11 Comments

Love the comics!

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Oct 3, 2023Liked by Nishant Jain

Wow that comic πŸ‘. I wanted to illustrate children's books. Got put off by a published artist. It's amazing a bit of nastiness can affect one for years. I also started a comic a bit before the days of the interwebs. So many ideas so little time. I spend so long earning money to do what I like, time to do what I like and earn money from it! But familial pressure is high, you can't make money as an artist or an academic apparently. But my brother proved them wrong. Although I might not necessarily go as far as he does, letting his PhD students write his research...love your emails, I watch out for them ☺️

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So this is really interesting about leaving comics behind for the kind of drawing/work you do now -- can you elaborate more on that? I always love hearing your thought processes on this!

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author

Terrell, many good reasons. :)

Comics began as a way to share stories in visual/humorous form. It gave me a lot of freedom to "just say something quickly" and widened the scope of ideas I was able to express. It was the early years of FB, and to be noticed I had to be on top of every trend, political and social, and every change of algorithm. Over time, I found that to be a very draining process. The job of writing/drawing a comic is also incredibly arduous, and my perfectionist attitude and ambitious ideas meant that I made it even harder for myself. Most of my comics were political, at a time when India was just entering its right-wing, nationalistic phase. I took a lot of flak and some online vitriol, which affected me too.

The business of "being funny all the time" is peculiar. And I realized it was killing off my ability to process other emotions. I was becoming more one-dimensional in the endless, cynical pursuit of viral likes and laughs.

All of this meant that I was looking for something timeless, and equally profound to anyone regardless of political and social affiliations. Something no one could object to, because it was the undeniable truth? I did not know it would be Sneaky Art, until it happened.

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Wow, I absolutely enjoyed reading your comic! Are you planning on writing more posts featuring your past comics?

Also, hello fellow perfectionist and procrastinator-I see, hear, and understand how you feel when it comes to trying to completing a project! I very much enjoyed your speech! How’s that novel coming along?

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author

I haven't touched it in many months! But I hold out hope that one day it will happen. :)

I am glad to hear you enjoyed the comic, I will certainly share more over time! Thank you!

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Oh, I forgot to add that the comics you shared here were done very well, quite different from the work you do now.

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Really enjoyed this issue. I also just watched the Vimeo of your talk--was very good. You should watch it. Not even remotely cringey at all. You have a natural sense of humor that carries out nicely and makes the talk flow. I laughed at some of the things you said and reflected on other points you made. A sign of a great speaker is one who engages and connects with the audience with curiosity, information and entertainment. You are a great speaker. Kudos. πŸ™ŒπŸŒ·

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author

Aha thank you Celeste. I need to get over feeling this way. :)

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So, have you taken a peek at your Vimeo yet? It’s a really good way to see what you feel needs improvement as we are our own most severe critic. I’m sure you already know that!πŸ˜‚

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author

Hahaha no I have not!

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