For this narrative I’m referencing the classic film “It’s A Wonderful Life“ in which the main character, George Bailey, is so distraught with his circumstances that he chooses to jump off of a bridge, but is saved at the last minute by an angel named Clarence. The typographic treatment is further referencing the film’s title card. The whole film is actually available on youtube for free in it’s entirety, and is fantastic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl0BWUsAYyY&list=PL9EF004C90CEB8483&index=1
There were so many parallels between the narrative and the story, I thought it would be best to bring a mention of it into the narrative. The self comparison to Shakespeare’s sense of loss and pointlessness crossed with the fear of the unknown also seemed an apt parallel to make, since when ever I’ve been in a state of serious depression, I tend to exaggerate or blow things out of proportion seeing life as a stage of sorts.
It’s awesome unintentional timing that this happens to be around Christmas time for this page. More to come soon!
Quarterly Stories is an autobiographical comic about life, love, loss, and depression. Ultimately, it’s about the search for meaning in one’s life. Independent Comics had a long history of serialized confessional autobio floppies that would sometimes reveal things about the human condition that we are afraid to touch on, and that’s the goal and hope for this comic, to bring back that form of storytelling. I’m also lettering and inking everything in this work by hand, because I’ve gotten to a point where that’s an enjoyable process for me. I hope it is for you guys as well!
Joshua Kemble is a full time Art Director, freelance illustrator, and a Xeric Award Winning Cartoonist. He currently working on writing and illustrating his own comic books, while creating freelance illustrations for t-shirts, magazines and othermedia. His illustration clients have ranged from Scholastic to Random House and his comic work has been published in various anthologies and self published mini- comics.
An unabashed comic book geek, Kemble was born in 1980 in Tarzana, California, grew up in the Antelope Valley. He received his MFA in Illustration from California State University of Long Beach, and now resides in Lancaster, CA with his wife and fellow artist, Mai S. Kemble, and his son Benjamin.
He also occasionally teaches art classes in graphic design and illustration at the college level, and is the co-host of the illustration podcast Big Illustration Party Time.
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