First want to wish huge happy year of the tiger from both of us at Adopted The Comic!!
It was great to do a strip that had no characters in it =D. Great idea from bert this one! I think many of use have been in that family tree in school situation. But doing this comic does make me realise how little i know about my (adopted) extending family past grandparents/cousins. Hummm… maybe i might ask my parents a bit more next time i see them =).
Art wise, this week i challenged myself to learn colour holds (which is when you change the colour of line to get interesting effects & transparent objects =). was fun for me, hope you enjoy it too =)
I thought it would be nice to show a pic of a family tree adoption workshop i was part of two years ago (with Mother’s Choice part of the 1st HK Adoption Festival, 2008). Not a great pic cos it was so huge i struggle to take a pic of it =P But you can see Hong Kong harbor in the background =).
I have read through a lot of these, the message I am getting is that you are minimizing adoptee’s issues. Maybe that is just my own bias, but I can see why adoptive parents would really like these.
Hi joy. Here at Adopted – The Comic we respect different view points and respect that you would openly leave a differing view about the comic. I’m sorry that you did not necessary find what you were looking for with this comic. Thank you for your comment and taking the time to read the comic.
Hi Joy,
Thank you for your comment and perspective. Our goal is not to minimize, but to open up how we approach these issues. As adoptees ourselves, many of these issues have been taken “too” seriously in the sense that parents and professionals have pushed issues that we and other adoptees were not ready for or were not experiencing. We believe it is time to add levity into the seriousness of these issues as paths to healing. We are serious about adoptee issues, but we also believe adoption is not the only issue in our lives. If we can laugh about the the range of other things in our life (as any newspaper comic points out to), we can laugh about being adopted as a way to normalize our experiences.
I appreciate you challenging our thinking.
Best,
Bert
My 16-year-old, adopted from China, loves these comics. And she really “gets” and identifies with the point of view. Keep at it, please!
I don’t understand. It’s probably not meant to mean anything to me, but I’m still curious to know.
Is it that adoptees have to put a lot of glitz and trinkets on their family tree to try to cover up the fact that the info is not actually true for them, or is it that biological parents will list the family history without any fanfare whereas adoptive parents make grafting an adoptee onto their family tree into a much bigger deal?
It’s because adoptee family trees tend to be much more complicated than a non-adoptee’s family tree.
Hi VHM. I just wanted to add a little to what bert says. Something i think it’s good not to explain everything 100% (even though me and bert always tend to =P) with art and even comics… but like any art, people that view art bring their own thoughts and experiences and even if the artist(s) intentions were one thing, other people might see a totally different thing all together. So i think it’s really interesting that you saw it from a point of view that (at least for me) I had not considered.
So even though you asked us what our meaning or intention was, I actually find more interesting what you (and other people) see from each strip and glad that it promoted you to ask yourself the questions =D. I maybe didn’t explain myself that well =P Either way i’m saying thanks for comment =D
Great points, Jess! My comments are merely what my intentions were when writing it, but I’m under no illusion that readers may not see it that way. I had honestly never thought of your interpretation of it. Thanks for sharing!
looks like a biological child has a straight and narrow path(ruler) of his family tree. as with adoptees, the imaginations of their family tree is full of possibilities, mystery, and wonders–one of my fav things to think about when i think of my birthfamily :3