"Diary of Red Panda" is a comic that I, Asnawy Mohamad, created to share my experiences as a Cham American. Cham are an Indigenous group whose ancestors link back to the Ancient Kingdom of Champa, which sat in present-day Central and Southern Vietnam. The Kingdom of Champa existed from 192 CE until 1832 CE when the last principality was annexed by Emperor Minh Mạng. The Cham people have endured generations of forced migrations, cultural erasure, and genocide. I can't speak for the experiences of every member of the Cham diaspora but I create this comic to make my existence known. We are not an extinct people. I hope you enjoy my silly comics about a red panda from Central Pennsylvania making silly little diary comics.
If you would like to read more, you can find new comic strips every Wednesday at 3 PM on Webtoon Canvas or on Instagram.
#1 Well Informed Citizen
Pup 2 (sunglasses) is mostly quiet, genuine, and mysterious. However, he likes to be a non-biased, well-informed citizen by diversifying the news outlets that he reads from.
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#2 I'll Be Home Late
As a kid, like many other kids that had immigrant parents, my parents would work long hours almost every day. Many times I would be jealous of other kids that had their parents home all of the time.
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#3 Wait, What’s Going On?!
Hamster can be a little dramatic, but who wouldn’t be for a sweet treat? It’s the only thing that can bring happiness in this bleak world.
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#4 How Are You Gonna Do That?
Red Panda struggles a lot with completing tasks and staying focused. Here Red Panda brings up solutions to this never-ending struggle of living in a world that measures people’s worth with their productivity.
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#5 What If Our Brains Are Connected To Like A Large Library?
I have always been fascinated by the thought of collective consciousness. I’ve been sitting on this gag since the beginning of this comic when it was only done in pencil. When I switched to inking my strips, I found this gag a lot easier to realize.
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#6 Opinion
Red Panda and Rabbit spend a lot of time having discussions. Rarely do they come to the same conclusions. I enjoy this dynamic because it lets the reader see different angles in an argument. I make my own views public and I have definitely seen my own fair share of hate comments. I do not regret being vocal.
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#7 You're Wasting Time With Sleep
I go through moments when all I can do is sleep and other moments when I get no sleep trying to do the most with my days. Also, this is a Mac Miller (RIP) reference, if you haven’t noticed.
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#8 I’m Here…
I’m a big fan of horror movies so I had to express my love for them in one of my strips. If you watched the Scream franchise, this scene might be familiar to you. What caught my attention the most in Scream 2 was the sign “No Eating in Living Room”. The sign gets cut off with the composition for just a few seconds, which only makes the sign read “No Living”. Being a film major with a focus on animation, this small moment left a mark on me. This was a small detail that most people would miss out on but it adds to the eerie tone of the scene.
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#9 Alone In The Woods
Rabbit is very knowledgeable when it comes to nature. The outdoors also acts as a safe haven from the stressful responsibilities that society pushes on the general population.
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#10 Dry Erase
The concept for this was in regard to how fragile human existence could be. This relates to how a lot of Cham history is lost due to cultural erasure.
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#11 Lemme Grab A Coat
Hamster loves to talk about her time at work, what else can I say.
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#12 Whoops
Volleyball is to "Diary of Red Panda" just like how Calvin Ball is to "Calvin and Hobbes" or ice skating is to "Peanuts". In "Diary of Red Panda", volleyball is used to share my personal experience with sports and other experiences that people go through.
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#13 Tungsten Boride
This is a love letter to all the people that feel insignificant and also to the creator of "Calvin and Hobbes", Bill Watterson.
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#14 Corporate Overlords
When creating these strips, I enjoy inserting small moments that Red Panda and Hamster share. These are often inspired by interactions with my girlfriend and I.
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#15 It's Alive
I watched a supercut of Frankenstein references to find a bunch of different compositions for this strip. Mary Shelley’s "Frankenstein" had a huge impression on me when I was in grade school.
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#16 Fitness Court
There was a time in my life when I lived in the hometown of world renowned artist Keith Haring. There was a fitness court dedicated to him but I noticed that they kept out many details about activism in his life. The world loved his art but they failed to share the messages that he wanted to put out to the world.
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#17 Ap
As a teenager, I was much like Pup 1 in regards to his studious behavior. There’s nothing wrong with doing great in school but sometimes you need to take time to be a kid.
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#18 In Your Head
I feel like I can never express exactly what I want with language. However, I find language funny since people can always misconstrue your words. I tend to do this a lot and take what people say very literally most of the time.
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#19 Keep Dreaming
The frustrations that a lot of artists go through can be heard in a lot of rap songs. It’s no wonder that a lot of rappers can be seen as arrogant/cocky when they have overcome so many obstacles.
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#20 Whippoorwill
There is a song that I enjoy titled “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” by Hank Williams, which contains the lyrics.
Hear that lonesome whippoorwill
He sounds too blue to fly
The midnight train is whining low
I'm so lonesome, I could cry
He sounds too blue to fly
The midnight train is whining low
I'm so lonesome, I could cry
I never fully understood these lyrics until I went camping with a friend in the State College area. I heard a whippoorwill cry for the first time and my brain exploded.
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