Bored Panda reached out to Lark once again, who told us more about her comics.
First of all, the artist shared what challenges she faces regarding translating her own work experiences into comic form.
“One of my biggest challenges in making not only comics, but comic strips, is the format and size of the media I have to work within. Comic strips are usually 2-6 panels long, and in my case, they have to fit a single Instagram post. Sometimes I want to convey complex ideas with the story, and I have to manage to, somehow, fit them into this limited space. With many years of practice, I've learned to exercise economy when writing: what's the smallest amount of drawing and text I can do to completely express this exact message? That's what I have to do. Many times, you have to leave some of this message between the lines and trust the readers will be able to read it. As an author, it is your responsibility to communicate what you want, but it's very satisfying and rewarding when readers meet you halfway and get the subtext even if it's not obvious!” explained Lark.
Everyone working in a corporation has their fair share of embarrassingly funny stories. Lark shared hers:
“Probably one of my favorites was our end-of-the-year gift from the company. Where I live, it's a custom for companies to give all employees a gift for the holidays. It's often a box full of nice food and treats, and sometimes it comes with a really nice present, like speakers or something more expensive.
There was this year when the company I used to work at gave everyone just a pair of socks, as a joke because socks are universally known to be a bad gift (the true joke was that they really thought they were being "disruptive" and employees would actually like it). Of course, everyone hated it and complained about it with their leaders. We spent the holidays watching people from other companies posting all the nice gifts they got, and we were stuck with a cheap pair of socks.
But the unbelievable part of it was that next year, people had great expectations that, to compensate for last year, they'd get a nice gift for a change and they all got..... socks AGAIN!
At that time, I wasn't working there anymore, but a former coworker told me about it and I couldn't help but make a comic implying that every year, Mr. Catch (the bad-guy-boss cat that runs the office in my comics) would steal his human's socks to give as gifts for the employee-birds!”
The artist also shared a bit about her creative process: “For the birds' office comics specifically I had these points of the plot I had to meet. For example, I knew I had to give one of the characters, Joe, a series of heartbreaks so when he finally met his soulmate, it'd be way more impactful. I spend a lot of time thinking of the feelings I want to put in the comics: naivety, expectations, frustrations... But I'm at my most creative state when I'm relaxed, so what usually happens is: after thinking a lot about these concepts, I can finally find a way to tell the story when I'm in the shower or in bed about to sleep. What I do is I have my phone or a notebook next to me all the time so I can write down these ideas, in order to execute them days or weeks after I had them.”
Lark’s comics have gained a lot of traction on social media. We asked the artist how this platform influenced the way she creates and shares her work. The artist commented:
“As I said before, the room each social media offers to share my art has a huge impact on the shape and size I give each comic strip. But my favorite thing about it is the comments section. I always read all the comments, it gives me an idea about how the public is receiving the story, if they understand the plot and the punchline, if they like or dislike each character, and what they expect to happen. Part of building the story is giving people what they want, but to be an author is to find the delicate balance between attending the public's demand and twisting their expectations in order to surprise them.”
And lastly, the artist added: “I'd like to thank everyone who read my comics. I really appreciate all the engagement and love I receive from my public, it's often what keeps me creating my stories. I hope more and more readers find my work and appreciate it too. I'm uploading the whole story of the birds on my social media in a way to make it easier for people to read it in the right order (you can find them in English on Instagram, and on TikTok).
Also, that I always add subtle details to many scenes and characters, I hope you enjoy finding them!”
