We are happy to share with you not your regular circular comics - The Square Comics.

The Indonesian artist Alvin Juano's humor is on the darker side, and as the artist previously shared, "definitely not something my mom would approve!" Alvin is not afraid to touch on topics such as trauma, societal expectations, and existential dilemmas. But besides some comics getting described as depressing, lots of people have resonated with Alvin's art, and as of today, the artist has over 605K followers on Instagram.

Alvin usually illustrates square people or inanimate objects and animals who can talk and share their perspectives on life.

More info: Instagram | Facebook | Facebook

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Bored Panda reached out to Alvin, who shared more about his simple yet powerful comics. First of all, Alvin explained how he discovered his unique style of drawing minimalistic characters:

“I started doodling in school and gravitated towards simple drawing work because of how quickly the teachers were going through the pages. I think it also helps to draw focus to the story and humor. It's a lot easier to draw.”

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The protagonists in Alvin’s comics often face various challenges. We asked the artist to share what inspires these narratives and if they reflect any personal experiences or observations.

“It's a mix of both, from challenges I faced and observations I made while people-watching. Mostly I try to highlight the small ironies in daily life (e.g. dog being happy when human stays the whole day when the human is sick). In a way, the comics are my form of therapy and diary,” wrote Alvin.

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We also asked Alvin to share more about why his human characters tend to be drawn with square faces and what inspires him to explore such a variety of protagonists.

Alvin explained: “This is anticlimactic, but a lot of the characters are squarish because I can't draw circles, so I really leaned into squares.

The variety of the characters mainly comes from boredom (Drawing the same characters frequently gets repetitive after a while so I try to vary them) and the concept (e.g. roly-poly doll representing childhood trauma that will always get back up no matter how much it's repressed).”

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From doodling in school to starting to share comics on the internet, Alvin had the opportunity to reach wider audiences. This change can impact an artist’s journey as a comic creator; therefore, we were wondering how that manifested in Alvin’s experience.

“It definitely made me more conscious of what I'm posting and became more aware of the response to my comic. For example, if a post doesn't have as many likes as another, I would spend days trying to figure out why and see how I can improve for the next one. In a way, it helps to police the quality of my work.”

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To the question of what Alvin would like for people to take away from his comics, he replied: “I hope they find joy from my comics and think I'm cool.”

And lastly, Alvin added: “If you like my comics and want to support me, you can do so at Patreon. I also have merch.”

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