So this is the first one of five pages in a short story I wrote for my masters, I’ll pop the next one up in a few days 🙂
TRANSCRIPT:
Panel 1:
Sam: (A person wearing a pale green, collared shirt and a medium grey vest, who is looking directly at the viewer. Eyebrows are raised and mouth is open, with upturned edges. One arm is bent up at the elbow, palm facing Sam’s face and fingers bent forward slightly.) I remember the first time I fell in love.
Panel 2:
Sam: (A person who is looking directly at the viewer with raised eyebrows and an open mouth, with very slightly downturned edges.) It was all the way back when I was called ‘Sarah’.
Background Sam: (A person who is looking directly at the viewer, with raised eyebrows and an open mouth, with teeth pressed together. Both arms are bent up at the elbow, one finger is pressed against Sam’s lips, the rest of the hand closed, and the other palm is open, facing the viewer and next to Sam’s mouth.) Ssshh! Don’t tell anyone!
Panel 3:
(This panel, and those following it are entirely drawn in black and white.)
(There is a caption filling roughly half of the panel, which reads:) I remember desperately fighting against it.
Younger Sam: (A person with an ear length fringe, who is facing the viewer, with eyes screwed shut and eyebrows pushed together.)
Â
Panel 4:
(There is a caption filling roughly half of the panel, which reads:) I remember the pain of what it felt like to know that how I loved was ‘queer’.
Younger Sam: (A person with an ear length fringe, who is facing the viewer, but looking down and to the side. The visible eye of Younger Sam is full of tears, and eyebrows are pushed together.)
Â
Panel 5:Â
(There is a caption filling roughly half the panel, which reads:) I was filled with Denial. Confusion. Shame.
(The background is white, and covered in black dots of various sizes. Younger Sam is drawn 3 times.)
Younger Sam 1: (A person wearing a white undershirt and a patterned long sleeve top, who is looking directly at the viewer. Eyebrows are raised and pushed together slightly, mouth is closed and small, with slightly downturned edges.)
Younger Sam 2: (A person wearing the same as Younger Sam 1, who is standing behind, and slightly to Younger Sam 1’s right, while facing the viewer but looking up and away from Younger Sam 1. Eyebrows are raised and mouth is closed, with downturned edges.)
Younger Sam 3: (A person wearing the same as Younger Sam 1 & 2, who is standing behind and slightly to Younger Sam 1’s left, while facing the viewer but looking down and away from Younger Sam 1. Eyebrows and eyelids are drooping down and mouth is closed, with downturned edges. Shoulders are slumped.)
Â
Panel 6:
Younger Sam: (A person wearing a white, collared shirt and a checked vest, who is sitting at a desk, facing away from the viewer. Arms are raised at the shoulders and bent forward at the elbows, forearms atop the desk. In one hand is a pencil, which is being used to draw a comic.)
(There are five more comic pages which look as though they could have been caught in a gust of wind that has blown them off the table and towards the viewer. The comic page that is nearest to the viewer has writing in one of its panels, which reads:) I remember writing a lot of angsty comics about it years later.
Off to a great start!
thanks!
I can’t wait for the next pages…. Being queer/trans definitely makes being a teenager unnecessarily complicated sometimes… I should tell you about my first crush sometime…
Yes, it’s been weird going back to really old angsty comics about it, but a bit cathartic too. I’d loooove to hear about your first crush!! You can email me if it’s not a story you want the internets to hear 🙂
Very interested in seeing where you’re going with this, and I’m very much impressed with your skills here. To use a cliche, it looks as if you’ve ‘kicked it up a notch’ or three.
Thanks! I am quite pleased with my efforts in this one too! I’ve been drawing HEEEEEAAAAPPPS lately, so it’s nice that the improvement is noticeable 🙂
The black and white comics are super. I like the shading.
Thanks! It’s been quite a fun process
Excited to see where it goes. Loving some good old black and white.
My first real crush went as such:
First, we were friends online. I think we were like 14. She came to visit me, and I crushed SO HARD. She returned the affection to an extent. She returned home and we long-distanced it for a bit, sort of. As soon as I planned my trip to visit her, she said she didn’t like me after all. Non-refundable plane ticket.
ugh. Brutal. Did you end up going??
I had to! It ended up being sort of okay, I got to cruise around a new city and enjoy some sights and her family was… strange, but inviting. There were a lot of tears on that trip, but I do not regret it.