It turns out that the questions "Why am I drawing a comic?" and "Why am I drawing this comic?" have very different answers. The first one is simpler (and the second one might not even be quantifiable), so I'm going to write about that for a little bit.
At its core, "Why am I drawing a comic?" has about the same answer as "Why am I writing a post right now?" I'm a very busy person, and I am (largely as a result of the first point) a very stressed person. Drawing and writing are things that let me take a little bit of time to myself during my days. It's soothing to have a fun project to come back to between all of the required ones.
I have ideas for stories, comics, RPGs, art projects, etc., all the time. Some of them I have the time and energy to work on... and some of them, I even finish. Most of them (sadly) never make it past the Idea stage. Starlass made it past that stage, and I'm pretty excited about that. I couldn't tell you exactly why Starlass made it, and so many others have not... but it probably has to do with my schedule this semester.
I'm busy. I have a pretty demanding course load this semester, and a job that is wonderful but nevertheless eats most of my free time right up. (Some times, like today, the job seems to eat up all of the time that I try to set aside for homework. Oops.) I'm pretty happy with my life... but I'm pretty stressed out by it, too.
Right now, drawing a comic seems to be the perfect stress relief. Not only do I enjoy drawing, but it's something that can exist in the cracks and shadows of my life. If I have half an hour free, I can pull up the latest page and work on it for a little while... and I feel like I'm doing something productive. I can't whip up a story (or even a decently interesting post) in half an hour, but I can get a little bit of drawing done. It helps me feel productive, even when I'm not moving very quickly... and for me, feeling productive is a huge stress-reliever. If I feel like I've accomplished something, I let myself relax a little more. It's important.
It's also really satisfying to be drawing something that builds on itself. Starlass doesn't flow smoothly from one page to the next, but the pages are definitely sequential in nature. The fact that Starlass is one project, instead of dozens of tiny individual drawings makes a big difference in how I feel about the time spent on it. Again, it relates to the feeling of accomplishment, and the idea that I'm doing something productive and worthwhile.
It's fun to be able to work on something big... and not to worry about it too much. There's no timetable for Starlass, no deadlines to meet, and no rules about making sure the main character looks the same from one page to another (because so far, she doesn't at all). It doesn't matter if I screw up on the layout or if the characters look a bit wonky, because the whole point of drawing this comic is to lower my stress level... not freak out because I haven't attained perfection.
It's pretty enjoyable.
