Since high school, my best friend and I have been casually ideating about a trip to Canada. It’s right there, we’d say. ‘Right there’ being relative, meaning that driving- our newest form of freedom as high schoolers- was possible over flying, despite the fact we were living in South Carolina at the time. Many years passed, and the vague plan to go to Canada as a college graduation trip formed. Of course, I graduated later as I was partaking in a five-year degree program, and then was busy with an internship the following summer, so it became less of a graduation trip. But finally, summer 2024 emerged. I’d moved up to Albany for work the year prior and it was more true than ever that Canada was right there.
A Collage of Scuttlebutt
Hello, thanks for reading. Have not posted on this blog in a while, and as I was uploading the photos for this post I reached 101% storage capacity for the wordpress media library (and media is all I post anyway). So I guess at some point in the future I needa either succumb to wordpress and pay them money, or find some other platform to transfer all my content and stuff over to (either free, or at a better price). We’ll see, I guess.
My Five Years of Architecture School zines have been compiled and now exist in physical form! Getting to see digital work in real life is the most satisfying feeling.
Hello everyone! After moving three times this summer, doing an internship, then starting a new job (spoiler?), I can finally present to you- my last comic about architecture school.
In case you’re new around these parts (welcome!) or want a refresher, you can read these zines in order: 2019 (first year), 2020 (second year), 2021 (third year), and 2022 (fourth year). If you’re interested in obtaining a physical copy, read my blurb at the end for more info!
Without further ado…
I knew this was coming, but after making these for the past four years, it’s weird to finally be at the last one. Whenever I finish one of these, I think of all the things I can improve on for the next year, and know that I will have that opportunity to improve. But now, it feels more final. Like as soon as I export all these pages, I am putting this five year chunk of my life in a frozen time capsule. I was never purposefully procrastinating this summer (I did get swept up in life… and the Tears of the Kingdom release), but part of me was scared to complete this, because once it’s done… it is done. But I gave myself the goal of finishing the comic by the end of September, so that it what I have managed to do, and then I gave myself a day to write all this out and reread everything.
I am planning to compile these five years of comics into a physical edition! For MoCCA fest, I handmade (folding and stapling) about ten copies, and needless to say, that was very time-consuming. I’ll be looking into printing companies and that kind of thing, so if anyone has any advice/suggestions, feel free to send them my way. I have some ideas for things I’d like to correct and improve in the physical edition while sprinkling in some ~bonus content~. I hope you’ll consider getting a physical copy once I’m able to sort everything out. Seeing things printed and holding a physical item is so satisfying. If you are interested in getting a physical copy, please consider filling out this interest form — it’s not an official preorder or anything, it’s just so I can gauge if I should start by printing 5 copies or 50 copies. I appreciate it!
Of course I can’t end this post without thanking everyone for their support and interest in my comics. When I first started I didn’t know if I would make one each year, but I’m glad I kept up with it, and it morphed into something I looked forward to— documenting both my school experiences and my art (improving? I’d like to think). While this project is over, I hope to keep making things in the future and you can always find me over on instagram (@elcapp).
Behind the Scenes!
I also wanted to include some Behind-the-Scenes here, for those curious.
I have a hectic method of making my pages… I sketch things in my sketchbook (or post-it notes, or whatever paper I have lying around). In InDesign I arrange the panel sizes, then create each frame as a new canvas in FireAlpaca (at this point I should probably be using Photoshop? but old habits die hard). I then type out all of the words to make sure they are large enough to be legible, then get to drawing and lettering. I’m using my ~7 year old Microsoft surface computer which is touch-screen, so I have really given my right pointer finger a workout. Unfortunately the computer is having battery issues now, meaning it would crash in the middle of drawing quite often, but autosaves were a savior. Once the panel is done, I label it all nicely and pop it into InDesign. Then repeat!
I wish I could say I wrote out every single word and planned every panel before starting, but in reality I jump around based on the ideas I already have, and then fill in the gaps as I go. This year I kept track of when I completed pages (did not necessarily plan them in this order), and also the panel layouts just to make sure I had a variety.
What’s Next?
Now that this series is over and I’m not in school (I would be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about the comic potential of going to grad school, hah, but alas), I think I’m going to take a little break from the autobiographical stuff. I’ve had a fiction story floating around in my head since 2016, and I think it is time to at least try to give it some love. It’s the kind of story where I told myself I’d make it once I’m better (at writing, at art- if I were to make it a comic), but at this point I think it is my avenue to “get better”. I’ll return back to autobio things, but for now I hope you have enjoyed my series about architecture school.
Last summer I was finally able to get my first internship! And I really lucked out, it was an amazing experience (I described it as ‘dream job material’ to a of couple people haha). So here’s a brief comic about it, better late than never. Also this is my final submission to Static Fish, the anthology published by my school’s comic club which I was able to serve as president for this year.
Some other miscellaneous updates:
Back at the start of April I was able to go to MoCCA fest with the comic club! MoCCA is the largest independent comics and cartoon art festival in NYC and it was the first time I’ve ever sold my comics. I made a little zine about centaurs and also made the first four years of my school comics into a booklet. It was a very limited run of 8, and I also made a cute lil sticker sheet to put in them. Overall a stressful (since I had to help arrange for the whole tabling thing to happen haha) but rewarding and fun experience.
Also wanted to share this gif I made for the promotion of the spring 2023 Static Fish anthology, the theme was evolution. I sketched out the frames, had various members of the club draw the frames in their own style, and then assembled them all. Thought it turned out pretty cool.
I am now just a couple weeks away from graduation, and I still don’t know what is next! I am fortunate enough to be able to do the same internship this upcoming summer, but what happens after that is still up in the air.
My next big project is making my Fifth Year of Architecture comic (ahhhh). And I hope to somehow be able to print them and have them available in a physical form. Not sure how to do that yet. I’d likely be self publishing them in someway. Also I want to take my time with it and will be adding some commentary not previously included in the previous years, so it may come out ~September sometime, later than the past issues. Just to let you all know.
As always, thanks for all the support and thank you for reading!
Here’s the comic that is in Static Fish Fall 2022 (the anthology of Pratt’s Comic Club of which I am a president this year). The theme was perception so I made a lil comic about wearing glasses.
I’m in the midst of preparing for my design final at the moment so pardon my brevity. Today I have been standing over a 3D printer and sweating (the sweat is from the stress but also the fact my dorm room is consistently 83 degrees from the radiator). So I’ll get back to that now haha
