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Tales from Comic Con: Meet Gavin Aung Than who quit a corporate job to start a unique comic strip

Iamin reporter caught up with the artist at the Mumbai Comic Con that was held at the Goregaon Exhibition Centre over the weekend.

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At the end of 2011, after working in the corporate graphic industry for eight years, Gavin Aung Than quit his job and began drawing cartoons as a full-time occupation. He started Zen Pencils in 2012 – a comic strip which uses quotes by famous personalities and represents them graphically, with cartoons. Gavin also launched the first book collection of Zen Pencils in 2014, which was listed on The New York Times bestseller list.

Iamin reporter caught up with the artist at the Mumbai Comic Con that was held at the Goregaon Exhibition Centre over the weekend. 

You quit your corporate job to start Zen pencils. How did the idea for creating the comic strip come about?
I was always practicing cartooning, since childhood. Few of my cartoons were also published in local Australian papers while I was still working. I was cartooning in my spare time even though I wasn't getting paid for it. My real job wasn’t very fulfilling and then one a day I realised my inner calling was to be a cartoonist. I was 30 and it was time to make a drastic change. That’s when I quit my job, which then, gave birth to Zen Pencils in 2012. 

It’s a pretty whack concept, combining inspirational quotes with comic characters. Did you always have this idea that you wanted to implement?
I hadn’t heard or anything seen something like Zen Pencils before I started it myself…you could say I was the first one to combine comics and inspirational quotes. It wasn’t always the plan, but definitely became the plan. I was looking for something unique to stand out amongst other comic strips.

Run me through the process of creating a Zen Pencils comic strip.
The first step is to find a quote. This is done by me, or submitted by a reader who finds a particular quote very interesting. Then, I think of a good idea to place the story around the quote, and start by sketching pencil versions of a few ideas. The penultimate step is a more polished ink version, followed by creating the final image on Photoshop.

What was the biggest achievement of 2015?
Launching the Zen Pencils book. Next year, I’m looking forward to publishing more on the website and getting more comics out…I hope I can keep doing it for a long time. 

The article was originally published on www.iamin.in

 

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