Tucker King
Creator Notes
My comic is about the wild adventures of the Vegan Prince in past France. He is attempting to save his love, the Vegan Princess, from the savage French carnivores that are forcing her to eat meat! There are many mythical creatures, such as walking trees, in my comic, but they are minor characters. The two "leads" are the Vegan Prince and his sidekick, Zeus the Flying Jellyfish. I chose to draw all my characters as stick figures because that is the only type of drawing I can do. I started out doing short comic strips, but it got to hard to have to tell a story in short little panels. Therefore, I changed my layout to have a whole page tell one story, which worked out much better. I chose to tell this story because I'm a vegan myself, so I thought it would be interesting to place a vegan in the past. I also tried to put in stories from my time as a vegan back then, such as the dirt tale, in order to inject some humor and show how ignorant some people are about veganism.
I tried to make basic characters since I can't really draw, so I didn't want to make them super complex. Therefore, I didn't really think about what the characters were like, I just drew what they looked like (and something easy to draw!). I definitely thought of my story first and the characters came later. I'm really proud that I drew the whole thing by myself! I thought it would be hard, and it was, but I have a finished 9-page comic, so go me! I also like how I varied the layout, I think it creates interest. Next time, I think I'd like to spend more time on the art and making it look good. I think I rushed it a little this time.
Comic Review
The first time I read Tucker's comic, I knew by the minimalist style (and use of stick figures) that it would be more of a humorous comic than a dramatic one (although if you're a vegan, those French carnivores are exceedingly dramatic). Through reading it, you fall in love with the relationship between the protagonist and his trusty sidekick that is Zeus, a friendly flying jellyfish that enjoys baby pictures. This comic is very punctual about it's ideas and opinions (namely on veganism vs. meat-eating), but it portrays that same boldness in the formatting at times. Page 4 has a nice example: when there is no food for our poor vegan protagonist, he is offered dirt, to which he impolitely declines with a bold panel all to itself: NO THANKS. This boldness happens again (with a little more profanity on page 6), clearly letting the reader know what the mood is. Most of the story is understandable without the pictures, but the pictures bring that laughable air to surround the words that we love so much.
Coming from this artist, I look forward to seeing bolder linework to make the story pop out at you even more than it already does. And perhaps there will be a sequel in which the carnivores may be drawn as more creature-like to fit how the Vegan prince perceives them more accurately.
- Meredie Johnson