Blue Pills - Kevin Merriman

1. Analyze:

(f) Falling Action

The main character falls in love with someone who has HIV. The more compelling part of the story for me was how the main character comes to terms with the entire situation while you’re there with him experiencing all of his emotions. Before the big reveal about HIV in their relationship, this is just a typical love story told in an interesting way. However, once the falling action begins, we have ourselves a unique (and quite real) story WITH great story telling.

2. Rating: R. frontal nudity, sexual content pgs. 96 and 105. Brandon’s post elaborates a little in part 3, I think. Worth reading.

3. Springboard:

In order to tell this story, I think the writer definitely had to know 2 things. 1 – He had to know about HIV and some of the medical treatments/effects and so forth that come with it, and 2 – He had to know about his own life, and how he felt about everything he was expressing or else the story wouldn’t be as clear or compelling.

So, I did some light research on the man himself – Frederik Peeters. I was reading some interviews linked on his website, and one of them talked about his sketchbooks vs. his comics. He views a sketchbook more as a place to experiment, do exercises, and have fun. While making comics, he says that the drawings serve the story and must be as easily read as possible, so drawings are more of a tool instead.

4. Apply:

In every sense of the meaning, this guy drew from LIFE. He’s using is own personal experiences, and the people in his own life to tell a story about his life. One application I thought of was how much sketching and practice he did to be able to draw these short-hand versions of himself and his loved ones. This is a great example of how to implement what you know from life into drawing – granted he does this in a much more factual and realistic way, but the principle still applies.