The Power of Comics

Do you like art class? For me, not really. I like drawing sometimes, but I only like drawing things I am interested in. I cannot make my drawings look very realistic such as drawing shadows or shade, not even a perfect circle! Whenever I try to do that, my drawing just turns out to be weird looking. This was me before I started drawing comics.

I wasn’t really interested in drawing until two years ago. This all started one day when my mom showed me some comics and gave me a book on how to draw comics. I learned how to draw funny facial expressions and basic body structure. I started drawing comic strips of people I knew. I drew funny stories that happened in my life. As I drew more comics, I gradually got better at drawing.

One day at jiu-jitsu class, a boy asked me to draw him a comic. I agreed and went to work right away when I got home. Since he was really good at playing dodgeball, I drew a comic of him being extremely good at dodging and throwing in dodgeball. I made up some imaginary moves of him dodging the ball in my comic. For example, he would jump up and flip into a horizontal line in mid-air. This never happened in real life before, but I wanted to exaggerate it and make him appear to be super good at dodgeball.

The next day, he couldn’t wait for his comic. I gave it to him, and he absolutely loved it. He spent more than 10 minutes staring at it. Seeing that he liked it, later I drew some more for him, and he was so obsessed with them.

Then, one day when we played dodgeball together, he jumped and flipped into a horizontal line in mid-air! I was so shocked that he did the same move as I drew in my comic. As I can see, he got more confident and better at playing dodgeball. After that, he would always pick me to be on his team when we were playing games, and we were unbeatable. I am still surprised today that I made a friend just by drawing him some comics.

Another time I felt the power of comics was on my friend’s birthday. He liked playing basketball, so I drew a comic of him playing basketball as his birthday present. In the comic, he was surrounded by many opponents, but he dribbled past them quickly and then suddenly shot a beautiful three-pointer. Then the whole audience was applauding, while his opponents were all stunned.

When my friend opened his present, he spent several minutes staring at the comic. Then, he looked up at me and said he was really touched, and he really liked the comic. I could tell because his eyes were teary. I was really glad that I could bring joy to other people through comics.

I also love reading comics because they show a visual picture of what’s happening, and the people’s expressions are really funny. I have read at least several hundred books so far, but my favorite books are still comics.

This is how I found my current favorite book. Last year when I was on vacation in China, my mom was going to throw away some comics she bought when she was young. She thought I might want to read them first. I was hooked on the first page. The books were so funny that I couldn’t stop laughing. I was so obsessed with them that I would not let her throw them away. So we brought the comics back to the U.S.  Even today, I still laugh from reading them.

Today I am still not good at making my drawings appear realistic, but I am proud that I have learned to capture the essential facial expressions in my comics. I am very glad that I am able to bring joy to my friends by drawing them comics. What’s more, comics also bring me a lot of happiness. If you feel bored or sad, try some comics!