Emanata 2019; Vol. 6, Viral

EMANATA presents

Dedicated to Professor Albert Epshteyn“Alright, Let’s Work.”

Acknowledgements Emanata wishes to acknowledge and thank the following: Shannon Wright for giving us our amazing cover.

VCU Libraries and Special Collections for sponsoring said amazing cover.

Sue Robinson for her support of our publication–thank you for all your help!

Velocity Comics for being the hub of the Richmond Comics Scene.

Uri Hamman for the layout and design of our book, and for fighting the ongoing battle with RGB colour mode, even in greyscale.

Our ever-talented alumni for reaching back to collaborate with students.

And the contributors for their beautifully crafted stories, without which, this anthology would not be possible.

The VCU Student Media Center for their unyielding support.

Allison Bennett Dyche Director 804-827-1975 abdyche@vcu.edu

Jacob McFadden Business Manager 804-827-1642 mcfaddenjc@vcu.edu

Street Address VCU Student Media Center 817 W. Broad St. Richmond, VA

Mark Jeffries Creative Media Manager 804-828-7660 mjeffries@vcu.edu

Mailing Address VCU Student Media Center Box 842010 Richmond, VA 23284-2010

Be sure to catch our digital edition for even more comics at emanatacomics.com! emanatacomics@gmail.com 1

Foreword We live in a weird time. Not until recently could someone shoot an opinion about pugs out into the void and have it reach thousands of people with relative speed and ease. Replace “opinion about pugs” with “opinion about congressional term limits” and it’s still an accurate statement. Or replace “opinion about congressional term limits” with “vaporwave remix of Carly Rae Jepsen’s Emotion”. Or “Avengers/ Golden Girls crossover fan art”. Or “proof that vaccines are harmful to children”.

Oh, that’s a whole other thing. Another sign we live in a weird time?

Some people don’t want to vaccinate their children anymore.

Welcome to VIRAL: a comic collection about how we all want to go viral online, and how we all want to avoid contracting viral infections.

Or wait, no— how we all want to be famous? And prevent the collapse of society? How we all want to produce viral content and all the while society is increasingly at risk of a measles outbreak?

Here is a small collection of infectious tales from VCU’s finest comics creators. If you enjoy this small sample of comics, check out www.

EmanataComics.com for an extended version of this book as well as previous volumes of EMANATA. Perhaps you can help us... go… VIRAL...

Wishing you good health and an abundance of internet clout in this strangest of times.

Thanks for reading!

- Sammy Newman

2

3

Table of Contents Cover illustration by Shannon Wright Bad Dog by Uri Hamman ........................................................ 7 1234 by Mac Wood ............................................................ 12 Flora by Laurel Alleman ........................................................ 14 Viral Dinner Date by Andrew Ansah ....................................... 19 Time to Split by Hunter Hutcherson ......................................... 26 Crown Juul by Madeline DeMichelle ...................................... 29 Malwere by Alexis Dejesus ................................................... 36 Homunculus by Lauren Hart ................................................... 38 Difference by Tiffani Green ................................................... 40 Bloom by Michelle Dominado ................................................ 44 Threat by Cindy Roman ........................................................ 47 The Rift by Aubry Lassiter ...................................................... 48 Pro{Malicious} by Alexis Hilliard-Worth ................................... 52 No Cops @Pride by Alex Hwee ............................................. 58 Teracotta by Evan McGrady .................................................. 63 A Tragedy in Four Parts by Sonnet Marie Garcia ..................... 68 Transport by Kingston Molina-Delgado ................................... 74 Crisis by Logan Mannikko ..................................................... 80 Children of God by Alex Mehr .............................................. 81 Body by Sam Pandolfe ......................................................... 87 Love Sick by Seulgi Smith ...................................................... 92 A Smile is Contagious by Trinh Tran ....................................... 96 Funky Fungus Feast by Heather Winn ................................... 102 Dawn by Seth Woodies ...................................................... 108 Fishsticks by Jeffrey Belfield ................................................. 114 4

Table of Contents Patient Zero by Thea Cheuk ................................................ 116 Malign by T. Weisenborn .................................................... 120 564 by Winston ................................................................ 125 Damn Daniel by Meghan Bright ........................................... 134 Monsters by Morgan Barnett ............................................... 135 Dinner Time by Karly Andersen ............................................ 142 ERror by Ian Crovella ......................................................... 146 5,000,000 by Rita Lin ........................................................ 157 Project Fluffy by Ellie Erhart ................................................. 160 My Dearest Patchouli by Angelica Kim ................................. 164 Malware Vaccine by Jamie Knierim ...................................... 170 Raw Egg ASMR Mukbang Not Clickbait!!! by James Lee ........ 174 Hensonitis by Sammy Newman ........................................... 178 Clickbaited by Grace Rizzo ................................................ 182 Biter by Meg Rogers ........................................................... 187 Venus in Virgo by Casper Pham ........................................... 188 Lovesick by Haleigh Wilson ................................................. 195 Sundae Report by Lyn P. ...................................................... 202 Gate Keeper by Zhaoyi W. ................................................. 208 Remedy by Diansakhu Banton-Perry ...................................... 214 Fewterer by Susie Grady ..................................................... 221 Piano Man by Erin Joo and Eric Vandermeer ......................... 228 Viable by Liz McCown ....................................................... 234 Villianitis by Emely Pascual .................................................. 241 Sick Days by Lauren Johnson ............................................... 247 5

Digitally Exclusive Comics Ahead

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

Andrew Ansah

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

Hunter Hutcheson

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

Kingston Molina-Delgado

74

75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

100

101

Heather Winn

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

119

120

121

122

123

124

125

126

127

128

129

130

131

132

133

134

135

136

137

138

139

140

141

142

143

144

145

146

147

148

149

150

151

152

153

154

155

156

157

158

159

160

161

162

163

164

165

166

167

168

169

170

171

172

173

174

175

176

177

178

179

180

181

Grace Rizzo

182

183

184

185

186

187

188

189

190

191

192

193

194

195

196

197

198

199

200

201

202

203

204

205

206

207

208

209

210

211

212

213

214

215

216

217

218

219

220

221

222

223

224

225

226

227

228

229

230

231

232

233

234

235

236

237

238

239

240

241

242

243

244

245

246

247

248

249

250

251

252

253

Editorial Staff

Morgan Barnett .................................................... Editor-in-Chief

A Senior in Communication Arts and an animation nerd of the largest sort, Morgan loves creating illustrations to fulfill any kind of narrative vision. With ambitions such as creating graphic novels and animated features, as well as working in visual concept design, she’s always excited to discuss the industry, storytelling, or just talk your ear off about D&D.

Susie Grady ............................................. Assistant Editor-in-Chief Susie is a member of the Corvidae family and senior in the Communication Arts department here at VCUarts. They write stories about villains, lesbians, and sometimes both.

Sammy Newman............................................................. Secretary

Sammy is a VCUarts Junior who loves comics and illustration. Her life goal is to make funny books for kids. In her free time, you can find her in one of Richmond’s many coffee shops, enjoying an overpriced beverage and sometimes sketching cafe-goers but mostly just staring yearningly out the window.

James Lee....................................................................... Treasurer

James is a senior in Communication Arts. He loves painting and is working towards a career in visual development. He can also be found ravaging sketchbooks with whimsical characters and environments.

Diansakhu Banton-Perry................................... Social Media Chair

Diansakhu is a Senior in Communication Art. She is a character designer and illustrator that loves comics, movies, and fashion. She is inspired by science fiction and fantasy themes, and working with human emotion and expressiveness in animation and illustration. She has growing aspirations of melding the two concepts in her own work by constantly drawing people and watching an insane amount of sci-fi on Netflix.

Uri Hamman .............................. Staff Editor and Graphic Designer

Coming to the Real World™ in May 2019: Uri. A concept artist specializing in creature design, they aim to break into the game industry and leave their mark.

Alex Hwee................................................................ Senior Editor

Alex is a senior in Communication Arts concentrating on illustration and concept art. She is currently focusing on the retelling of old lore and modernizing Chinese mythology to create stories centered around reevaluating and subverting traditional structures. When she’s not doing art she’s scheming, dreaming, and fighting a pipeline.

254

Editorial Staff

Evan McGrady............................................................ Staff Editor Evan is a junior in Commarts with a minor in Craft who loves making comics, creating illustration, and crafting things. He has been with Emanata since he was a freshmen and loves making comics.

Casper Pham .............................................................. Staff Editor

Casper Pham is an artist who lives their life in many places at once (Vietnam, the US, and the deep, deep cosmos). They are most passionate about creating and designing fictional environments in which grand romance and drama may one day take place.

Emely Pascual............................................................. Staff Editor

Emely is a senior at VCU, majoring in Communication Arts who loves bunnies, reading comics, and embroidering while watching anime. In her natural habitat you’ll probably find her riding her bike, getting at swol af the gym, or staying up to ungodly hours drawing. She’s developing her own comic in her free time and is geared toward doing illustration.

Trinh Tran ................................................................... Staff Editor

Trinh is a senior in Communication Arts who focuses on storytelling through character designs and marine illustrations. Coffee, novels, and comics are her little doses of happiness during her spare time.

Erin Joo ...................................................................... Staff Editor

Erin is a self proclaimed dragon keeper majoring in Communication Arts.

She loves a good story in any form of media and aspires to bring her own to life someday. When she’s not drawing, you can most likely spot her trying to convince someone to get a ukulele of their own.

Lindsay Hart ............................................................... Staff Editor Lindsay is a junior in the Communication Arts program with an interest in illustration and the alternative comics scene. In her free time she enjoys caring for houseplants and watching movies

Joey Wang ................................................................. Staff Editor

Joey is a senior in VCU’s Communication Arts major, as well as a strategy games nerd, who loves Steampunk, Cyberpunk and DND-like fantasy stories.

255

Contact Info Alleman, Laurel allemanlk@mymail.vcu.edu Andersen, Karly andersenkl@mymail.vcu.edu Ansah, Andrew ansahaa@mymail.vcu.edu Banton-Perry, Diansakhu diansakhubp@gmail.com instagram.com/diansakhuart Barnett, Morgan morganbarnett.com barnettmb@mymail.vcu.edu instagram.com/gibberfish Belfield, Jeffrey jefffreybelfield@gmail.com Bright, Meghan brightmt@mymail.vcu.edu Cheuk, Thea cheukts@mymail.vcu.edu Crovella, Ian crovellai@mymail.vcu.edu De-Michele, Madeline demichelem@mymail.vcu.edu DeJesus, Alexis dejesusai@mymail.vcu.edu Dominado, Michelle dominadomed@mymail.vcu.edu Erhart, Ellie erhartes@mymail.vcu.edu

Grady, Susie gradysusannah@gmail.com susannahgrady.com https://twitter.com/venandum Green, Tiffany greenta6@mymail.vcu.edu Hamman, Uri preimpression.org contact@preimpression.org https://twitter.com/preimpression Hart, Lindsey hartld2@mymail.vcu.edu Hilliard-Worth, Alexis hilliardworar@mymail.vcu.edu Hutcheson, Hunter theartofhunter@gmail.com huhutch.wixsite.com/theartofhunter instagram.com/theartofhunter Hwee, Alex hweeay2@vcu.edu instagram.com/alexjing_ Johnson, Lauren johnsonl25@mymail.vcu.edu Joo, Erin erinyjoo@gmail.com instagram.com/toopachu Kim, Angelica kimaj22@mymail.vcu.edu Knierim, Jamie knierimjq@mymail.vcu.edu Lassiter, Aubrey lassiterar2@mymail.vcu.edu

256

Contact Info Lee, James lee.james908@gmail.com jamesleeart.weebly.com instagram.com/jams.lee Lin, Rita linrd@mymail.vcu.edu Mannikko, Logan mannikkolp@mymail.vcu.edu Marie Garcia, Sonnet garciasmd@mymail.vcu.edu McCown, Elizabeth mccownel@vcu.edu McGrady, Evan mcgradyer@mymail.vcu.edu Mehr, Alex forestfirenumber21@gmail.com Molina-Delgado, Kingston molinadelgakk@mymail.vcu.edu Newman, Sammy sammynewman.com ymmas97@gmail.com

Rizzo, Grace gahrace002@gmail.com Rogers, Megan rogersmm2@mymail.vcu.edu Roman, Cindy romancs@mymail.vcu.edu Smith, Seulgi dseulgi7@gmail.com Tran, Trinh & Jacie trantn8@mymail.vcu.edu Wang, Zhoayi wangz25@mymail.vcu.edu Weisenborn, Tessa tmweisenborn@gmail.com Wilson, Haleigh misshaleighwilson@gmail.com Winn, Heather winnhr@mymail.vcu.edu Winston, Angelina aiwinston88@gmail.com

Pandolfe, Samantha pandolfes@mymail.vcu.edu

Wood, Mac macwood1995@gmail.com

Pascual, Emely hello.empascual@gmail.com instagram.com/emelancholy

Woodies, Seth woodiessd@mymail.vcu.edu

Pham, Casper garuxpuru@gmail.com aeromarch.tumblr.com Powell, Raelign powellrg3@mymail.vcu.edu

257

VCU STUDENT MEDIA CENTER vcustudentmedia.com

258