Behind the SpaceboyCantLOL comics stands Mohit Srivastava from India, who fell in love with comics when he was a kid. We contacted the artist to find out how his journey as a comic artist began.
"My parents tell me that once I found a few comic books as a kid and I fell in love with them. So other kids my age were learning to read fairy tales and I was here, running around with my cousins’ graphic novels, just to look at pictures since the advanced English used in those didn’t make any sense to me. Growing up, I would just draw comics on every piece of empty paper that I could find in the house and even at the end of test papers in school. That way, I have attracted a lot of detention but I have no regrets. Currently, I am working as a creative lead in a US-based company. But my job is not entirely about comics so I keep the love for comics alive through my social media page," he said to Bored Panda.
The artist says his younger sister pushed him to create a comic page and he went through with the idea.
"I am an astrophile, so when I was creating my comic page, I wanted that side of me to come out. So I called it 'spaceboy can’t lol' because I thought spaceboy would represent me and I would draw comics about funny situations in my life where I am at the receiving end. I did that for some time but slowly realized that there’s much more that I want to do, like movie spoofs and dark humor. I now realize that my comic portfolio has turned out to be a mix of everything, with just a single filter—Filters don’t exist."
We asked Mohit where he draws ideas from and what artists inspire him: "Looking at other artists’ work inspires me. Sometimes a similar concept or idea is envisioned by different creators and it’s quite insightful to see how different members of the community represent that same idea, differently. A few pages that I love on Instagram are mrlovenstein, extrafabulous_comic, loading.artist, and war.and.peas. To this day, I don’t know how and where I get my ideas from. It’s like when I am not even trying, I get the funniest ideas but if I sit down specifically to ideate, I can’t think to save my life. My brain and I run on different schedules."
Mohit said one of his favorite subjects to create about is superheroes and their daily struggles.
"One of my oldest memories of my childhood is about a red cape, soaring high in the sky and me really enjoying watching it on TV. But this wasn’t Superman. In fact, it was a cartoon show called Super Ted and it was him who introduced me to the superhero genre as a kid. I was so fascinated by that cartoon that my love for superheroes never abated, but in fact, kept growing. I probably draw comics because I wanted to create my own superheroes growing up. So there’s no wonder why I draw superheroes and pop culture-related stuff quite often.
Mohit started including dark undertones in his comics to see how the audience would react, and they seemed to love it. It also turned out to be a perfect way to humorously talk about ridiculous and gloomy aspects of our lives.
"I got into dark humor just to see how it works for my page and now I know people love dark stuff like nothing else. My page started growing rapidly once I got into dark humor. I realized that while creating dark humor, I would actually feel better because dark humor is about making fun of things that have an automatic perception of being painful. But when you make fun of it, you take away its power to affect you negatively. When I make dark comics, I really feel as if I am getting to fully express myself without having to disturb anyone with my sometimes unsettling point of view."
We asked Mohit about the struggles and the most rewarding parts of creating comics: "Most challenging—consistency in posting. I try my best to post every week but life keeps taking me on different trips and I have still not been able to get consistent. Most rewarding—recognition and appreciation. I didn’t think I'd be getting so much love from all over the world for my art, but somehow I did. I have followed Bored Panda for a while now and suddenly, my work is also on it. These are the exciting moments I find very rewarding."
Speaking of recognition, the artist says the proudest moment of his career as a comic artist so far was a grant from Comic Con India to create his own graphic novel in 2012.
Although he gets various feedback from the audience ranging from love to hate, Mohit says that engagement keeps him motivated.
"The best motivation hands down is seeing my followers engaging with my work as comments, direct messages, and shares. Their excitement about my work is truly motivating for me. I have seen people react within the full spectrum of emotions, which is great because reactions are my guide in my journey of creating comics and growing."
Lastly, we asked Mohit for advice to any struggling artists that might need it right now:
"My only advice to them is, don’t get caught in strategizing about your page, posts, timings, hashtags, etc., and just start and enjoy the process. Do it for yourself and not others so that you are fully satisfied with your own work. The audience will come inevitably, sooner or later. Also, once you have the page ready and people start commenting, it’s a good practice to take out the time to engage with every single person who is making the effort to comment on your work. This small habit has helped me grow and stay motivated."
