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Alright, iamus! I was getting round to it, I was! Alas, I fear there's no money spinners to be had here, but what I do have to give is this, MY INNER HEART: REVEALED AT LAST!
So how autobiographical is this? Eh?
W-e-e---e-e-ellll... partly! Or... semi! How's that for a big, descriptive answer, eh?
I guess the longer version is that most of it has a basis in things I've experienced or observed, and extrapolated from there. The characters became more like their own people, at least to me, but I'm not sure how much that may come across. I'm not all that much like Riley, and I don't really know anyone like Emme, but I know I've probably been a bit like both of them, and have known people to be a bit like both of them in turn.
I've certainly never lived in Buffalo, mind you, but I have been there and it reminded me a bit of where I'm from (Leicester).
I'm not much of a painter either (maybe you could tell) but I thought it was a nice way to tell a story - or not really tell a story so much, as chart the course of someone's feelings/fantasies through art, the sort of stuff that probably interests me a lot more than a straight ahead narrative sort of thing.
I mean, from a classic storytelling point of view it's a failure in the sense of not really having a great deal of detail or context for what's happening - but that was intentional because I was really only concerned with feelings for this particular project, and everything else is incidental.
But this, for me, is one of the great strengths of comic's as a medium - they're very good at cutting through things and getting right to the core of it, minimal snapshots, time and place, impressions and small moments, memories jumbling together but still stark and clear enough to be written so you can piece it all together. I'm a big fan of reading comics where you go back and forth between the pages, instead of it being linear, because it helps to build a greater impression in the mind. They're good at lots of other things too which is why, for me, it's such a great medium, but those are the things I really wanted to emphasise here, so such rules and conventions need not necessarily apply.
So while I'm not the biggest fan of auto-bio comics and stuff, I tried to ensure there was a little more to it than that. It was important to me that it wasn't simply portrayed from just one point of view, which hopefully lent it a bit more depth as a snapshot of a relationship that happened to these people rather than the sort of "maudlin self-pitying emo-boy thingy" lentil describes, "here are some things that happened to me once and how I feel about them personally", although I don''t doubt I may have strayed in that sort of area a little.
So for that reason, it was important to me to portray her point of view, because for a start the story really is about *her* more than anything else, and I do hope that comes across. That's why her views essentially bookend the piece, and I'd be more inclined to think of it more as something like a layered portrait of her, her affect on people around her and how she may be misunderstood. I really wanted it to be something that was understandable, rather than all from Riley's point of view reacting against her/himself. She's not some unknowable creature, which would probably be easier for Riley to deal with in some respects, but rather more developed than that.
Probably a bit more autobiographical than I'd like it to be in some ways, but still. I've gone and got too elaborate now, haven't I?
Also, thank you kindly for yr lovely words, lentil! Glad to hear you picked up a copy. And you know, I think that may be my favourite response I've received yet from the comic. But I think you might know that. Really lovely, and especially satisfying for me how much you really got all the things I was trying to do, that I feared may not come across.
As for the end, there's no moral as such. It's pretty much as you say; she reverts to type, more guarded and seeking approval. Riley cleans up, moves on, looks back, is pleased with what he made. I see Riley as an eternal optimist who in all likelihood would do exactly the same thing again, and probably will, with someone else. |
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