Making of a comic: Grief Belly

A look at the process behind the work I created for a comics anthology

Back in November, I mentioned that I was participating in a month-long online Comics Workshop. On the very last day, someone had posted in the member chat about a call for submissions to a comics anthology that was being put together by

Normandie Luscher

, an illustrator, designer, and faculty member at Syracuse University.

Here’s an excerpt from Normandie’s call for submissions on Instagram:

An anthology is just a fancy word for a collection of short stories by multiple artists. This means, if you’re an artist who wants to make art about how weird, frustrating and awesome it is to have a body, you are officially invited to submit! Final story selections will be juried by an amazing panel: @jordansondler @robertyoungillustration @yifanluoart and myself @normandieillustration.

Since this call was specifically for a story related to the body, I immediately knew what idea I wanted to take and make into a comic.

Grief Belly origins

I’ve had the title and the general idea in my head since maybe 2022. It started as a thought-thread I informally called “Grief Belly” —

In the beginning, a tumor filled her belly with fluid, making her look, in her words, “7 months pregnant,” though she was pushing 60.

She would know, having actually been pregnant twice, with humans.

Spreading from her womb, the ovarian cancer eventually took over everything.

What had once given life…could also take it away.

When she died, I felt purposeless.

I didn’t want children, and now, without my mother on earth, I couldn’t understand why I was still here, too.

An invisible cord tethered us. Why didn’t it take me to where she was?

I stopped dying my grays and considered getting a pixie cut – an attempt to find more of her in my reflection.

I wore her sweaters and favorite earrings.
I got her handwriting tattooed on my arm.
I cooked her recipes...sampled her favorite foods...ordered her signature drink...

In other words…in my mother’s absence, I filled my body with her

but the only part that grew was my belly.

Now, I look pregnant, though I’m not. I don’t have ovarian cancer, either…nor the genetic mutation that would put me at higher risk for it.

To my utter surprise – despite years of contrarian conditioning – the sight of my full, soft stomach gives me joy (most days).

I couldn’t hate this belly that formed inside my mother. So some days I cradle it – this proof of the journey.

Visual evidence that my value is not tied to whether or not I bring new life or new bodies into the world,

but simply that surviving this life, in this body, is enough.

I knew the words would need editing in order to become a thing. But I wasn’t ready to start cutting words until I had a better idea of the visuals – how would the story live?

Below is an initial brainstorm sketch, trying to get a sense of how I might lay the story out visually. I drew directly in Figma with the pencil tool and my laptop trackpad because it was the easiest way for me to move things around quickly.

Explorations like this are extremely helpful for me. I could suddenly see all the little details that detracted from the story.

I had a starting point for how to reign it in.

Show or Tell

When you are crystal clear on what you want to say, it’s easier to identify and cut the things that don’t work. I got laser-focused on the main point I wanted to get across, which centered on the “belly” connection: mom’s ovarian tumor, my empty womb by choice, and my stomach growing fuller from comfort food.

I also chose to keep it to one page of 6 square panels, giving myself a clear, manageable container.

I think the thing I am most drawn to with comics is the aspect of getting to show parts of the story, rather than saying it with text. What could I represent visually, and what needed actual words?

Below is the exact proposal I submitted – you can see how editing made the story much clearer. There was a “point” now, rather than it being more of a stream-of-conscious piece of writing. The text still felt a bit long to me, but it was suitable for the storyboard stage.

Getting to final

I don’t know how many folks from the comics workshop group ended up submitting a proposal, but there were four of us that got accepted for the anthology.

One of them put together a Discord channel for us to keep in touch while working on our comics. The benefit of this really cannot be understated for artists working independently on a project. If nothing else, having a space to say “I have no idea what I’m doing” and three other people can chime in with a “haha RIGHT? me neither” is invaluable, and frankly should be supplied with your diploma upon graduation from art school.

To create the final artwork, I chose to work digitally, in Procreate, so I could more easily control the color environment (working in a print-standard CMYK profile).

Here’s a random part of creating art that is so annoying: I drew and redrew the second and last panels over and over again. I couldn’t really tell you why, except that they just weren’t feeling “right.” So I redrew them until they felt right. It was not fun, to be honest. But when you finally get it to that point where it feels right in your bones…all I can say is that it feels worth it, then.

I also tried out a few different fonts, but decided to go with my handwriting in the end.

Here is the comic in its final form:

In the end, I’m really pleased with the final comic.

Creating work like this gives my grief a new path to take (usually one of catharsis). Grief Belly as a phrase and idea has been living rent free in my brain for a few years now. I’m happy that it finally has a place to live outside of me.

Body Anthology Kickstarter

There is a Kickstarter campaign running now through May 2 to raise support for the anthology that houses Grief Belly.

Here’s a bit more info on that, taken directly from the Kickstarter page:

Contributing to Body: An Anthology supports the artists and ensures printing for as many readers who want a copy! The project was initially supported by a small grant to support a jury panel to ensure multiple perspectives when considering the artist submissions. The grant also covered an amount for a small run of less than 100 copies. Supporting this project makes sure that artists receive compensation for their work and enables the ability to print and distribute more copies of the anthology. All money raised will go directly to paying for printing of books and reward items and to distribute money equally among the contributing artists.

There are a couple of fun gifts you can choose to receive, in addition to owning your own copy of the anthology. I encourage you to check it out – I was enthralled by the short explainer video featuring some of the artists and the inspiration behind their comics!

My comic “Grief Belly” will be included in the printed book Body: An Anthology edited by Normandie Luscher, coming Summer 2025

I hope you enjoyed this look at the process behind making my comic! I’m excited to hold the book in my hands, where Grief Belly now lives.