This is a project I've been working on for a few months where I basically turned one of Miche's Smartpass AU stories into a comic since I thought it'd be fun and a good way to practice my drawing skills, and as well as express my appreciation for this character!
I especially enjoyed drawing the part for Miche's time as a young scout since it's one of the only bits of info for his past.
Credits to @worldofchicken for the original translation which can be read here!
Note: This is my re-imagining of the story to suit a comic format, so please stick to the original written story for canon
Hereās the storyboards for Bittersweet Memories! I actually started writing this document a few days after I posted the comic, but writing it was a bit more challenging than I expected and of course I ended up procrastinating on it. Granted, I have been focusing on drawing a lot lately so writing wasn't much of a priority.
While the final comic sticks to it for the most part, I did make a few panel and page changes. Below the cut Iāll discuss some of my boarding decisions and changes for the parts I felt I could talk about in detail (bc I donāt really feel the need to discuss everything and Iām worried that Iāll come off as stale if I do so haha).
Opening
The first major change is with pages 10 and 11. I initially planned for the merchant to see Erwin and the scouts out to their carriages and to have most of the page dedicated to Erwin as he stepped onto the carriage step and hoped the merchant would continue serving the Corps. In my head, the visual was really cool and highlighted Erwinās power as a Commander of the military. However, when I tried to actually draw it, it was just not working out. Even with using 3D models and even posing it myself, I just couldnāt get the composition to work without it looking awkward. Eventually, I had to accept that this was a dud and that I had to come up with something else. As you can see with the notes on the side, I thought of having the merchant and Erwin shake hands as a āfriendlyā way of continuing their partnership. I did draw it out, but again, it just didnāt feel right and it kinda made Erwin feel menacing.
So, I read through the original story again to hopefully find a clue for what I should draw. And that was when I realised that I had missed the line āSeems like thatās it for our partnership.ā when I was rewriting the script. Initially, I had assumed that after realising that heād been figured out by Erwin, the merchant felt pressured to continue their partnership. But with that line, it read to me that their partnership was going to be severed regardless. Though, I suppose my initial assumption could also work, but I did like this one better and it does make sense given that the Survey Corps was contentions among the elite of the Walls and was probably the intention of the original author.
With this, I had a much easier time figuring out on what to replace this scene with. I still wanted Erwin to act friendly/diplomatic with the merchant juuust in case he decided to change his mind, but that didnāt end up being the case.
Drawing wise, it ended up being much easier as I didnāt have to try and brute-force an awkward composition. And even the zoomed-out, higher angle shots werenāt that complicated at all as long as I had my references set right.
Thoughts on the manor scene:
Admittedly, the manor part was the part I struggled with drawing the most, mainly because it was a part of the story that I wasnāt as interested in compared to Micheās backstory and the carriage scenes. In fact when it came to drawing the roughs, I actually skipped to drawing the backstory part after only drawing the first few pages of the comic since it was the main part of the story I actually wanted to draw.
Though, this isnāt to say I thought the manor part was bad since it establishes Erwinās trust in Micheās abilities, highlights Erwinās sharp intuition, and also serves as a neat world-building bit for one of the ways the Survey Corps receives fundingā¦ and how wealthy sponsors will cut that. It was just the part that felt more like an obligation rather than something I genuinely wanted to draw, especially since a good chunk of it is spent with the characters sitting at a table which isnāt very invigorating.
Backstory:
If youāve read the original story, then youād know that Micheās backstory doesnāt take up much of it, with the part only lasting 10 lines. Granted, this is a short story so things do have to be kept brief, but considering how little information there is on this character, I do wish it couldāve lasted just a little bit longer. However, I guess one of the benefits of things being kept brief/vague is that your imagination can fill in the blanks, and the lines āAt the end of the expedition, Mike lost some comrades. It happened many times until his ability was recognized and he got promotedā¦ā was rather exciting as it was the perfect way to expand on Micheās backstory more. Granted, it could be because it was my own addition to the story haha.
Pages 15-17:
When it came to Micheās classmates, I wanted to draw them with enough charm and personality for the one panel theyāre alive so they wouldnāt come off as āgeneric fodderā even though theyāre killed off immediately. I sort of imagined the girl (who I named Valerie) as a bit of tomboy, energetic, and probably someone who often oversteps her bounds but means well. And the boy (named Andrey) I imagined as someone whoās a bit passive and ought to develop a backbone, but since heās in the Survey Corps so he has the courage to fight for humanities freedom at the risk of his life.
Initially, I just had them standing and do a basic pose, but I found it a bit dull when I was drawing the roughs. So I went back to the drawing board and gave them poses that showed their personalities more.
And to be honest I donāt think Iāve ever drawn gore before. Blood yeah, but not likeā¦ person bitten in half and their innards and blood spilling out. Initially, I had planned for the girl to be eaten horizontally but I wasnāt too keen on drawing or even thinking about what the inside of a persons head and chest looks like (alas I get squeamish when I see internal organs š), on top of having no idea what to look up for reference without having questionable search history lol. So in short, original idea was a bit difficult so I decided to switch to having her bitten in half at the waist since I could actually find a reference for it in the main series (Franz, Furlan in the anime).
And last thing I wanna talk about is young Miche crying. When it came to his expression, I had in mind that he was mainly crying over his lack of power and frustration with not being taken seriously, on top of feeling grief over losing comrades heād known since his training days.
I was also not too confident in whether or not this should be something I should depict, since we have barely any idea for what Miche was like during his youth and as such I canāt say for sure whether him openly crying from grief would be something heād do. Though, him crying in the present had to come from somewhere, so it did make sense to keep it in and I think it does make for a more emotional and sympathetic scene. And personality wise, I think it contrasts the battle-hardened veteran we know in the present.
Pages 18 and 19:
The last two pages of the backstory are admittedly the pages Iām proud of most. For this part, I wanted to utilise pure visual storytelling to show how Micheās squad leader grew to trust his abilities and how that led to the young scout getting recognised and promoted to a leadership position. I did contemplate on adding dialogue boxes to explain what was happening like Iāve seen some manga/comics do, but in the end I wanted to trust my visual storytelling skills and let the drawings speak for themselves.
With page 18, I was purposeful in the position Miche was in, starting off as behind and face unseen but still being acknowledged by his leader, followed by him next to his leader (but technically behind just for composition and clarity) and shown from the side, to finally taking the last panel to himself to represent the squad leaderās utmost trust in Micheās abilities. And even with the dialogue, going from Miche saying he smells danger to him just saying what the danger is without mentioning his smelling abilities.
Though the storyboards and final comic differ in the final panel, and I did draw the 3/4 angle in the draft and even lined it, but it wasnāt sitting right with me and it didnāt have the impact I was hoping for. After some time spent lining other pages, I finally came back to this panel towards the end hoping to improve it. After doing some thumbnail sketches, I decided that doing a front angle shot would better emphasise the squad leaderās trust.
And then it all culminates in page 19 where Micheās squad leader recommends he get a promotion, and ends on a panel of Miche leading a team. Admittedly, the inclusion of Miche squad was a bit āfan serviceyā since I donāt think he wouldāve been been leading the same squad of people for so long (and in my mind he got the promotion when he was in his early 20ās), but I felt it was the clearest way for me to depict Micheās newfound leadership role and have some more familiar faces in the comic (and also it was a bit of feedback from my friend who wished to see more canon characters show up).
Young Miche:
Oh, and I might as well talk about my design choices for young Miche, too. I wanted his younger self to be distinct from his adult design while still retaining some elements that were recognisable as Miche. I kept his bangs and gave him a mullet since I thought itād make him look more youthful and wild. And well... as an Australian I thought it was a little amusing since mullets are iconic down here haha (for the record this was something I only realised after I drew the mullet).
For his facial hair I did debate on giving him a moustache or the very least some stubble, but in the end I decided it against it since it made him look older than I wanted (about 16-17), and is the same reason I didnāt draw him with the jawline beard. I did keep the chin beard though since he still looked young with it.
And for his eyes I still wanted to keep the same general eye shape as his older self, but I drew them doe-like to emphasise his youth, grief, and overall make him look pitiful given the contents of his backstory.
Ending:
When it came to drawing Miche crying, I wanted to be very careful in how I was gonna approach it. Initially, I had drew him with a more surprised expression as I originally imagined that Miche wasnāt the type of person to cry often, if it all (ignoring his death scene, of course). The first draft I drew of that panel didnāt come out right, and it was something I would revise a couple times only to find that those weren't turn out as I wanted as well. So, being stuck again, I returned to the original story for ideas.
Reading over the final scene again I noticed something interesting: Miche, and even Erwin barely react to the tears at all. It got me wondering if Miche crying in his sleep has happened before and perhaps Erwinās the only person heās confided it to. As one of the Survey Corps strongest soldiers and leaders, does he feel as though he has to keep on a strong appearance as reassurance for his fellow soldiers? And is it only when heās alone and has no control over his emotions like in sleep that grief and pain will surface? It seems he's more emotional than he lets on to be...
And even reading through some of the other Smartpass stories, it seems Miche is the kind of person who struggles with expressing himself. He gets embarrassed after thinking heās talking too much after reassuring Gelgar in 'Shelter from the Rain', and in 'First Time Around' he decides to keep quiet after Levi responds to him an unfriendly manner, with the text describing Miche as ānot being good with wordsā. Itās only when he notices the scent of tea that he opens up to Levi.
These observations helped inform me on how Miche should be drawn overall, with a focus on subtle expressions that would suit his quiet and reserved personality during more casual and āsafeā situations like in these stories.
So with those things in mind, I had a better idea of how I wanted to draw his expression. I trialed a version with a more neutral face that was in line with āWithout showing it in his faceā, which read to me that he had a clear expression when he realised he was crying, but that still looked off and wasn't evoking anything in me. Looking to the boards again, I figured that drawing him with a tinge of surprise would do it since that way he would look more sympathetic. And well, who wouldnāt be a little bit surprised when they wake up crying?
And yeah thatās pretty much all the stuff I felt I could talk about without my brain aching over what words to write. Iāve also started drafting the storyboard thumbnails for the next comic, but when itāll be finished and released I canāt say for sure currently. Unfortunately, I donāt have the same amount of free time I had when I was working on this comic and my art job is looking to get pretty full-on. But I'll probably work on it as much as I can and will likely post updates when I hit major milestones.
