#general comic stuff

[ihopesocomic]

It's really not so hard to believe that a disabled animal can survive, because they literally do in real life! And they aren't just ostracized for being disabled in many cases. I remember a few years back, I was driving at night and stopped because I saw a young buck trying to cross the road in front of me while obviously favoring one leg. I was watching him, then turned to see a huge stag eying me from the side of the road nearest my car. I looked to the other side and realized that a doe was waiting for the injured buck to get across. Once he was there, the bigger stag crossed the road and the trio continued on their way.

That's actually amazing considering how deer are prey animals as opposed to lions and need to be able to outrun predators. Clearly, the buck adapted to the injury and was able to get around to some degree with the rest of his herd's support but it's still incredible nonetheless! Sometimes, people (including myself) also don't realise how resilient deer can be. They may look fragile at first glance but they're super hardy critters. c: - RJ

[ihopesocomicbackup]

So uh, thanks for not killing off your one* disabled character to prove how morally gray the rest of your cast is, or how dark and edgy your plot is.

*Point of fact, thanks for having multiple disabled characters and giving them names and traits other than "is disabled and isn't it sad when they die."

It has been a rough couple of weeks in the talking animal comics sphere. I Hope So has certainly been an oasis, and I am so glad it is back to updating.

"It's been a rough couple of weeks in the talking animals comic sphere." When is it NOT a rough time in the talking animals comics sphere? lol

Not saying there's not good animal comics out there but some really do a good job of being needlessly edgy and dark in exchange for any semblance of good writing.

There's nothing wrong with actually playing into it like you would if you were writing up a horror movie but I'm sure tired of this theme of people trying to clout chase and promote their story as progressive and then it's basically throwing in serious themes with no consideration on how to handle them.

It's just "hey, I covered this serious theme but I'm not going to cover it with any amount of seriousness whatsoever actually: gimmie kudos now!".

Don't even get me started on how there's a misconception that including "adult" themes automatically makes your story mature and sophisticated either. You have early Disney movies that did a great job of appealing to adults without having to include gore or sexual themes to appeal to adults, for example. lol And killing off a disabled character doesn't need to be automatically a bad choice narratively either. It all depends on the kind of narrative you want to deliver.

A woefully dark storyline isn't necessarily a bad thing. There are quite a few movies I enjoy (Fluke being a major example) that are relentlessly heartbreaking and sad. The problem comes from people - like I've just mentioned - thinking that just including minorities experiencing relentless tragedy automatically makes their story compelling escapism on its own when that's not how these things work. If you want to appeal to these minorities, don't use said minorities to simply make people outside of said minority groups feel sad for them before ultimately casting them aside once they've served their purpose.

I appreciate that I rambled a tad here but yeah, just wanted to go over why what you mentioned bothers me too. lol - RJ

[ihopesocomic]

Have you seen the story of Jacob, the three legged lion? He defied death multiple times and learned to hunt by sneaking really close to prey, ambushing it and focusing on slightly different prey to survive and sometimes also hunts together with his brother. It honestly sounds like a plot that could be part of this comic were it not real life.

Yep, there's a few stories about disabled lions surviving in the wild! There was a case a while back where a lion lost his leg in a trap and there was an expectation that his brother would become dominant and drive him off.

Instead, his brother and the rest of the pride tended to him and looked after him. It really demonstrates how there is actually a very deep bond between these animals. c: - RJ

[ihopesocomic]

Personally, one of my favorite things about the fan-engagement (? Is that a right term?) of this blog *is* how you don't do the overly-cheery-customer-service thing. Creators are *people*, and it's good to see creators that don't pretend to not be. It's refreshing.

The pair of us have also been burned by a few communities over the years and honestly? If you don't establish boundaries and make your comfort levels known, you're also going to end up utterly miserable with your own community as a creator. Especially if it entails having to pretend you're fine with things when you're not or having to hold your tongue for fear of setting off those who feel parasocial towards you and/or cannot handle rejection well. oof - RJ

[ihopesocomic]

Do you have a theme or message you want the readers to get from ihs?

Mainly that you're worth something, even if wider society tries to place the value of your worth on how much you contribute, how you present yourself and how well you function in day-to-day life. Also, capitalism sucks. lol - RJ

[ihopesocomic]

How much of I Hope So was solidly planned and scripted before pages started being made? I'm wanting to make my own comic and am stuck in the planning phase because I don't know how much will change as I work

Scripts are made months to a year in advance. And we have the rest of the whole comic pretty much planned out and have for a while. Some things change here and there if we have time but only if we have time. That's even if we've discussed them on the blog. lol And that's just it, things will change as you work and that's completely OK. I can't really advise you to keep things strictly the same because that's just not how things work when you do things over the course of a year or two. Hell, we're already planning to redo maybe the first two or three chapters long after they're published. Sometimes, you look back on your early work and you realise there's more things you wish to expand upon and incorporate. Which is something I think should be normalised more. c: - RJ

[ihopesocomic]

One thing I found truly amazing: I love, love LOVE how naturally the colours of pride flags are integrated into the sky and the background in general! The lesbian flag colours during Hope and Storm's reunion, the trans-coloured sky during Diamond's introduction, the bisexual colours of the crystals in the cave (as shown in the trailer), Careful's cubs' little trans pom-poms at the April Fools page! It's honestly so inspiring!

It's such a creative approach to reflecting characters' identities without it ever feeling forced and it's definitely something I'm inspired to try in my own work. After re-reading those chapters of the comic, I found myself looking into it more and was amazed at how many ways pride colours can be blended into natural environments like skies, lighting and landscapes (and places in general). It just exists as part of the world and that makes it even more meaningful.

Once again, thank you so much for the inspiration!

Ahh - thank you so so much. And that was exactly the goal. We've always been meh about the repetitiveness of disability and LGBT+ representation where it's mainly just the characters being subjected to oppression. Or else the audience apparently has no cue as to whether or not they're part of a minority group. oof Fair play if that's the kind of story that appeals to some folks. We're not saying these narratives are always inherently problematic, of course. It's just not for us, personally. Some authors opt for escapism with these things, some don't. Same goes for the audience. Different strokes for different folks, basically. We're personally about media where things are more normalised and subtle. And a comic like this is just an ideal way to show things through visual cues as opposed to idk Jasper not respecting the pronouns of his kids or w/e. They've got enough going on with the trashy names, particularly where Viv/Aggie is concerned. As a sidenote, there's also basic things to show via dialogue too. For example: how we've tried to switch out Joyous's pronouns here and there to show that they use multiple pronouns. The same goes for Forget-Me-Not when we get to the Red Stone arc. And good luck with trying it out yourself! We have seen it here and there in other projects and it's always fun to see how other folks get creative with it. c: - RJ

[ihopesocomic]

Enjoying this chapter and where it is taking us! If it's not getting too much into spoilers, is there any future events or plot elements you're looking forward to covering in the comic?

Uhh - off the top of my head and in no particular order:

Careful's upcoming chapter

why exactly Edge chose Adamant to be Queen.

Tempest's backstory

The terminology and the worldbuilding playing a part in the plot and being deconstructed

Polycules, polycules, polycules lol

Zircon's character arc

- RJ