Songs without Words

Now that my MD-PhD program is at long last drawing to a close – after nearly a decade – I’ve been thinking of creating a brief comic series to commemorate some memories and observations from this experience. What’s below started as just a character sketch test to figure out a quick and easy style to draw in, but I ended up deciding to annotate it a bit more. It’s hard to believe that you’re still the same person when you switch from being a PhD student to a medical student. Of course, maybe these observations aren’t as universally relatable as I think, and it’s just me because I’m a terrible student ………… ((profuse sweatdrops forming)). I’m in the process of categorizing comic ideas (in 4-panel format) into the various medical school clerkships, for a total of probably around a dozen.

Phenotypic differences between MD and PhD training

Just uncovered these, gathering dust in my old www folder.  Still find them cute, so I might as well post them here.

“Not in Love with You ~ <3" from February '06. Wow, that's old. This was the third incarnation of my "Root J" series.

“Root J Season 2” from September ’05.

Luuuucky 7’s! In commemoration of the 777th post on this blog, I present to you a six-page improv comic that I drew over the last two days. I am very, very pleased with how it turned out, because with all the artistic and organizational shortcomings of the improvisational format, I feel like I was able to convey important perceptions of reality that I’ve never been able to in the past.  It’s easy to explain an idea to someone else, but it is very difficult to explain a perceptual experience to someone who has never shared that perception of the world before.

All six pages are presented below the cut.  Please read left to right.

Continue reading ‘[777] Melinoe’s World!’ »

Haven’t come up with a real title yet, so here you go:

The cello is a versatile instrument

Remember kids, violence is bad!

As promised!  The first installment featuring Elysia and Lamia~  Please pardon the crude art technique, I’m a bit out of practice.

Strip 1.

I feel bad for everyone who has to eat a meal with medical students.  The colored pencils didn’t scan in too well; the biggest loss is that you can’t see the special metallic sheen of the puke (and jewelry).

After this is all over, I’m totally going to be drawing comics!

This morning, I renewed my love and passion for silly, off-the-wall humor in the form of those ever-wonderful meme posts on Deviant Art.  The imagination, spontaneity, and expressiveness never fail to hit the right spot!

I’m planning a short (12-strip?) 4-panel comic series.  Here’s a brief rundown of the concept:

This is the everyday life of three Bostonians: Elysia, Lamia, and a yet-unnamed barista.

Elysia – 22 years old, conservatory student at NEC doing a masters in cello.  Likes: classical music, cooking, crafts, shopping, coffee, and tennis.  Ht: 5′ 5″.  Personality: bright and cheerful, but likes deviancy.  Physical: long bown-blonde hair, usually in a messy bun, two piercings per ear.  Has a tattoo but if you’re a decent person you haven’t seen it yet.  Likes to wear loose-fitting tunics and tank-tops, tights or skirts, sandals or sneakers.  Named after: the Champs-Elyse’es, of course.

Lamia – 23 years old, medical student at HMS.  Likes: disgusting surgeries, fucking with people’s minds, video games, eating, beautiful women, tea, piano, running.  Ht: 5′ 7″.  Personality: intellectual, tactless, witty, and just plain weird.  Physical: short brown-black hair, no piercings but has a headband with anthers (?) on it.  Likes to wear dressier t-shirts, jeans, and heels.  Named after: the Greek flautist/courtesan.

No name yet dude – 24 years old, works at the coffee shop (I’ll pick one eventually).  Trying to get his rock band off the ground.  Likes: indie music, horror movies, poetry, baking, reading, and backyard/garage science (like Mythbusters crap).  Ht: 5′ 10″.  Personality: You know that kind of guy … friendly, excitable, juvenile at heart, somewhat of a chance he’s gay but he isn’t (he loves Lamia, who incidentally is gay).  Physical: short brown hair, a little bit of stubble but no nose-hair thank God.  Likes to wear dress shirts over band t-shirts and straight-legged jeans.

Character Design Sheet

There’s a love triangle, of course!  Elysia loves the coffee shop dude, the coffee shop dude loves Lamia, and Lamia loves Elysia!  But don’t expect deep, meaningful relationships.  It’s a gag comic!

Study plan for the next two days:

Today – go through as many practice questions as possible

Tomorrow – very few practice questions, focusing on going through the entire book and making sure that I remember things.

Konbanwa, Minna~san!

Today, in the library, I spent ~2 1/2 hours drawing this comic on a whim. It’s in the same vein as “My Wings,” in the sense that it’s an improv-comic, where there is no predetermined layout or script. It just comes as it comes, driven almost solely through character interactions. In a way, it ends up less contrived and more flowing, although it is also less directed as a side-effect.

“My Little Brother:” a somewhat futuristic story about a girl and her little brother.

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Artistically, I chose the drawing style solely for its speed, but I think it fits in well with the type of society that I am trying to depict here, one that is not so different from our own.

In around 7246 (recall that it is now 7364), I created a pair of characters named Nisuna and Faxuda. Although they were created to be God and the Devil, they have personalities very distinct from any existing religions’ God and Devil. I could probably spend a whole post writing about each of them.

Anyhow, one of my favorite amusements from back then (middle school) was listening to the two of them bicker about the most silly of things. They would argue about cursing (to sum that one up, Faxu decided to make a competition where they would get points for ‘good’ curses versus ‘bad’ curses. So, “Good Lord” or “Holy cow” would be points for Nisuna, “Holy Shit” would be one point to each, and “Fucking hell” would be a point for Faxu. I think Faxu won by getting Nisuna to tell her to “shut the hell up.”), they would argue about boys (the two have a bad history with boys, dating back to 500 BC), and, they would argue about anything and everything.

Actually, Nisu and Faxu are friends, but I’ve never seen them actually say a nice thing to one another before.

Here’s a short, sloppy 10-minute comic to introduce them:

Continue reading ‘Nisunie and Faxu’ »