Bored Panda recently interviewed Xan, the talented creator behind the comic strip "Promptlypaneled" once more.
Xan describes her approach as spontaneous and driven by recent experiences. "Calling it a 'creative process' is generous! When I get the time, I'll sit down and write some comic ideas down, probably from experiences or thoughts from the last few days or weeks. Then, when I have a couple of hours to burn, I'll pick an idea and draw it up. I'm not a good habit-maker, and most of my spare time nowadays is spent volunteering and studying besides work, as I'm giving nursing school a go this school year."
The artist emphasizes the raw portrayal of women's struggles in her comics. She recounts a story about a woman receiving insensitive advice to lose weight after a suicide attempt. "Overall, I feel like the trick is to not tone anything down to make it more digestible. Half of the population are women, all with their own struggles, and if you open up a conversation with them, it tends to become clear very quickly that everyone's struggling in their own way. The other day, a fellow student opened up about how when she ended up in the hospital, a doctor told her she could do well to lose some weight. She was there after a suicide attempt.
Which is so, so not funny. But in a sick and twisted way, isn't it a little bit funny? This doctor, this man who went to school for some ten, fifteen years, doesn't have the tact to consider this woman's pain and instead feels like he should bring up her weight. It's honestly comical on a cosmic level. And the worst part? This probably also happened to a woman reading this very post.
As this isn't my experience, I would never make it into a comic. But I'm bringing it up as an example to say that these things, big or small inequalities, have humor in them. Humor because as a society, we're well beyond schedule to be better than we are."
Discussing the reception of her comics, Xan notes that she often receives critiques for not focusing enough on men's issues. She acknowledges the universal nature of struggles but remains focused on women-centric themes.
"So overall, critiques I get mention that I'm not talking about men enough. Or I bring up a woman issue, and they'll instead start talking about the underlying issue men have with it, or a parallel problem they have. Which I honestly don't think is a bad thing, if it isn't done in a way that pushes the female problem to the back. Often our struggles come from the same place: that being the patriarchy. So it's only natural to compare and relate.
I'm well aware that life sucks for everyone. Men and women alike are both struggling. I just choose to focus on mainly women-centric issues, as things like a doctor implying you'll feel better after losing some weight right after one of the darkest nights of your life, they mostly happen to women. Naturally, men have their own problems, but as I'm not a woman, I'm just not as familiar with them. And out of fear of not doing them justice, it's not my place to bring them up."
"Oh, and the noses. People who have nothing worthwhile to say will bring up that they don't like how I draw the noses in these comics. I'm a pretty classically trained artist honestly, so yes, I could draw different noses. But I don't want to. And everyone is just going to have to learn to live with that. Or not, it's not a big deal either way."
The artist, holding a master's degree in animation, also faces the challenge of balancing her passion for animation with her studies in nursing and work commitments. She envisions a future where she can merge her nursing career with her art.
"I have a background in animation, as I got my master's degree in animation and worked in a few studios on and off over the years. My biggest challenge here would be finding the time to start properly, as I'm very preoccupied with school besides my work nowadays. Nursing is a four-year course here to get your bachelor's degree and since I combine it with my job, it would take me even longer. Time spent drawing is time lost studying, and the course does take a lot of studying. It's a matter of finding a better balance!"
"Whether or not I finish nursing school will depend on a lot of things: my personal life, whether I still enjoy the work in the next year, and whether I'll miss art too much. I did start this endeavor with the mindset that if I want, I actually CAN be both a nurse and an artist. I'm obsessed with anatomy, I weirdly love hospitals and taking care of people, and life is too short not to try everything you want."
The animation I wouldn't see in a very different style from my comics, as that's fairly easy to work with. The brainchild of my abusive relationship would probably be in a more classic comic style (however I do illustrations on the side, here are some examples 1, 2, and 3). I've drawn comics since I could barely write and absolutely love the medium. In my ideal future image, I'm some sort of healthcare professional that has published their own comics on the side, or a weirdly medically qualified comic artist that volunteers in hospitals and nursing homes."
Despite initial reservations about TikTok, Xan plans to explore this platform through her upcoming volunteering work with children. She told Bored Panda, "TikTok frightens me still, I won't lie! But I've got plans to volunteer at a local poverty shelter during free-play afternoons for kids soon, and they apparently are all obsessed with TikTok, of course. I'm sure I
'll pick up how the app works and what young audiences tend to gravitate towards there. Though overall, I don't think I'd adjust the content all that much for a TikTok audience!"
