Unless I have some precise sequence or starting point in mind, which is rather uncommon, I like to start from a single image or reference. From there I try and think about the story that that particular image tells me, what kind of atmosphere it creates, what kind of mood is imbedded in it. It’s a really good practice I’ve developed for my artistic process. I love to see how things naturally evolve that way. I actually did this piece right before I left for Mexico too, so I was starting to imagine existing in a tropical climate and meditating on how that alters your state on mind.

Aidan Koch is an illustrator and comic artist from the Pacific NW.

Usually I need to have a lot of space to tell a story—I drag things out and spend pages just having a character enter and exit a room. Part of what I like to do is have the template of a story—often a really simple story—serve as this concrete backdrop that I can to push a character around in, abstracting the figure drawing to the point that it’s barely recognizable. But I like to have a long drawn out story to do that within—I feel like the longer I stretch the template out and the more I complicate it, the more interesting and unexpected the images I come up with will be for me.  So when asked to do a one page story, I thought the best way to do it was to cut to the chase and make the piece explicitly abut movement and gestures. I’ve also been getting more and more into having little squares within a drawing where I can make quick, scratchy lines alongside the rounder, more thought-out figure and I like how that turned out here.

Austin English is the author of The Disgusting Room and Christina and Charles, and is the editor of the Brookyn-based comics press and distro Domino Books.