Dripping Sun is the story I developed as thesis at the MFA Visual Narrative program.
It is a 150 page graphic novel about Eva, a young engineer who moves back to her family’s hometown after inheriting her grandma’s house. Eva is surprised to find the town from her childhood memories has grown into a larger city, a hostile industrial place that nevertheless offers opportunities for young, hardworking professionals like herself. Eva has such difficulty adapting that she starts manifesting her discomfort through her own body and other unnatural events that happen around her, becoming progressively more unsettling: from losing her own shadow to the materialization of a dark sphere in the sky, weighing over the city. At the same time, Eva finds more information about her family which leads her to reevaluate her own choices and aspirations in a city that isn’t at all what it seems.
I wrote Dripping Sun to reflect on my own complicated feelings about work and the culture around me. As an interpreter, I have worked on several industrial sites that have given me a greater awareness of insidious practices and ways of thinking that I am still processing. And just like Eva, I have felt alienated and adrift in the cities I’ve lived in, but have turned to my family history to ground myself and help shape my identity.
Sometimes it is easier to feel compassion and relate to a small critter, without the trappings of the human form. I use animal characters to focus on the emotional reality of my experience and thoughts while adding a layer of magic that is true to the wonders of the natural world. I hope that readers trying to find their way in an imperfect world can relate to Eva’s experiences and reflect on their own place in the communities they belong to.
