Brave Hearts: Pages 10-12
Dear readers,
We are continuing this week with three more pages of Brave Hearts. If you haven’t followed the comic from the beginning, you can read it here:
Trigger warning: The following comic discusses events happening during the Croatian War of Independence and might be triggering for some people. The following pages do not contain any explicit violence.
An episode like this is unfortunately still very topical with continuing reports on increasing civilian deaths in Gaza, which include thousands of children. When I started this comic, I thought this story would serve as a much needed reminder of how war affects children, but now I even feel embarrassed to think my story counts as being affected. I know, experiences of trauma often cannot be directly compared, but we can all agree indiscriminate killing and inhumane conditions of life are much worse than (only) having to hide when you hear air ride sirens. One thing to keep in mind, dear reader, is that the real world is much worse than the stories we watch and read. Thinking about this makes me also see something I never considered. I chose to tell this story, among other ones, because it is not violent and it can be shaped into a bittersweet, heartwarming, and a cute story compatible with comic aesthetic. The story is real, but the rest of reality we don’t tell is often so much worse.
Let me know your thoughts on this in the comments.
Thank you for reading and until next time,
Ana