Ozzy Von Eschen

Comics are an amazing story telling device that allows for both the visual and writing arts to come together beautifully. With a love for both drawing and writing, comics was a no brainer, and I have since honed my skills for it, though I am far from done learning and growing. With inspirations such as Avatar the Last Airbender, My Hero Academia, Devilman Crybaby, Homestuck, and even other media such as Skyrim and DnD, I have many greats to look up to. To quote one of my favorite characters, Izuku Midoriya, "you're an amazing person, so thats why I want to beat you!" 

This quote stuck with me, I want to be great and famous, not necessarily for the money (though the money wouldn't hurt lmao), but to share with the world what is deep in my soul and heart. Telling stories for me have never been light hearted or funny or cute. The best I can create is what I know, sharing pieces of myself and turning it into art for everyone to see and feel, and maybe people will be able to relate to parts of it. I think there is a yearning to be understood and seen, which I think that in it of itself is something people may be able to relate to.  

Many of my works end up being horror or angsty in nature because of this, and I think I will end up needing to teach myself to put in happier moments into my comics more often, to give people a reprieve from the dark and cruel. Surprisingly however, I also create many works about love. This may be romantic love, love for a craft, or for the people in my life who have left an impression or been supporters of my craft or just me. If its a feeling thats much too large to stay inside of me, it comes out onto paper, and with so many feelings and so much to say, comics was the only way I found that could hold these overflowing emotions spilling out of me properly. 

I try to treat each page as one large illustration, the panels intertwining and weaving together in a seamless movement for the eyes. I often end up with shapes hidden within the page, or an action line that follows either the word balloons or drawings. I hope that one day I will increase this ability to the point that it blows people away with the design of it all, and that my artistic talents will grow immeasurably so that I may live among my idols and seniors as an equal. Many of these idols have ended up being from other countries or featuring very diverse groups of people. 

Eastern storytelling mediums have become a huge part of life, mainly anime and manga. Nowadays there aren’t drastic differences between eastern stories and western stories as far as subject matter goes, but I do believe the pacing and style are still evident. The style associated with anime is no doubt something that is very much read as Japanese. It's a style I have adopted into my own, using it as inspiration for how I want my style to look. These influences have also led me down the path of my primary medium for storytelling, comics, and now almost exclusively draw them right to left.