Idea inspiration
I always thought senior citizens would end up using computers more than any other demographic. And I think that will finally happen, when we reach the point that “using computers” is as simple as having a conversation with a personality with infinite patience.
This will no doubt do wonders for the isolation and cognitive decline that a lot of seniors face, but I can only imagine the addiction issues that would come out of that level of reliance upon a virtual life. A topic for another (heavier) comic perhaps …
I’ve had the idea for this one for some time, but this comic really came alive once I decided to make myself (or someone of my vintage) the user in this comic, looking back upon a childhood spent in arcades with all the dated cultural references from that time.
Art inspiration
I had so much fun with this one. There are of course the SF2 references, of which my recollections are hazy and mixed with later fighting games – this I thought was appropriate for the character of the user, so I didn’t bother researching too much to refresh my memory.
The big experiment I did was to try the flashback scenes using manga-style screentone. This was a breeze to play around with in Clip Studio Paint, even though …
Challenges
… it was so hard to get things to “pop” without relying on the crutch of colours. Screentones do so much work, most importantly directing the reader’s eye, while still implying colour and volume and all the rest of it.
I think I may try and do some future comics entirely like this!
Rewards
This is probably my favourite one yet. It’s an ambitious topic but hopefully the punchline comes out sweet more than bitter. This is the kind of comic that I would only have attempted, and finished, with the mindset to prioritise play over perfection, and quantity over quality.
