Bittersweet Candy Bowl

First off, this series was created wayyyy before the first (now second!) comic that is archived here. Hell, this series has gone through some revivals.. about three to be exact (Or not). It all started when I developed an adoration for comics such as Garfield, Condorito, and Mafalda. Comics and cartoons were always so fascinating to me and I loved the way we could be told a story in sequences.. we could be put in the scene with the character and just watch the character react to situations, whether it be everyday or pretty damn extraordinary. I loved that.. and I loved seeing reactions happen, especially when it came to funny situations.. it wasn’t like I read serious business comic books back then like Batman or something XD I grew up on silly slapstick junk that had the characters getting violently hurt.

So I thought “Hey.. I wanna do that!”.. but the question was.. how? So I just made little boxes.. and at first just drew sequences.. like a character walking.. they trip.. and fall. Oh snap. It was originally just random little characters.. like a little human girl.. or a dog. It was only after I became obsessed with reading cat-related comics (Garfield, Heathcliff) that I wanted to make my main characters cats. I just thought cats were so cute.. and they could do so many little things.. like roll on the floor.. tilt their ears back.. the motion of cats always fascinated me! Sounds silly.. but yeah. I liked drawing little cutesy things at first.. like a cat curled up, its head facing us.. I thought I was pretty amazing to do that. Nyarhar.. I was easily entertained back then.

Mike was the first real character I created.. he was originally a yellow and dimwitted cat, who always got hurt at the end. Surprisingly enough, Sue was the first protagonist rather than Lucy. They looked pretty much the exact same, nyarhar.. black nose and everything. Sue was bossy and rude.. and yeah. Just that typical comic idea with an idiot and a smartass. I later wanted to draw a pretty cat.. and what is prettier than a pure white, blue-eyed, red nosed kitten? Yeah.. I made Lucy then.. and I really loved her.. way more than Sue. Sue then became a secondary character.. but soon faded off into the background.. funny how that happens in this Bittersweet Candy Bowl series!

So yeah.. regular comics started when I was about seven or so. I used to make little tiny books called “Cat ___”.. comics about cats, obviously.. it got up to like chapter 50, I swear. Unfortunately, I threw the majority of my old comics away because I was so ashamed of them.. I regret it to this very day. Don’t ever throw your old work away, guys. It really hurts when you one day feel “Hey.. I wanna look at my old crap” and you realize you don’t have them.. and they were one of a kind. Never to be retrieved again.. no matter how hard you try. I really wish there was a way to reverse time.. seriously, I had SO MANY COMICS.. hundreds.. in little booklets.. just put them in a bag and threw them away. Horrid.

By “old comics”, though.. I mean the ones I did when I was about seven-nine or so. Those comics were originally done on white computer paper that were bended and stapled to make into a mini-booklet. Those were thrown away.. but all the ones I drew in an actual notebook are still with me.. and some are as old as.. nine, ten or so. So at least I have that.

So to get to the ACTUAL comics rather than their tragic destruction.. I ended up putting in a setting for the comic by the time I was about.. nine or so. Before, they were just stupid comics with random animals doing things.. but I finally decided to focus on the characters Lucy and Mike.. so I developed them up. I gave them a family, siblings, friends, a school to attend, teachers to harass them.. the works. In a way, the series used to chronicle what I was going through in school. If something funny happened in school, I always drew it up except made Lucy and Mike experience it. Lucy soon became what I woulda been if I wasn’t so shy.. so she was used for me to vent. I was a pretty bratty and horrid child back then.. so Lucy was very cynical and very cruel to others. I sometimes shudder when I look back at the old comics and see how.. angry I was back then. Seriously, some stuff was really bad.

As I grew up, there were changes to the story.. Lucy softened up more (She was still immensely cruel, but she had more control now).. and Mike became less of a bumbling idiot. I thought yellow was too girly a color for him so his color was changed to silver.. he also originally had brown-gray eyes.. those were changed to green. Along with his new look, his personality began to form.. and in the old series, he started showing signs of actually being in love with Lucy. Before, he would hit on her.. or make little jokes that would get a slap in the face as a response.. but I made him start genuinely feeling strongly for her.. that was around eleven or so.

Twelve came.. and I brought them closer.. the comic began getting less slapstick and began focusing on the characters more, sometimes having little arcs happen. It was still meant to be funny, but they were showing more emotions. I then became a teenager.. and veered the comic to something a lot more serious (I also got into anime some more.. so I wanted to make stupid touching “animu” scenes). Lucy began getting more sentimental and soft, Mike more strongminded.. Paulo and Daisy were also introduced (Yeah, they were not exactly characters that existed this WHOLE time) I soon made a side-story from that influence.. which was my first attempt at a full-on serious story.. once it ended, though, the comic did.

The series laid dormant for a while.. and was revived for a short gaiden side-story that was so animay, it makes me keel over at the thought. The personality of the characters were IMMENSELY different, Lucy a sobby crybaby and Mike a tough and heartless douchebag who is really A GOOD GUY INSIDE REALLY :((((. Definitely the stereotypical animay pair. It was only another experiment.. and when the story ended, I didn’t draw them again. God what was I thinking.

That was when I was.. about fifteen or so. So insane. I thought the characters were finally dead, too.. so I began focusing on other comics.. I drew little comics with my “self-character” and comics with the character Carol.. those can be seen in my deviantART page. Notice I was sixteen when I started my account in deviantART..so it shows that the cat series was dead for quite a while. Anime influence was supreme by that time.

Years passed.. and I turned eighteen. I’ve been drawing and trying to get my style away from anime.. but that’s really hard, obviously. I sat around one day, though.. and noticed my drawer with all my old comics.. and I flipped through them and really did stop and appreciate my cat characters.. the characters that pretty much lended me a helping hand in my whole life of trying to become a cartoonist.. obviously they gave me A LOT OF PRACTICE in terms of sequences and expressions. I have to thank them.. those nonexistent characters. This was coming from a person who abandoned that dream of being a cartoonist to instead follow the footsteps of becoming a teacher, though.. so it was pretty sad to see them.. posing and interacting.. knowing that back then, I wanted to make SOMETHING of them.

Keep smiling, little Lucy~

I was sitting in university one day, bored out of my mind and waiting for class to start up.. so I started doodling. I drew up two little cats.. and thought “.. Haha Mike and Lucy” so I made the cats look like them.. except I gave them accessories. I gave the boy a scarf.. and the girl a bow. I thought that was pretty cute.. so I doodled them up more.. playing about. I soon drew Daisy and Paulo, giving Daisy that pearl necklace but not giving Paulo anything. I was really happy doodling them up.. and it became a bit of a focus for a while.. to the point that when I was studying for my Psychology Final, I drew little comics with the newly revived characters to try and stay awake for the night. Whenever I was getting sleepy, I pulled my notebook out, sketched out little lines.. and drew the cats.

Needless to say, the first few comics you see in the archives are scans of comics done on those nights.. hence the terrible quality. I wasn’t trying.. but after a while of posting them on deviantART, I noticed a bit of a positive feedback. People.. liked them! I guess. It made me wanna draw them up more.. to the point that I was constantly drawing them.. constantly working on their personalities and trying to develop them. Soon enough, it became a story.. and I feel the series truly starts with the “Prom Preparation” comic.. that was the first comic I drew in a separate notebook.. a notebook I bought specifically for the cat comic.

And I guess that brings us to today. So why is this called “Bittersweet Candy Bowl”? In the words of my friend Lily who was the creator of the name: “i made it up XD i was trying to decide whether or not to name it after a song, but suddenly i thought of how their relationship is bittersweet, and yet they can’t get enough. so i figured it fit. if you like it, use it! i’d be honoured :3”

So yeah.. this story just chronicles the life of Lucy and Mike.. as did the old series. They retain the same birthdays given to them in the old series.. and they’re growing up as time passes like any normal person.. going through High School now, in fact! So yeah. I hope this was informative enough! And if you wanna know what’s REALLY going on in the story.. well.. umm.. read the comic!