Behind The Scenes with Hien Pham (Kennel Club Vol. 2)

Please welcome this Behind-The-Scenes post by Hien Pham! He is sharing his creative process of how he made the comic Kennel Club Vol. 2. This was originally shared on his own Patreon, so head over there if you want even more thought process posts from him. 

-Erika

Hey everyone!

Just last month I went to a local Pups event that I quite enjoyed and one I haven't written about, so it was the perfect chance to show a little insight into a different queer Perth community. I've got a lot of fun details and photos from the event (all available on the WA-PAH's instagram, I'm only adding extra context) so let's get into it!

PAGE 1

This is Pup Clay from the cock cage comic! I just happened to arrive at the event just as he was getting into gear, so I jumped at the chance to try and lube up his latex suit (not an euphemism) for the first time ever!

As someone who loves the rough and soft texture of body hair and Bears, the smooth and shiny experience of latex / rubber is something I've not thought about getting into. That said, there's definitely a comic in there to discover in the future. Maybe... Hien Pops His Latex Cherry?

The other person on this page is handler Bowser who you've seen in the flogging comic! Funnily enough, Clay was there as well to on the day of my flogging research. Bowser flogged Clay and talked about the process as I typed as quick as I could on my tiny lil phone, haha!

One detail that didn't make it into the final comic was that Bowser's suit had an inflatable bulge?! It was a real intimate thing with the valve being directly where his crotch was. I lubed up Bowser's back while Clay blew it up with his mouth, and it was barely 10 minutes into the event!

Pictured below: Jaxx from the fisting comics, Bowser from the flogging comic, and Mitch from the Mr. Bear comic.

 And here's Clay in his adorable glory! You can see Connie's (Connections Nightclub beloved nickname) terrace stage behind him. It looks different because I had to simplify the floor plan... I'll talk about that in just a mo.

PAGE 2

So, this is the map page! I had this vision of an isometric game-like map for this comic and it took me... forever... to finish...

I am someone who loves to work with tool limitations as I find I am the most creative when I have the create the most out of the least - which is to say: I don't like... learning new tools... I work in Clip Studio Paint and I'm fairly certain they have a robust perspective guide and rulers and drawing assistance for comic pages like this, but I just... couldn't be fucked learning something entirely new... So I just made up a grid manually and drew everything with my one pencil brush that I love!

It took forever! And it kinda sucked not gonna lie! My life would have been easier if I had just learned the dang perspective tools! But nooooo I had to be stubborn, didn't I!

Oh well!

What you see on the comic page isn't 1-to-1 to Connie's actual floor plan specifically because the layout of the floor is a lot bigger than I had time and patience to recreate. Plus the building itself has a bunch of weird alcoves and corners that would takeaway from the focal points of the illustration, so I just condensed everything down to what was most crucial.

One thing I couldn't get in was the small little merch table with a second-hand gear market where folks who have made stuff can put them on sale.

Here's a better look of the mosh area!

PAGE 3

In this page I wanted to achieve the busy atmosphere of the event with a lot of words and full panels of folks. As you can see I mostly spent time near the orange wall toward the back of the venue which is where my quiet corner was. The day of the event was a real scorcher too (like 37 Celcius outside) so sticking near the fans and AC was my survival strategy haha!

If you haven't noticed it already, the tiger furry is an easter egg from last year's furry comic!

I don't have a photo of that area specifically, but here's one with me and the red-hooded Pup in the first panel! Next to us is a mutual friend from the Bears and pup Osca who organized catering for the event (charcuterie boards, snacks and lollies, and Costco sandwiches!). Osca was in the mosh area on page 2, and he makes another cameo on page 5 (his Pup hood is my favourite hood ever!!!)

PAGE 4

A pattern I've noticed is that my OJST almost always has either an emotional beat and/or resolution on the 4th page. This one is no difference, with a callback to my hand-holding ritual from my last comic in 2024. I haven't needed to do this very often anymore, but it comes in quite handy when I do.

Fun fact: the narration boxes which represent my inner thoughts are all (except the first one) centered on this page ;) because I was centering myself! Plus, the pink outline around the speech bubble of my friend calling out to me is a direct reference to how folks have helped with my anxiety in this Bears comic from years ago.

The friend joining me here is Tom who made a quick cameo on the map page. He's not in any photos that I can show, unfortunately!

PAGE 5

At this point I felt like I focused on a lot of inner emotion stuff and haven't shown enough of the social interactions, so I took inspiration from Meredith McClaren's Folsom Street Fair comic and ended my story with a series of small panels instead of my go-to splash panel I always do. It worked super well, and I'm really happy with how it wrapped up! Now, some photos!

Below is pup Aero, pup Leo, and pup Hale (although he's sporting his Mr. Bear sash here instead of his pup hood). Leo is 2024's Australian Puppy titleholder and he's had a paw in organizing Perth's pup events as well as our local furry convention for a long time! (oh, and on this page he was serving melted Zooper Doopers which are these cheap frozen treats for kids, lmao)

 Aero and Hale are good friends of mine who kidnapped me for some dim sum and gave me a lift home afterward! These are all wonderful folks who have supported me or my art in one way or another, and I love them very much! 

 Here we have pup Mason (whose stuffed shark I Shibari-ed), our previously mentioned red-hooded pup, and pup Scraps whose tail was a small blue flogger that I drew on page 3!

 Here is the previously mentioned Shibari-ing of Mason's shark!

In the 3rd-to-last panel, I originally wanted to draw a snippet of the group photo we took, but at this point I had already sunk too much time into the map page, so I scaled it back and cameo'd in the friends I had already drawn before. This is the group photo we took! Can you find where I was :P?

Thank you for reading!

Whew a huge BTS post this time! As I said before, all of these photos are available publicly on WA-PAH's instagram (I wouldn't have used them here otherwise), and the cameos I've drawn into the comic I have permission for!

I do want to note that I've been with the pups for a couple years now, and I attended this event with a lot of friends I've already made. Your experience with your local scene might differ especially if something like this were to be your first outing!

My biggest tip for breaking into a new social scene is always to talk to the organizers and not to shy away from mentioning that you're a newcomer. They're the ones who have the most stakes in making sure you're properly welcomed and embraced by the community they've built, so hopefully they can help out!

Honestly, volunteer to help out too while you're with them! Volunteering is an incredible way of making new connections and I'm a huge advocate for it, especially when it comes to volunteering for local queer groups. That's a whole, like, comic on its own... would you want to read something like that? Let me know!

Otherwise, I'll see you in April for another OJST story! It's a very personal one, so I hope you'll look forward to it! Til then, take care and take it easy everyone!