Impressions from Comic Invasion and a new comic about Gaza
Dear readers,
Last weekend I went to my first comic convention, which you can read all about below. In this post, I also included my new short comic about Gaza, which I submitted to Cartoonists for Palestine.
Comic Invasion
This was my first convention and I really didn’t know what to expect, how much I would sell, would everyone be more professional of an artist than me? After this experience, I took two main takeaways:
The number of sales was lower than I expected, but it was still very successful (especially if compared to the average sales of *books* at the event). If you are curious, I sold 12 comics in total (+1 comic that went to a curious editor!). This includes some friends of course, but there were also complete strangers who picked up my comic and decided to buy it! I also sold quite a bit of other merch you can see in the photo below, but Bleeding Hearts was my main focus naturally. In this printed version, I included my comic Bleeding Hearts as the first chapter and Brave Hearts as the second chapter.
I got the permission to call myself an artist. This is a funny one because I have been creating art and stuff in general all my life. The only break I took from arts was during my studies because I wanted to hyperfocus on science. But at the event everyone referred to me as an artist and I even got a bracelet that says “artist”, so I’m pretty sure it’s official now.
Comic Invasion ended only 3 days ago and I am still under impression, going over what might be next for me and for Bleeding Hearts. However, at the same time, I have been thinking actively about how I could raise more awareness about pacifism and speak out against war, something Brave Hearts attempts to do as well. So, I made this comic yesterday and I’m eager to share it with you.
Comic about Gaza
This feeling of being alive defines a lot of my experience because, as a survivor* of the Croatian war, I have always felt that I was either not supposed to have been born or to have survived. But I am still here and I have a voice, so I am using it. I encourage you to use yours too! One way you can contribute if you are an artist is to donate your comic to Cartoonists for Palestine.
This week I am also donating to the fundraiser held by Alice Oseman, which you can access here.
*I still feel bad using the word “survivor”. Am I entitled to it? How much danger was I really exposed to if in the end my family survived? What if that bullet that had passed just in front my mom had hit her head instead? What if Brave Hearts had ended differently for my grandma? Would I feel more entitled to call myself a survivor?
What do you think? About any part of this post, I mean (I apologize for so many tonal shifts…) Let me know in the comments and leave a like.
Thank you for reading,
Until next time,
Ana