By two Vietnamese adoptees, Bert Ballard & Jessica Emmett.
Welcome to Adopted the Comic. This short project ran from 2009-2013 and has now come to an end as Bert & Jess turn towards other projects. By popular demand, the website and Facebook page will be left up as a resource and platform for comments, but it will have very minimal activity from us. Comics can still be linked or used (more info HERE). Bert & Jess would like to thank everyone for the amazing support they had throughout the project. See our final post HERE. Jess continues to do adoption comics now and then on her new comic Stray Thoughts Comics HERE.
Uploaded a new comic – Check.
Done a comic with a slight political slant – Check.
Worked in a stylish pink shirt into the comic – Check.
I do love my check lists =). This comic might need a bit of a read up online for those of us *cough… me* that aren’t good at keeping up at with the current news =P. It’s promoted me to sign up for the BBC rss feed so i can “try” and keep up =P.
Art wise it’s been nice to return to the original comic style as the last one was intentional more realistic. Even though i feel like i’m working on the comic constantly, I seem to be able to only managed to complete one comic a month… I’m hoping that i can do more, but yeah it’s just a case of fitting it into my other freelance work… but i hope you even enjoy it all the same =).
This is a special day here at Adopted the Comic. Today Bert welcomes Jayden Van Tri into the Ballard flock. As I type Bert and his family are in Vietnam, which is the first time for Bert since he was adopted. If you want to follow his journey and more photos of his time there you can find more at Bert’s Facebook [HERE].
I wanted to do a little comic to celebrate with Bert, and this is what i came up with. Me and Bert still have never met in person, and planning to talk on skype very soon =)… so we never really had this conversation… but the things i say we have in common here are definitely true =)… and i’m sure i’ll discover more that we have in common too =). And cos it’s such a speaical day i wanted to put me and Bert into the comic… so this is the first time me and Bert have met in comic land. Art wise i made these drawings a little more “realistic” that my usual style and had fun posing into my webcam =P.
While me and Bert have loads in common, something Bert says is “If you meet one adoptee, you’ve met one adoptee.” Even as an adoptee myself i do sometimes forget that just like anyone, there are some adoptees i may not click with and some that will be life long friends =).
I know, I know, we’ve been a bit slower than usual on getting comics out. There’s a good explanation . . .
I’ve been teaching three courses for the past three months plus a host of other things in my day job. And I’ve been getting ready to go to Vietnam to pick up our son (more on that below). Meanwhile, Jess has been applying for PhD schools and planning a big reunion for Chinese adoptees in September. So . . . yeah, we’ve been busy. But we’re glad to finally post something for everyone!
Life is good and we keep posting comics when we get the chance. Hang in there with us loyal fans! We appreciate the support!
Oh yeah . . . we received our official Letter of Invitation so we will be spending the next 5-6 weeks in Vietnam picking up our new son (who’s about 11 months old now). We’re very excited! (and I’m secretly hoping to get more comic material too!)
As for this comic, this one comes from what seems to be a huge fear and elephant in the room for adoptive parents in that they fear having the conversation about adoption with their adopted kiddo(s). It’s almost like the “sex” talk (and if you think about it, you have to have the sex talk to have the adopted talk, so you should all think about that!).
Parents are always scared of it, probably because it’s new to them. But the funny thing is, for us adoptees, it just is. We don’t know any different and secretly chuckle at the fear. “Hey, we’re adopted. Cool. Can I go back to playing video games now?”
Enjoy! (BTW, Jess tells me she did this one with a new gadget on the computer that I can’t fully explain, but let us know what you think!)
I’m a part of a few adoptee groups, and i get a lot out of them =). This is a good change for me to send my thoughts to the Vietnamese adoptees that are going to Vietnam now for an adoptee reunion. I can’t go myself, but i’m there with them in heart =).
As me and Bert keep finding that work is always getting in the way of of doing the comic, so apologies for taking so long to get a new one out. While I try my very best to try and get one a week, sometimes its not always possible, but never fear i’ve always got the comic on my mind ready for when i can work on it =P.
Having watched a lot of the Winter Olympics 2010 and since Bert’s Canadian, we thought we’d have a theme comic this time =). I often tell people that i never know who to cheer for in the Olympics, Vietnam? China? Hong Kong (who still have their own team)? UK? I usually just end up cheering for the underdog =P.
Art wise i had a few challenges this time. The first was drawing by hand the complete comic frames and all instead of composing on the computer. The other challenge was drawing flags… i honestly have not drawn flags since i was little… and even in school i didnt have to draw flags that much, cos trying to get kids to draw the pre-1997 Hong Kong flag is evil =P
Also you can see our little in joke on panel 3 =). We wish them luck for future medalists =D.
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 =).
Well finally got this one out. Huge apologies for taking a while with this one, Me and Bert have had a busy couple of weeks =).
Art wise this was a little bit of an ode to a resent art commission i did of an Oxford Uni. building. So i mastered the art of making brick textures =P. This one is also a bit more colourful than my usual style.
Hehehehe this one made me laugh… people do this even when it’s not about adoption, someone always has to top the last =P… i’ve prob done that myself without realizing it too =P. But there defiantly an air of truth to this comic, prob why i choice it.
My husband said it reminded him of a classic British comic sketch made later famous by Monty Python called the “4 Yorkshiremen Sketch”… it’s very funny =).
