blog – Page 11 – SKETCHMAN BORIS

Cartoon blog day 35: English teacher

20181122 CBD35 English class

i sometimes think back on how arrogant I was. My plan seemed simple then: Quit my corporate job, find a teaching job (to teach English/French) to make money and pay the bills while I try to make a name for myself as a cartoonist, comic book artist.

Why teaching? I figured it would be a job which would give me enough free time to work on my art.

I said I was arrogant because I was so sure that I would find a teaching job easily. As achievable as it was I forgot that I chose to do it in Bangkok, Thailand. I love it here but there are still a lot of people who think only native speakers, meaning people from the U.S, UK, Australia and so on who can teach proper English.

I am proud of myself for finding the teaching job and spending the free time creating cartoons, webcomics, podcasts, videos about movies and blogging. I am also proud of the company which hired me as teacher.

When I see my friends on WhatsApp group complain about MONDAYS and waiting the test of the week for FRIDAY. I see the time fly as I enjoy teaching and creating. So I consider myself lucky.

I am a strong believer in learning by doing because I don’t have a choice and I hope I will get better and give better content here and the other platforms on which I create. I am only getting started, If you are an artist talk to people and keep yourself informed.

Always have a plan even if the plan only makes sense to you.

Bonne journée.

Cartoon blog day 34: Indian names

Let me tell you a story which might resemble that of Gulliver’s travels. I was born and raised in India. I did my higher studies in Europe and now I am living in Thailand. I remember how people found my Indian last name difficult to pronounce. They could do it if they tried but they were worried they would say it wrong and offend me in a way.

When I came to Thailand their names were even longer than the Indian names I knew.

I don’t know to what extent but there are many similarities between Indian and Thai cultures. Their language seem to come from Sanskrit which if I have to simplify, is for south Asian languages what Latin is for French, English, Spanish (to name the the ones I know).

Thanks to the book Bridging the gap by Kriengsak Niratpattanasai, I understood the reason behind the long last names in Thailand. According to the book, Thai people submit their first name and last name to the government officials. “The office then searched the records for identical last names. The name had to be unique and different from those already in use […] As time went by, unique names became harder to come by. More and more syllables were tacked on, resulting in the long names we see today.” (Bridging the gap, Niratpattanasai)

I also found another thing, I don’t know if everybody in Thailand will agree though. In Europe, Indians are usually seen as the shy ones, in Thailand however they are seen as highly competitive, in certain cases aggressive.

Interesting isn’t it?

Cartoon blog day 33: Moustache

Do you remember the movie FIGHT CLUB from 1999?

Like most young men I was obsessed with this movie. After The Matrix (the first movie) this was the movie which made me understand that there is more to a movie than what you see on the screen.

When I watched it then I understood it as a calling against the capitalist system which we need to fight against, I didn’t do anything about it because I was too busy studying for my Bachelor in International Management.

I am not that old, the movie came out in 1999, I watched it in 2008 for the first time.

When I watch it again now, I see it as a movie which questions the place of Men in society.

In India, moustache was and is a sign of masculinity, I remember being jealous of my friends who had thick facial hair. Slowly that jealousy faded away. Even now I have a light and most of the time no facial hair, because I understood that there is more to a man than having facial hair.

You are maybe waiting for an answer about Men’s place in society. I believe it’s not a written and done snapshot, it’s a work in progress.

Our place is at the table same as women’s to figure out the future of this experiment we call civilization.

Bonne journée.

Cartoon blog day 32: Perfume

Our sense of smell is very interesting isn’t it?

Whether it’s your apartment where you can get used to the smell given a certain moment so much so you have to go out and come back again inside to smell what your visitors smell.

If you really care about what your apartment smells, looks like, I suggest you invite people. I live in a small one room apartment and I invite people so I can force myself to clean it regularly.

Sometimes, I give up, it’s not about not having time it’s just you become accustomed to your own mess, whether it’s your room or in your decisions.

I firmly believe in this: Your beliefs are valid if you can talk about them comfortably with other people.

Especially as an artist you might have a dream, that doesn’t mean it’s the right dream. Of course apart from my handful of close friends nobody including my wonderful mother can understand the joy of storytelling especially telling stories in comics.

You don’t need to constantly get approval of the path you choose but you do need to keep yourself in check and your closest friends will be the safety net when you make mistakes. The only way to teach, learn and grow IS by sharing as much as possible because it’s by being out of your comfort zone that you’ll improve.

Bonne journée.

Cartoon blog day 31: RIP Stan Lee

20181113 RIP Stan Lee

I am still sad. Even before knowing Stan Lee, you sort of knew him. In certain documentaries about comics, people criticized him for taking the credit for solely creating characters like Spider-man when Steve Ditko came up with the brilliant design we now know and love.

But Stan always took the time to mention the talented artists who worked with him Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita and so on.

Everybody loves Stan Lee, he was our link to what people referred to as Golden Age of comics.

I truly mean it, his legacy lives on. An artist always puts a little bit of himself in everything they do, in that way those who looked up to his characters also looked up to Stan Lee, the author.

He taught me that it was cool to be good, you can use your superpowers to help people. When most boys went to the gym to impress girls in high school, the loser I was I went to the gym to look as close as I can to his characters hoping it would give me superpowers.

We have lost a living superhero who made even a skinny, shy kid from India dream his way out of his shell, thank you Stan Lee, Rest In Peace.