Welcome to the first ever Adopted – The Comic Jan 2010 Newsletter.

First, me and Bert hope you had a brilliant holiday, and wish you all the best for 2010! =D.

And second, we’d like to thank you all for the support you have shown the comic so far =).

For our first news we thought that you’d give you an inside scope with a more in-depth interview into what drove us to start this comic and maybe share a funny story or two.

How long have you been exploring adoption in your work?

From a young age it was clear that i was destined to be an artist. While i loved to painting and draw when i was younger, i choice to pursue photography/video at uni. I was pretty resistant to using adoption in my work for many many years, and often told my tutors i wouldn’t look at my adoption claiming it didn’t effect who i was. It wasn’t until my last year of uni that they said we could look at any subject we wanted. As if in an instant my whole view point of adoption changed. Since then (when i was 22 yrs) i have been exploring adoption through my art practice ever since (which can be found at www.jessica-emmett.com).

Though i have been using adoption as a subject in my artwork since 2004, it wasn’t until 2008 i started to meet, do art workshops & talks within the adoption communities =).

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Ever since a young age, I have been very interested in my adoption. But it probably wasn’t until the end of high school/beginning of college, when leaving the comfortable confines of home, that I became really serious about it. During college I did what I could to look into my own adoption. One moment I vividly recall is seeing Miss Saigon and being so moved that tears were streaming down my face. I realized something happened in my past and I not be able to escape it So, I did a lot of research on Operation Babylift and Vietnamese adoptions, learning more about that event and international adoption in general.

After university, I went away from it for a bit until I got married and early in my marriage I had the opportunity to meet Betty Tisdale, the woman who evacuated myself and hundreds of others from An Lac orphanage in Vietnam and to attend a 25 year reunion with other Vietnamese adoptees. Both of these happened in 2000, and directly because of those events, I have been involved in international adoption.

I helped to co-found VAN – the Vietnamese Adoptee Network (http://www.facebook.com/#/group.php?gid=150497638969&ref=ts) and served on its board for many years. I was involved in Colorado Heritage Camps (http://www.heritagecamps.org/) for many years, serving on their board. I helped initiate the International Adoptee Congress. I was featured in and advised on the documentary film Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam (www.thebabylift.org). As I grew older and went on for a doctorate degree, I moved into researching international adoptee identity and adoptive families. I have two articles published with a couple more along the way.

Recently, I edited Pieces of Me: Who do I Want to Be? with EMK Press (www.emkpress.com/teenbook.html), a book for and by adoptive teenagers. I’m involved in lots of speaking, curriculum development, training, and writing for international adoption.

By way of context, my wife (Sarah)has four adopted siblings from Korea and we recently received a referral for a son from Vietnam, who we hope to pick up in Spring 2010 to add to our two biological daughters. Sarah, my wife, is also an adoption counselor. It is safe to say that adoption is a big part of my life – both at work and at home!

And even though adoption is a big part of many aspects of my life, I’m still on my own journey, learning more and more each day, including how to laugh at myself!

What inspired you to start a comic?

One day a light bulb went off in my head and i just said “I want to start an adoption comic” =P. Though i explained briefly why i wanted to start the comic on the website, the longer i thought about it the more i realized this flash of an idea has seemed a natural progression of the work i’ve been doing for years.

On the talks/panel talks that i have done, i often have explained complex or deep issues through the use of humorous stories. Partly cos i know my personality is a little like that joking around and stuff =), but also i found humor more accessible be they people contacted to adopted or not. I realized very quickly that i got a good response to stories or way i explained my own experiences of being an adoptee.

In the beginning of my research into art and adoption i often tried to find visual resources and back in 2004 found this extremely difficult. Though i found a lot of written resources, there few visual resources were mainly films and documentaries but they were few and far between. It’s very possible that i may not have been looking in the right place. These days i have started to find more and more artist and creative people looking adoption as part of their work… this comic is the start of getting visual resources out there… and for many years i have dreamed of setting up a website where artist can upload work like a visual hub of adoption art (watch this space, it’s still on the cards =P).

Though i never have properly tried illustration before, i have done a lot of drawing in the past for fun (especially when i was about 18). Ironically the reason i got back into drawing was that one day i wanted to try drawing pictures on mine and my friends game characters in a game i played =). I posted them on my Facebook and an very old adoptee friend i knew when i was living in Hong Kong saw them. She asked me to try developing some illustrations for a gymnastics books she was writing. Even though i didn’t pressure the book it gave me the confidence to try comic style (you can see how i progressed from the game sketches to the comic at the bottom of the page).

I’ve always loved watching cartoons, reading manga etc… i had never thought about making a comic before… but i think it all fell into place when Bert came on board to write for it =).

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What inspired me to start a comic? Jessica!

Ha! No seriously, I don’t have quite the history Jessica does, but I love humour. Not so much in that I love to laugh (which I do) or that I love to make my students and others around me laugh (which I also do), but I love humour for its authenticity.

Humour is serious communication (that’s a funny statement – think about it). Like Jessica said, it has the ability to make complex points in simple ways. It cuts through the bluster and the performance (with a performance of its own) to touch us where we need it – in a serious place, but in a lighthearted way. I love humour for that ability.

And when we can talk about a serious subject in a funny way, it grants us perspective to look at the serious subject more closely and more personally. That’s what I hope to do with Adopted – The Comic. I want to raise  important questions in the adoption experience – from the perspective of adoptees and adoptive parents (because I am both) to think seriously about them, but to also give us permission to laugh at ourselves.

Let’s face it. Sometimes we take adoption too seriously, forgetting to laugh at ourselves and the oddities we have created. I like to think we find healing by taking what do seriously, but not ourselves too seriously. Laughter sometimes truly can be the best medicine.

So, when I saw Jessica’s post on FB about wanting to do a comic, I thought, well if someone wants to try to draw what I write and think about, let’s give it a shot. Maybe humour will be good for all of us (myself included!)! And here we are!

Can you share any funny adoption stories with us?

My sister(who is a Hong Kong adoptee) come up to me when i was about 17 and said, “Oh my friend saw you with your boyfriend the other day.” I was blushing, “Oh really, thats cool =D”. My sister went on to say, “Yeah, she said you were getting into his car…”. I looked puzzled, “But my boyfriend doesn’t have a car.” My sister agrees, “I know i thought that was odd too, so i asked her what he looked like.” I eagerly awaited. “My friend said he was tall.” I puzzled, “weird my boyfriend’s not tall.” My sister agrees again, “i know totally… and my friend said he had grey hair and had an awesome sports car.” And like any teenager i want to dye of embarrassment, “OMG! your friend doesn’t mean… DAD!” My sister just laughs at me for ages. =P how evil of her =P.

And another funny story is more to do with my husband. Pretty much every time we go and have Asian food, the waiter will come up and say, “What would you like to drink?”. My husband is British white from the North of England and he always says, “Green tea.” The waiter will always look at me and i’ll say, “Diet Coke please.” They always ask me if i’m sure…. =P. I use to feel guilty that i some my husband was a better “Asian” than me =P but now i dont care. The irony is that i started drinking more green teas, but only sometimes =P

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Hmmm . . . which one should I share that doesn’t give away a future comic? :-)

This isn’t an adoption story per se, but about all the pent up, repressed anger at all the cute comments I got over the years. When you become a parent, somehow the perspective shifts a bit. Anyway, when my girls were young – like 2 and 1 (they are 19 mos. apart), we were in a store and a woman saw them and said, “Wow! What cute little girls! They look like China dolls. I just want to put them up on a shelf!”

Of course I’m angry at how my children are being objectified, but I’m really angry at all the years I was treated like that. Then I see the woman’s infant boy – a white, bald, wrinkly chub of a child. I responded, “Wow! What a bouncy baby boy! I want to take him out of his seat and use him like a bowling ball!”

Okay. I didn’t. But I really, really, really wanted to. I told my wife. We laughed for the rest of the evening. Maybe now that I’m a bit older I’ll use it.

How do you feel about the response to the comic so far?

We’ve had an overwhelming response to the comic in the very short time it’s been online (mid Dec ’09). From what started as such a small idea seems to be turning into way more. Me and Bert have received a number of emails and comments about the comic, and i really find the support very touching =).

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Overwhelming is right! I’m really surprised at the positive turnout. Part of me thought I’d be run out of town, but Jess was right – people are looking for a reason to talk about adoption in a fun and lighthearted way. So, I’m very astonished at the support, emails, and number of subscribers! I just hope I don’t disappoint now! Ha!

What are your hopes for the future of the comic?

While the comic is sill in it’s infancy i have many many hopes for the comic. My hopes is that we can continue to develop the comic. And maybe to see it in magazines or even possible move to publication. There are a number of new features on the website, merchandise, commissions & donations pages which can all help support the comic. We also have a Facebook group that is growing and we can be found on twitter.

(Edit Apri 2011: We have now moved out Facebook group to a like page which can now be found here www.facebook.com/adoptedthecomic. The above link was changed to the new page).

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Ditto Jess. I’m also hoping for it to be my retirement fund so donate and buy stuff! :-)

Seriously, I hope this gives folks a fun and lighthearted way to discuss topics of serious importance in the adoption journey and adoption experience. While more exposure is desired (please, please spread the word!), I hope more that it sparks conversation among adoptees, their families, and professionals and that it leads to a little bit of healing for all of us.

I’m passionate about carving out spaces where adoptees can talk honestly and openly about what it means to be adopted. This is one of the components of that kind of space.

Below is a few images of the drawings by Jess leading up the comic:

And a huge thanks to Bert for the awesome mug =D