Bored Panda had the pleasure of getting in contact with Parzival to learn more about him and his comics.
First of all, Parzival shared more about his background.
“I’m just a guy from England who draws comics for fun. I’ve been making them for about 1.5 years now, fitting drawing in around my other commitments. It all started when I discovered Pokémon, Digimon, and subsequently, anime as a kid. It blew my little mind, and I’ve not been the same since. I studied graphic design at university, but deep down I always knew it was illustration that I loved. I’m very glad to be pursuing it now!”
We were curious to know what drew Parzival to the world of comics, to which he replied: “As a young kid, I devoured a weekly English comic called the Beano. I would bring big stacks of them into the toilet, and read them until my legs went numb. Since then, I got into manga and anime. I think Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball) and Oda (One Piece) have had a large influence on my style, and Luffy and Goku are big personal inspirations! Bryan Lee O’Malley (Scott Pilgrim) is also an aesthetic influence. Shen Comix is probably my favourite online comic creator. He’s got such keen observations, and tight punchlines. Full of admiration for him.
Before I was making comics, I was making animations on YouTube, which helped me develop many of the skills I use now. It’s funny, you start with one character and an idea, and slowly a world starts forming around him. Suddenly you find yourself with a whole cast of characters, and a pet goose!”
We already mentioned what moments inspire Parzival to create, but here he expanded on that.
“I like to share beautiful little moments with people. My ‘Hide and Seek’ comic resonated with so many people, which was so cool to see! I’d noticed, as I would often suggest playing hide and seek at parties, the people would immediately drop their adult facade and start running around like excited children as soon as you started counting down. It’s the joy and humour I found in observing these moments that I wanted to share with everyone else!”
Parzival also shared a bit of a sneak peek into his creative process: “I start by trying to think up as many ideas as possible, and then I choose the least bad idea from that list. Sometimes I will start working with an idea I don’t like, but as I start sketching it out, I find that funny things start popping out. Often I find that comics that I didn’t think were particularly special end up really resonating with people—you can never tell!
Once I’ve got some sketches I like, I upload them to my computer, and start on line art and colouring. The process probably takes about 5+ hours, depending on how complex the panels are, or how important the backgrounds need to be—still developing my environmental skills, but slowly improving!”
As for the audience’s takeaway, Parzival commented: “I enjoy creating visually appealing work, and my desire is that when people see my work, they’re reminded of the fun and beautiful things in their own lives. I believe that good art helps people see beyond the routines and patterns that trap us, and hints at the beauty that’s already there, if we’re paying attention. We all need these reminders! I would be thrilled if my silly little comics could help nudge people to look past the daily grey and engage with the beauty right under their noses!”
