"My name is Alan and I'm a part-time artist, full-time web developer based in the US. I created the comic Super Combo Deluxe," the artist behind Super Combo Deluxe told us. "I've been obsessed with drawing cartoons since I was a little kid. It's something that has stuck with me over the years, through art school and into adulthood. However, it really has ramped up over the past 5 years with the introduction of digital art and how easy it is to pick up an iPad and just draw. I started creating digital art through fan art, mostly video game characters, and posting them to Instagram. Eventually, I just felt unfulfilled drawing someone else's creations and wanted to develop my own."
"One day, while watching a Loading Artist stream on Twitch, I started thinking how fun it would be fun to create a comic. The rest is history. I started out by drawing the comics and showing them to my close friends, who pushed me to keep going. Eventually, I started posting them online—first my website, then social media," Alan explained to us.
When asked where he usually looks for inspiration, Alan said this: "My inspiration usually comes from everyday life. I'll be doing something completely normal and go off on these wild tangents, creating a story from the weirdest outcomes my choices might create. On the other hand, if I'm really struggling for inspiration, I'll usually read some other comics I follow. It's really uplifting to see the different views and perspectives that come out of some comics. Seeing an effortless joke executed perfectly just gets the creative juices flowing and pushes me to try harder."
Turns out, Alan's biggest inspiration is his 5-year-old daughter! "Her imagination is just so inventive and pure. We'll start out doing something completely normal, like playing with dolls—and eventually I'll find myself chasing her around as a giant monster kitty who only eats marshmallows—and she's bouncing around pretending to be a marshmallow. I always keep my phone nearby when playing with her because I never know when I'll find inspiration for a comic in what we're doing—and need to jot it down. She's my little gold mine."
"The thing I enjoy the most about making comics is when people tell me I made them laugh. I just find it crazy that through my drawings, I was able to alter someone's mood for the better, if only for a couple seconds," the artist told Bored Panda. "The best ones are when someone tells me I made them spit out their drink or made it go through their nose. Those comments are totally worth all the work I put into my comics."
"Another great perk from making comics is the awesome community of other comic creators you get to meet. I had no idea how many comics were out there when I started—there are literally thousands of them. Over the past year, I've met some really great people who I talk to on a daily basis. I would have never met them without my comic," Alan added.
The thing Alan finds the most challenging about creating comics trying to be funny consistently. "I'm not a writer in the least bit, so I find it really hard to piece together a joke from my head to what you see in the final comic. It usually takes me 4-5 rewrites of the dialogue to get something I'm happy with. Sometimes my comics will completely change from how I first envision them, through rewrites," the artist explained.
