Behind The Scenes: My Favourite Rescue by Hien Pham

Please enjoy this Behind-The-Scenes post by Hien Pham! He is sharing his creative process of how he made the Pledge Drive exclusive comic "My Favourite Rescue".

-Erika

Hey everyone!

For this year's pledge drive I decided to write a love letter to to my time at the dogs refuge. I'm finding myself referencing my old work a lot this year, and it felt interesting to tell a story that took place in-between other comics that have been published. I don't quite know what spurred this extra introspective episode on, but it's been nice to look back and see how far I've come not just in terms of art and writing, but as a person as well.

PAGE 1

Chronologically, My Favourite Rescue takes place some time after Refuge and before Thanks For Finding Me Again. Volunteering at the refuge, I got into a pretty structured routine: start the day with greeting the dogs outside of their kennels, take who I can to into the bush for walks, then wait for my bus to arrive so I can get home. Both of these comics reference parts of those routines, and I wanted to keep the colours somewhat similar as well to ground them in the same universe together!

I made up that dog in Refuge (as a stand-in for all the lovely staffies I walked) so I don't have photos of them, but I have plenty of Rex that I'll share here!!!

Everyone at the refuge loved Rex but I somehow ended up being a pseudo-spokesperson for his adoption efforts, haha! The refuge put together a video of him using some of my footage for social media.You can watch that video here (first three clips are mine).

PAGE 2

At the refuge, the dogs spend most of their time inside their kennels looking out into the world through the fence. My role as a volunteer was to both take them to the other side of the fence, and also to keep them company inside of it. The refuge is only ever meant to be a temporary shelter after all, and our goal is to find them new families as well and as soon as we could!

This wire fence became a visual motif I wanted to achieve in the comic! Apart from showing up on page 1 and being in the shadows cast atop the dogs, panels on page 2 and page 3 are also laid out as if the gutter is the fencing that separates each moment. The positions of panels on the first 4 pages are all symmetrically mirrored as well, to subtly hint at how similar Rex and I was when we were both at the refuge. This structure only broke on page 5, when I was on my own journey.

For the colours, I wanted to play around with the passage of time! Early morning blue-ish hues on page 1 become more saturated and yellow as the sun goes up. Here's a photo of Rex yawning on an especially sunny walk.

Here's one in the early morning, for lighting comparison:

PAGE 3

The writing of this comic is meant to reflect not just the dogs but also my own mental health and where I was at the time. All of the things I'm saying about the dogs here can also be applied to myself (working around triggers and finding coping mechanisms, needing my own space and grace to recover, etc.). The team and I ended not not quite liking overtly stating that particular intention, so I ended up only referencing a little bit of it on the next page, and let this page to be about the dogs.

Still, the refuge was a huge part of my journey to better mental health. On particularly depressing days, I would take extra trips to the kennels to sit with the dogs. The dogs needed, and wanted, my company. Feeling their fur on my skin grounded me to the reality that my existence mattered.

A staff member took this photo of me on one of those trips, and I kept it in mind while working on the next page. (different puppy though, not Rex)

PAGE 4

And now, the long-awaited POST-ADOPTION REX UPDATES!!!

First of all: photos from his departure that one of the volunteers sent to me the day he went home!

A fair number of dogs do get returned to the refuge after their initial adoption. Sometimes things change or they don't work out as well as you hope. Rex himself was returned once, but this time it felt right. The refuge often asked for updates from the dogs' new families to put into the internal volunteer newsletter. This was the first update from Rex's new dad:

There's a tradition, somewhat of an initiation for all volunteers at the refuge: everyone meet their first dog that they fall in love with and wish they could adopt but they can't. That dog becomes their first heartbreak, which gets them used to the nature of volunteering at the refuge: the dogs aren't meant to be at the refuge forever. Rex was my first favourite rescue, and my editor Ziggy specifically asked if I could re-word some narration on this page so that the audience knows my heart did indeed recover after he left, haha!

It's fairly rare to see so many updates for one pup, but everyone loved Rex, and we loved to read up on how far he'd come! These were months in-between, so when they stopped coming in, we knew that Rex was finally in a happy and stable home.

The refuge also offered dog boarding for families on holiday, and wouldn't you know it, Rex actually came to board with us when his dad was away!!!

PAGE 5

The fence motif makes a return! It is pure coincidence that the Bears' social venue also has fencing all around. By this point, both Rex and I have gotten to the other side of the fence and found our respective chosen families. The lighting here is meant to be reminiscent ofThanks For Finding Me Again, my first comic I made about a Bears den night! My relationship with the Bears isn't a constant positive, but I can't deny that it's where I've found my people and an avenue to grow as a person.

Thank you for reading!

Phew! That's it from me for this huge behind-the-scene post! I don't know if this was interesting, but I hope you've enjoyed it! The goal of these pledge drive comics is to get to know us better, and volunteering at the dogs refuge was such a huge part of my life that I just have to yap about it again, haha!

Thank you so much for your support. I genuinely do not have the words to express how grateful I am for you. This is my life's calling, this is my life's work, and it wouldn't be possible at all without you. Thank you. Truly, and deeply.

I've got so many more stories I want to tell. I hope we can make them happen together!

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