SLUMP (2023)

   I was just out of college and had started working a regular job at a big supermarket chain, organizing and refilling shelves. Although I had met a portuguese publisher, one which I hoped to be able to work with at the time, I felt like I wasn't good enough to do so. So I worked half a year, only to realise I was getting nowhere.

   After 9 hours on the job, getting home around 1 Am 5 days a week and sleeping terribly, as usual, I left the job with a stressed and masochist midset. I needed to do something, fast. So I started making a portfolio focused on concept art. A couple of months of more delusion go by only for me to be in exactly the same place, maybe worse, than where I started. It's from there that "Slump" comes from.

   It's a terrible comic. From it's boring plot to messy drawings, I'm a bit ashamed to look back on it, but it's message is something I needed to believe in at the time and even now. One thing at a time.

   I quit thinking about publishing comics in Portugal, choosing to do better attempts at finishing my next comic, slowly and decisively. I started working on freelance illustrative work with amazing people, something I always though I was undeserving of, while also studying how to write better stories. So although I don't like it, I'm thankful for having finished this comic.