Thought processes and considerations for Assignment 2

I took a leap of faith, jumping into a comic which I have not showed the class for critique. instead of all the long comics that the class have drawn, I decided to draw a series of short comics instead. 

So, I took awhile, thought about the contemporary issues that is happening in Singapore. All the stuffs about flash floods, fogs, hot weather, overpopulation, I came out with my own response to these problems. I don't think "deep" comics are my style of drawing, I prefer these short and sweet, slapstick comics. Since, I am no deep thinker by all means. 

The comic style I am heading towards is slapstick comedy, with slight injection of irony, which I used to provoke thoughts among readers. These exaggerated actions, thoughts, behaviors and activities exceeds the boundaries of common sense. For example, swimming or surfboarding in the flood, or peeping using the fog as disguise, that is just unthinkable. However, my point is that, I emphasize, injecting a humor into our daily problems, hoping that people will just joke about the problems we all faces, NOT forgeting the problems, but just looking past the problems so we won't feel sad all the time. 

I used a lot of Singlish in the comic as I think that it is what makes a reader familiar with the comic. Since the context is Singapore, how can a comic without a slight injection of Singlish be a comic about Singapore? It is, I guess not very suitable for global scenes but it also raises the question of whether Singlish is indeed, a form of Singapore identity. 

I used HDBs in all the second panels because I feel that HDBs are one of the Singaporean identity, which makes us stand out from other countries. All these blocks houses more than 70% of the Singaporean population. It is also the group who will be affected most by whatever problems which Singapore faces, be it, over population, economy crisis, job unemployment, income inequality etc. They are in fact, probably the most unhappy group in Singapore. (assuming the riches aren't really sad about being rich)

A2

A proper breakdown of my comic: 

Title: I prefer looking at things from the other perspective. Especially when life gives you shit, you just got to see how great that piece of shit is. That is the reason why I drew this comic. I named this comics, Looking at the bright side of Singapore. That is to say I admit, yes, we have all the problems, but there is definitely something good about these problems that we have failed to see.

So loving it: Addressing the issue of flash floods. Irony injected through phrases like, "floods rock" "no wonder the government does nothing to fix it" "hope it floods everyday". It is simple to understand because, we don't want it to flood every single day, in fact, don't flood at all please. But I guess it is an unique experience for people who haven't seen a flood before, cause you kind of can do a lot of fun stuffs. For example surfboarding (exaggerated), but you can actually swim or splash water at friends or even fold paper boats and let it float on the water. I guess Singaporean kids nowadays have lost their childhood and care more about their ipads and phones etc. Oh, and probably because of all these devices, we can't even surprise a person by pouring water at him. (yeah, because the phone will get wet and spoil)

Benefits for everybody: Addressing the issues of fog. Slapstick humor with a bit of sexual and idiocy in the comic.  Modified the characters in 1,3 & 4 panel with masks. They actually think they can hide themselves in the fog and enter the female toilet without being able to see yet be able to see naked girls. That is dumb hahahaha. Why I named it benefits for everybody: because isn't it great to be able to hide your presence?

The hotter, the better: Addressing singaporeans always complain about the hot weather. Slapstick humor with a bit of sexuality and idiocy. Girls are challenging the limits everyday, wearing shorter and shorter skirts or shorts as each day passes. I am no moral police but sometimes, isn't it better to not expose so much skin. I drew this to raise awareness that "GIRLS, GUYS ARE WATCHING WHAT YOU WEAR.", unless you really want to show, then so be it. One can look hot without exposing. 

Heart-warming Singapore: Addressing overpopulation and foreign "imports", Irony injected in "Heart-Warming" and cosier place. The word play was intended, with more people, we will feel more warmth (body warmth since we are living in such close proximity). 

End: I did want to address the issue of happiness in Singapore, like my failed comic attempt at the critique session. Why did I say its complicated? Because you can see, there is no clear cut answer to that question. Life isn't as simple as - you give me an apple and I'm happy. Instead it goes like - you give me an apple but stole my pear and grapes, so am I happy? It is complicated. But the answer is within how one sees the world. The blue character suffers from a dilemma because on one hand, living in Singapore has its perks and on the other, it has its woes. SO i named my comic, looking on the bright side of Singapore. 

A2 Critique session

One of the main critique that I got from the session was that the issue I wanted to address, I wasn't able to fully answer it properly. Singaporean's unhappiness can come from anywhere and it is subjective thus it is very complicated. I thought very hard, and tried very hard to figure out what exactly does it mean to be happy for me, and for other Singaporeans, but I realized it is quite extreme to portray it in a short comic.

Ms Chiang suggested that I show a broader sense of knowledge by drawing how Singaporeans want more and more and is never satisfied, and how, even when they reached the paramount of "success", what is next? The issue of being happy touches on too many difficult issues which I myself, isn't clear of what it means to be happy. I originally thought happiness is to be able to find someone we care for but it isn't so simple. There is so many factors and life is so difficult, finding our true love is not necessarily going to make us happy. That perhaps, explain the high divorce rate. Perhaps the comic will be more suited if the main character was an old grandpa, who lived most of his life, went through thick and thin with his spouse, I think that would make a more convincing comic. However, one of the main takeaway from the critique session which I felt was most important is, I am not suited to draw such deep topics. I guess I lost myself while trying to impress people with my "knowledge".  My field isn't at drawing such deep comics (inspired by Some people), I guess I should stick with slapstick humor, which I'm more comfortable with.

Thus I started to redraw the entire comic.

Comic Review

This is one of Watchmen's more prominent scene whereby Rorschach AKA Walter Joseph Kovacs was framed and got caught by the policemen. The writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons used various panel transitions for this page, mostly subject to subject, action to action and aspect to aspect (not really sure whether there is). 

From the third last panel to the second last panel, the gutter allowed closure. Just by seeing the two panels, one can tell that he has been removed from the scene but, how did he get out of the place, did the police drag or carry him, it is all up to our imagination. 

2 different types of speech bubbles were used. One cloudy and one normal bubble. It seems as if the cloudy bubble is used to indicate his altered voice while he is in disguise. And when he is unmasked, his "voice" returned back to normal thus the normal speech bubble. Sounds like kaaaah and aaaanh were also used in speech bubbles to bring more effect to the comic. Showing more emotions and life in the character. 

A few types of image text interaction are also identified. For example,

Picture specific:4th panel (uuk)

Duo:2nd panel (kaaah) 

Additive: 3rd, 3rd last panel (everything balances) 

Class exercise 4

Last tutorial we were instructed to add in text for these panels. Our group had a lot of interesting ideas of what story should the panels tell. I really liked one of it.

It goes like
"I'm cold."
"It's cold."
"He's cold."
"Still cold."
"The ice-cream better be cold too."