(In the voice of an NHL commentator)
June 13th, PLP spring exhibition, live from Seycove Secondary School. Its PLP 9, its WW1 comic books, the PLP comic-con is coming up next on Exhibition night in Canada! (Fanfare)
You know the deal, my 4th PLP exhibiton went about as regular as the previous ones.
Our project was tying together WW1, and comic books, obviously. I was SO excited for this project.
A classic Nikan Dan trope is that when a project caters to me, I will get invested in it- a little too invested in it. I kinda feel like I need to prove myself, that I’m skilled in that field.
For example, say I’m a UFC fighter, and I specialize in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and my opponent specializes in Muay Thai. It would be really embarrassing it my opponent submitted me, losing sucks, but especially losing to your own specialty. That’s how I see it.
So I knew my comic book had to be lit. In the wise words of Dua Lipa “Vibes gonna be lit tonight, no lie-ie-ie-ie.”
When this project was introduced, after learning about WW1, we had to pick a topic to write about. Since I really like Snoopy- which I’ll get back to later- I wanted to focus on a flying ace. I landed on Billy Bishop, a Canadian ace from Owen Sound, ON who is best known for raiding a German airbase all by himself.
We were encouraged to trace real WW1 photos, and then colour fill them. Once I heard that, I said to myself “mehhhh….. nahhhhhhh..”
Since I am a self-proclaimed artist, I wanted to go above and beyond, so I wasn’t gonna trace or colour fill.
Firstly, I used my own style to draw my panels, and instead of colour filling, I used a watercolour brush on procreate I became fond of.
Ok now here’s the 411. I LOVE COMICS.
Ok, not like superhero comics, but COMIC STRIPS WERE MY JAM IN GRADE 6-7!!! Peanuts, Garfield, Wallace the Brave, you name it, I read it. I spent all my free time reading or writing comic strips. Maybe I should’ve spent a more time working on my time management, but I digress.
Oh, I also don’t mind WW1.
After writing my storyboard, my comic book began to come to life. I just played some sick music, put my head down, and drew. And drew. And drew.
After a few days, and just one all-nighter, I had finished my comic, and I was proud of it. However, the drawings definitely loss effort towards the end of the book, but I still like it. I’m proud of my comic book, and I loved my uniqueness.
Read it here:
Then came exhibition day.
Apart from a delayed dinner provided by the parents of yours truly, the day was great, and a good time was had by all.
However there were somethings I didn’t really like.
Obviously, I wish we could sit, but, here are the unique ones.
Firstly, I wish there had been a system to keep parents from just visiting their kid then dipping. Maybe one-way arrows on the ground, or a less spacious area.
Also, I think it would’ve been better if we had a more engaging element to our stations. It was kinda weird, a parent walking over, flipping through your comic book, then saying good job. Rinse and repeat a dozen times. Luckily, the parents were great. They gave good feedback, and asked good questions. I also think our comics were of good quality.
Successful exhibition overall, and can’t wait for the next ones
Peace ✌️