I keep receipts
After much pointless dithering, I finally jumped into the strange, strange world of online dating. I had been on the fence for a variety of reasons, but pragmatism eventually won out: this was the only safe and responsible way to throw my hat in the dating ring. I’m sure the isolation didn’t help.
I’ll go into further details about my general thoughts on the dating scene in future comics and posts, but as far as this particular incident is concerned, yes, sadly, it’s all true. My luck had been lousy and this interaction was one of, if not the first, matches I had. In retrospect, all the red flags were there, but I was too green to see them. Or rather, I recognized them, but chose to overlook them out of naiveté. Her cereal comment really was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I couldn’t get over it, how ridiculous and absolutely absurd it was. Not only had she not had cereal before, she had never heard of it before. I could no longer blind myself and give her the benefit of the doubt: I was talking with a catfish. Suffice it to say, my initial foray into the world of online dating was filled with equal parts embarrassment, bewilderment, and frustration (though not much has changed since then). But by the same token, it also galvanized me to make the first ever comic for Day and Age. Life ain’t all bad!
With the extra time afforded to me by my increasingly sedentary lifestyle, it would have been a wasted opportunity to not pursue a new creative outlet. So when the Dallas Public Library announced the inception of their online arts zine, I had to jump. The theme for the inaugural edition was “coping.” Suitable, as the last five months or so have been a prolonged experiment in it. My interpretation was admittedly loose (using Tinder to cope with loneliness) and was most likely the reason it didn’t make the cut. But what I lost in publicity, I gained in creative exploration. And good Lord did I make a lot of mistakes.
Where did I even begin? At the time, I was heavily inspired by Eddie Campbell’s Alec series. It’s a fantastic fusion of autobiographical storytelling, personal commentary, and surreal imagery; most importantly, it was probably why I landed on a 3 x 3 format. It’s balanced, symmetrical, and allows some latitude for different panel sizes. For the medium, I have yet to graduate from graphite. I’ve gotten better, but I am still insecure in my drawing dexterity, especially in sketching human figures and faces. My lack of confidence precludes my use of ink, though I will say that I quite like the “unfinished” look granted by using pencil. For now it works, but maybe I’ll make the transition one day.
I was in the dark through a lot of this. Aside from grade school art classes, I’ve never been taught how to draw, let alone how to construct a comic. I pull from what I’ve read and what I envision my comic to be. It’s near certain that there are steps in my process that are amateurish, ineffective, and just plain “wrong.” For example, I knew I wanted to finish my comics digitally, but I had no experience with photo editing software. One of my biggest regrets is never having learned Photoshop as it has proven itself to be an indispensable skill in countless job listings and creative applications. My consolation prize was the free GIMP and I still had to start from scratch. Dozens and dozens of hours watching tutorials and messing around in test projects got me to the point where I could “achieve” my end goal, but it felt like it was all held together with duct tape. Nonsensically stacked layers, simultaneous use of a white paint brush and the eraser tool, irreversible filters and effects. I had to redo my entire workflow multiple times before landing on my current process. I would want to make some change to the comic or notice something off about the color and realize that because of the way I had edited the image, I would basically have to start over from the original scan. Not fun.
To reiterate, although “Adventures in Online Dating I” is the third comic published for Day and Age, it was the first one I wrote, drew, edited, and finished. I truly took advantage of what I had available to me at the time. I even used regular computer paper to draw the comic on (don’t worry, I know better now). It’s the reason my comics fit into a 8.5 x 11’’ space. I used pencil because that’s what I was comfortable with. I used GIMP and not Photoshop because that was what I could afford. And yeah, at the time I’m writing this, barely anyone is reading my comics! But you do it because you enjoy it. You figure stuff out, you problem solve, and you make something you’ll feel proud of. Times like these bring their own challenges, but if you can still manage to create, that’s a testament to your own resilience and passion. You’ve already got everything you need.
Adventures in Online Dating will return…