ASSIGNMENT: This selected comic is part of a larger body of work I have created for an independent study, in which I wrote, illustrated, and designed a compilation of autobiographical comics, illustrations, and prose pieces tentatively titled Twenty-Two & Alone. The aim was to reach a count of approximately 120 pages, including end pages, blanks, comics, title pages, etc. This project had been brewing for the last year before I approached faculty about using it as the basis for the independent study; it focuses on small vignettes of my struggles with mental illness, anxiety, friendship, body image, and loss. This particular comic was to deal with the feelings after I had self-harmed, and the sudden re-sealing of my emotions.

APPROACH: For this comic, I sought to arrange the panels and pacing in a more traditional strip format, while also playing with the idea of it bridging across the gutter of the book. I worked on each spread as a whole, rather than as individual strips that I would overlay on the spread later. The comic also follows a rather straightforward grid. The decision to work in greyscale was done to help keep things moving, while also pushing me to focus on contrast and balance within the work.

RESULT: Ocean Inside was a process in which I learned how to lead the viewer’s eye more directly, as I had to contend with the gutter of the book breaking the intended flow of the panels and the breaks in which I let imagery explode out of the framework. In this sense, I think I succeeded. I believe it communicates the growing pressure of bottling your emotions, the double-edged sword I found when I released them destructively, and I find it to be an interesting exploration of the strip format.