Shen comix creates simple comics on Instagram that use absurdist humor to explore emotions. His style is easy to understand but hard to emulate in a long-form comic. Scott McCloud and Bryan Lee O'Malley also influence the artist's style and storytelling techniques. McCloud challenges creators with time-limited comics, while O'Malley develops natural, humorous character interactions. The artist will apply their styles and the auteur theory in their own comic about a superhero with human abilities. Strengths include comic art skills, but software limitations must be addressed.

1. CONTEXTUAL
RESEARCH

2. SHEN COMIX
Shen comix is a comic artist who mostly uploads on Instagram and patreon. His comic
mostly involve weird humour, satire and personal experiences. In an interview he said
that the purpose of his comics are to remind people that to remind people that their
emotions, however strong or seemingly unusual they may be, are all very human and
natural. Shen Comix style is simple but effective as it gets the point across really
easily. When making my comic I don’t want it to be incredibly detailed as it would ruin
the vibe of the comic and make it a lot harder for me to tell a story as it would take a lot
of my time. However Shen Comix’s comics are normally a few panels long and don’t
have much of a story which is a hard thing for me since I want to do a full comic and
not a simple quick comic. However another good thing about his work is the type of
humour he does. Most of his comics are just strange and absurd which makes people
laugh as how weird it is. His type of humour is what I want in this comic so it will be a
challenge coming up with a storyline and dialogue that’s in the same type of humour
as his.

3. EXAMPLE OF SHEN COMIX’S COMICS
Simple design, not a lot of
shading in, block colours,
white background.
Only detailed bit in the
comic which is added for
humour because of how
ridiculous it is.
The comic shows how
ridiculous some things
in life are like in this
comic it shows how
anime logic is pretty
stupid sometimes.

4. SCOTT MCCLOUD
Scott McCloud is known for making a comic book that is about making comics. In those comics
he presents himself as a cartoon and shows the different ways to make a comic. This can range
from small details in comics to using different art styles. Scott likes to challenge himself which is
why invented the idea of the 24 hour comic challenge which is a 24 page comic made in 24
hours, over the years thousands of people have participated in this challenge and made a 24
page comic within 2 hours. I think this idea of a limited time comic is good for my work as I do
have a limited time when I have to complete it. With his comic books showing how you the
different ways on how you can make a comic and the limited time are perfect for me as this is
exaclty what I needed. However Scott uses black and white for the making comics comic book
which is a limitation for me as I want mine to be coloured and not in black and white.

5. BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY
Bryan Lee O’malley is known for making the Scott Pilgrim comics. His work in the
scott pilgrim comics have been a huge success that in 2010 it was adapted into a
film and in 2020 it was announced it would be turning into an anime on netflix. In the
comics, Bryan uses satirical humour as the plot includes the main character having
to defeat 7 evil exes in a video game style fight. The main character is a 22 year old
slacker who lives with his gay best friend who constantly drinks. One of the main
things I like about his work is the different characters and how they develop. The
interactions between the characters make it seem natural and real which is
something that connects the audience to the characters which makes it more
relatable for them but it he also makes it humours so it makes people laugh at his
comic . However one thing that is tricky is that the comics are in black and white
however he did release a special edition that is a coloured version of the comic.

6. BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY
I mentioned before about the
interactions of his characters and
making them sound natural but
humours at the same time. The
difference between young and old
people is how they talk to each other.
In this small comic slide it shows an
accurate representation on how
young people interact with each
other as this is like a normal
conversation between me, my
friends and random people I've met
in life.

7. BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY
Another example of characters
interacting with each other

8. AUTEUR THEORY
The auteur theory is when the director is the major creative force in a motion picture. This
theory can also be applied to any media and the way I’m going to use it is by my own art style
and adding characters that I made in the previous project so my audience can get the feeling
that maybe everything is connected and takes place in the same timeline. Someone who does
this is Quentin Tarantino which he uses a fake brand of cigarette in almost every film he does
which makes the audience question if all his films take place in the same universe. With my art
style I normally draw the character with 2 black dots for eyes, its simple but effective as I can
easily make any eye expression and it doesn’t require much detail to do it.

9. WHY AM I DOING THIS?
I wanted to showcase what I can do as an artist while also showing my
creative writing. I think a comic would be the best way to multitask those both.
I have done something before previously and I enjoyed making it so I would
like to make more things like that. I liked designing the characters and making
up a storyline with them. It’s also really easy for me to make it which means I
can produce my best work easily. The reason why I chose to do a comic about
a person with super powers of anything a human can do is because there are
so many things a human can do that it’s practically a super power itself. One
of the things that inspired me is a person holding their breath for 20 minutes.
When I saw that as a kid I questioned what else a human can actually do and I
decided to make a superhero out of it.

10. STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS
My biggest strength is my ability to draw in a comic style. I have experimented with
different styles and I found that the simple comic style is really easy to draw. When I
made the comic for the previous project it was actually really enjoyable to make as it was
quick, easy and effective. Most comics have a vector art style which is the opposite on
what I normally draw like which is sketches, however it’s really simple to make and when
done right it works really well. However my biggest limitation will be drawing softwares.
The software I use at home is Krita however because I can’t bring my laptop to college
because its too big to carry and because it’s so old it needs a charger constantly
attached to it for it to work, so when I come to college I have to use a different software
to draw as the college computers don’t let me download krita which means that I
constantly have to change files around and it’s incredibly annoying.

11. BIBLIOGRAPHY
wikipedia. (2022). Scott McCloud. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_McCloud. Last accessed 27th Feb
2022.
wikipedia. (2021). Bryan Lee O'Malley. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Lee_O%27Malley. Last
accessed 27th Feb 2022
popculturebuffet. (unknown). tripping the life Hanktastic. Available:
https://popculturebuffet.tumblr.com/post/640342932498595841/scotrospective-scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world-the. Last
accessed 28th Feb 2022.
Steven Padnick. (2009). It's Scott Pilgrim Day!. Available: https://www.tor.com/2009/02/04/its-scott-pilgrim-day/.
Last accessed 28th Feb 2022.
Shen Comix. (2021). Good Point. Available: https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1959903-shen-
comix. Last accessed 28th Feb 2022.
wikipedia. (2022). Shen (cartoonist). Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shen_(cartoonist). Last
accessed 28th Feb 2022.