Their story, in their words…
With the support of the Mark Evison Charity, I planned to make an original manga. This was then adapted into a graphic novel to better communicate the story in a limited time-frame.
My main struggle was with timing as I find working independently incredibly difficult. Therefore, it took me until the Summer Holiday before Year 13 to properly commit to the project. With such a short amount of time left to complete it (and only being able to complete a full page over 2 days), I had to radically shorten the number of planned pages. It was here that I decided to add in written pages to better summarise the story.
I also struggled with communicating effectively with the Mark Evison team because of the same focus difficulties. However, I was still able to email them when necessary, proving to myself that I am not incapable of completing these tasks even when I find them difficult.
Being able to design and create this graphic novel inspired me greatly as it reminded me that it is possible to create your own art and sell it for a profit. Being able to hold the final copy after working on it for a year felt very satisfying and achieving my goals in this way made me proud that I had agreed to completing this project. Although it would have been easy for me to have dropped out of the Mark Evison project as school became busier or even just out of boredom, I was able to commit and complete my graphic novel.
The response to the product was promising with family members reporting how the story made them think deeply and in this way I was able to have important conversations that I might not otherwise have had.
If I could change anything, it would be to have committed more to the project in Year 12. By leaving all of the work to the Summer Holiday and Year 13, I increased the difficulty and also limited how much I could create. I feel that with more time, I could have created a more finished story that is easier to follow.
