This project is a webcomic based on personal experiences dealing with mental health and self-care in hopes to make it relatable for other people who struggle with coping with these topics. The comic series is lighthearted and exaggerated on these topics, but includes truths and realities that people with anxieties and depression episodes may experience. The purpose of the webcomic is to comment on how we can help those who suffer from anxiety and depression, and provide a different approach to coping with these moments. My process for creating the webcomics started with brainstorming for each comic. I would go over notes and worksheets I got in therapy, reflect on my own experiences, and look at inspiration from other webcomic artists who have discussed similar topics.

Once I decided on a topic, I began the scripting process in a Word document and it would be a basic outline at first. Each panel was a point in the outline, and I would make little notes about progression of the topic. I would go panel by panel imagining what the scene would look like, emotions, and possible dialogue that would happen. Working on the script led into the first draft of the webcomic itself. During the drafting process of the comic, I would remove, add, and move panels around to make a stronger sense of the topic discussed in the webcomic. At times, the script would change including less or more information depending on how it looked visually in the comic. After the details were finalized during the drafting stage of the webcomic, I worked on linework and coloring leading to resizing the comics for posting on Tumblr. I ended with Tumblr being the final presentation for the project as this is where many webcomic artists keep their collection of comics.

The impact of this project will allow people who view the comics to relate to them, and know they are not alone in their feelings. One main thing with mental health is feeling alone and isolated, as though no one understands what one is going through. Comicbook writer Alan Moore has stated, “Art makes us feel less alone. It makes us think: somebody else has thought this, somebody else has had these feelings”, which is the core purpose of me working on this webcomic. Through the webcomic, people will fell connected, feel as though they are not the only ones who have experienced these feelings, and find other ways to cope that they may have overlooked before. The way they will see other ways to support those with mental health problems and find ways to cope through the comic is from the events the unfold in each individual comic. The webcomic series I am creating is not one of cohesion through a long story, but rather small instances within each comic that focus on a concept. Another form of impact this project will have is showing how important it is to discuss mental health and self-care. Even though in recent years, the discussion of mental health has become more public, it still has stigmas that go along with it. My hope is through the webcomic series we can continue to discuss mental health publicly, and show the many ways of handling mental health on a personal level.