Jiji Kennedy

My investigation is a comic that follows two very different characters from very different backgrounds. Both are ostracized within their respective settings and despite their challenges and different perspectives, they’re able to learn a lot from each other and find family and acceptance within one another.

This is the first comic I’ve ever written but I've been a longtime fan of webcomics and manga, particularly romance or fantasy genres, so I knew it was something I wanted to do. I typically don’t redraw a character more than once nor draw series’ so this project was a big step out of my comfort zone. I took bits of inspiration from some of my favorite webcomics and manga, particularly Gege Akutami’s Jujutsu Kaisen and much of Junji Ito’s style. I spent a lot of time looking at it again to discover what makes it feel cohesive and comic-y and I wanted to try to apply that to my own work while maintaining my own aesthetic. While re-reading, I found that many comics I had read shared similarities such as generous amounts of texture and patterns overlayed onto panels, comic boxes often being in very close proximity to each other and lots of hatching and crosshatching. As such, I tried to incorporate those elements into my own work and though my process featured a lot of trial and error—texture, as well as trying different angles and poses was particularly difficult—I eventually settled into a routine.

Drawing from what I noticed in other work, I began bringing comic boxes much closer together, sometimes overlapping to add emphasis or not drawing them at all. I actually created the characters first a year or two ago and the story later followed so figuring out how to put them in the same space in a way that was believable was also a challenge. I experimented a lot with lights and shadows, this time taking cues from the way digital webcomics are drawn while also employing some of Ito’s shading techniques for my backgrounds. The learning process, as well as the comic overall have been rewarding.