Hermit Haven

Initially starting out as a couple of silly doodles and ideas, Hermit Haven is a currently developing, comedy-based comic that explores relationships between human and not-so-human characters. The project is based on my love for creatures of urban legends and folklore, and my enjoyment of the comic/graphic novel medium.

As of now, the comic contains 3 characters: Atlas (part human, part moth), Emile (human park ranger), and Joseph (big chill monster guy).

I spent my fall semester developing these characters; starting with some exploratory sketching, then wrote, sketched out, and finished off a 5 page comic! In figuring out how these characters interacted with each other, the idea for the comic itself seemed to form naturally, and it was a very fun process overall.

In my spring semester, I ended up taking a different direction with the project. I took a step back from writing and character designing (two things I greatly enjoy doing) to hone my skills in background design (which I don’t enjoy doing as much but still had fun with)! I also finished off the semester by making a piece with cryptids in a more “real world” location, for the purpose of trying to explore how different characters in the comic later could potentially interact with each other and the world around them!

Even after all of this, these pieces are only just the beginning. I plan to continue working on making more short comics with more characters in more silly situations post-grad! If you took time to scroll through this whole page, thank you for taking a look around!

Special Thanks

I’d like to thank several people:

• My amazing professors: Amory, Daniel, and Jeremy, for teaching me how to eat a muffin properly (among so many other things!)
• Everyone in my ILUS-401 class this spring, for making the last few months of school some of the best!
• The folks in ILUS 500, for keeping me sane and social in a post-lockdown world
• The Little Critter Collective, for giving me great people to continue making art with after school
• All of my friends (special shout-out to Aidan) and my family, for being cool and rad over these 4 wild years!