6 Days in Bang Tao: Chapters 1-4

[RyanE]

Thanks again, everybody.
That is a cat, mothos.
That was one of three cats that dissappeared in the Tsunami, and then casually returned to the ruins of their old house 3 weeks later.
The owners found them there waiting and took them to the camp.
The cat's name was "Ne Ga"
Which, coincidentally in Korean means "Get out of here". Cuz that cat must have run for the hills when he saw that wave coming.

I did some scans of the sketchbook I kept in Thailand, and figured I'd post some here to show the evolution from crappy sketch to comic.


The drawing in the lower right became the old woman in "Stories without words." (an amalgamation of that woman and how I remember the real woman that I didn't get a sketch of)

Here's a sketch from a refugee camp (the chicken coop was turned into sleeping quarters. At night, the chickens would try to come back and step on everyone. The woman is warning me about cobras in the woods) and the drawing I did based on it.


Here's some of my fellow volunteers


And here's the little nekkid boy



More coworkers....


And this drawing....

Became the diggin' toilets drawing in part 1.

Peace!
Ryan

[Michael Firman]

Cool, it's really neat to see your initial sketches. Thanks for posting 'em.

[RyanE]

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[Nofret]

Hahaha! Another great one I especially like the kitten (with rabies)panel

[Kazu]

Hehehehe. These comics rock.

[Hupselipup]

these are great fun to read. Thanks for posting the sketches. Always nice to get a look into the kitchen.

[bluebottle]

great stuff.
love how you handled these

[RyanE]

Another installment.
I hope I got across even a fraction of how awesome it was to hear this guy's story. He talked for over two hours, and I feverishly scribbled down every last word without breaking eye contact.









I've been staring at it too long to know if I like the way it turned out just yet. I thought I had created a really cool little way to handle the facial hair (with the little Z's for a mustache) until my students asked me to draw Spongebob characters and I realized where I had seen it before. Now I can't look at it without seeing Patrick Star's eyebrows growing out of Looh's nose.

[Zhat]

Wow. That's an amazing story.
I think you really captured the emotion and the pure will of everyone to keep going.
These comics are great and I think it's a wonderful way to journalize your trip. If you have any more, keep em coming.

[Jason]

I thought it was a pretty awesome story, so at least in my opinion you did a good job. These have all been really great so far.

[Monk]

RYAN. Thanks for telling that story. Incredible.

[RyanE]

Thanks Jason and Monk,
Here's another peek inside the kitchen.
While Looh was talking, I was standing there furiously writing his every word down. Each frame in the comic is my point of view as I write.


In between paragraphs, I quickly flipped back to do these few sketches as reference.





When back in Korea, I typed up the story almost word for word into a script (with plenty of shortening because the whole thing could have been a graphic novel) did the storyboards, and did a character design in the corner.......



And then went right into drawing the individual pages. (see above)

[bluebottle]

wow! that was absolulutey great.
met some people that experienced asme things in Sri Lanka.
some sad, sad stories in refugee camps and hospitals and everywhere
but the spirit of those people was still so free and not crushed.
all still full of hope. one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
will start mine once i get back home in two weeks or so.

great stuff!!!

[Phil McAndrew]

I really like this latest one a lot. Really great stuff, Ryan!

[RyanE]

Bluebottle-
AWESOME! I can't wait to read about your adventures. I dunno if I mentioned, but I'm donating all of these comics to Webcomics To The Rescue for a print anthology that will be raising money for the relief effort.
http://webcomicstotherescue.org
And if you do some comics about your experience, I know they'd love to publish them.
And that goes for all of you out there, I'm sure. Check it out.

Ryan