had to use a metaphor, I'd say the drawings are the fork and spoon, while the text is the actual main course.

To explain why I think this way, I have to talk a little about the time I was preparing to apply to Korea National University of Arts.

I used to attend an art academy to prepare for the entrance exam, and one of the most important things they taught me about comics was that your visual storytelling should be strong enough that someone could understand the story even if all the text were removed.

So for several months, I forced myself to try to convey emotion without using text.

It didn't go very well.

And eventually I quit the academy...

For me, what you're supposed to feel from a comic isn't really the drawings themselves.

It's the overall context, what the creator is trying to say, and then the words that hit hard enough to drive all of it home.

With an illustration, obviously, the drawing itself is what you're supposed to experience.

But comics aren't like that to me.

In one way, that's reassuring.

In another way, it makes me anxious.

Because it means I can't just compensate for everything with pretty drawings. I need to take in a lot of things, think about a lot of things, and actually have something to say.

And honestly...

Doing all of that just because I want to make some fan comics sounds like way too much work.

I'm not particularly interested in becoming an original creator. (Though if someday something comes into my life that I truly, genuinely cannot contain, I'd happily make an original work about it.)

For now, all I really need is somewhere to release all the things I can't contain about the characters and ships I love.

I don't need to become Kant just to draw fan comics.

If there's anyone reading this who wants to make comics but feels like they can't—if such a person exists—I think you should just focus on getting across whatever it is that you want to say.

Because in the end, I think a good comic is only complete once it reaches someone.

Even if there's something wonderful inside you, if you want it to reach another person, you have to draw it.

You have to write it.

I guess that's how you end up becoming one of those insufferable Art People...

As for what comics influenced me, I honestly can't remember very clearly.

I've just consumed all kinds of stuff over the years. My favorite manga artists are Osamu Tezuka and Nobuyuki Fukumoto (...) so apparently my taste is mostly old-man manga anyway.

I basically don't read webtoons.

They're not fun to me, and they don't do anything for me.

I think most of my inspiration actually comes from music.

(Not even obscure indie bands or anything. Mostly just completely normal Vocaloid songs...)

I hope I don't lose the love I currently have for my favorite ship.

I love the comics I've made.

I want to read my own comics forever and ever.

And I think that as long as I keep feeling that way, I can probably make one comic a day.

My New Year's resolution was simply not to stop drawing, and so far, I've been doing pretty well.

I hope I can keep making things for a long time to come.

Over time, the way I think about illustration has changed a lot too.

At first, I thought illustration was even less fun than making comics—something that just ate up a lot of time. But as I gradually changed, I started to realize that making illustrations can actually be fun too.

It's not easy to express the relationship between two people through a single image.

But, well... the more I kept drawing, the more I started to feel like I could actually do it.

I still prefer making comics to illustrations, but lately I've been thinking that maybe I don't want to give up on illustration completely after all.