#mafiakids

Contents:

Chapter 1 and part of chapter 2 of the comic, drawn in the original original style of the comic (the style of the comic will be different)

And here's concept art for Emilien's mom, her present and younger years designs.

I won’t be putting all locations, as I do like the mystery of having people try to figure out what town or what area places are specifically, but I do want to share a few locations, and comment on how I went around taking photos, cause it was a fun yet difficult process at times.  Stella’s alleyway and territory.

I can’t say exactly where, but this is in Montreal, near Square Saint-Louis. I once did a photoshoot here for my photography assignment!

here it is in the Spring. if you can even tell what’s going on. And no, I didnt use photoshop.  While travelling the metro and walking thru the park to get to the alley way, I was cat called and followed by a strange man. Also, the box I sed for Stella’s house, I picked up right in front of my favorite clothing store... Dickies! Or N10? idk. But they have goth clothes. It was recycling day, so all the shops had their trash on the side of the road. the box was huge and full of papers, pastel, and playing cards for some reason. Nothing was worth keeping, so I emptied it out, then I brought it to the location, took pics, then brought it back to Dickies.  Beatrice’s room

Thisis my room. It was supposed to be my girlfriend at the times room, but we broke up. She had an amazing gaming computer and beautiful room. I had taken pictures of it, but after the break up, I deleted everything to be respectful.  Kiel’s room, and dimitri’s hallway 

My mom’s room, the hallway of my house, and that’s the door to my room. Dimitri’s bedroom isn’t in my house at all. He’s actually my boyfriend’s bedroom.  A random street.

Saint-Denis, montreal.  Metro

Metro Longueil. 

The entrance to Nick’s house and his room

My backyard. And here is my my father’s study. Due to covid and not having many friends, I  couldn’t take pictures of an actually bedroom. 

How about a rapid fire list of photos that took place at my aunt’s mansion? Edwin’s house.  

Donovan’s hotel

(the basement)

and sooooo much more.  also... the entity of chapter 7 takes place in the Vieux Longueil.

Part 3! Read part 1 and part 2  The translation differences, a more general look.  First of all, we need to discuss actually speech bubbles. Not all bubbles were changed to fit the French text, but some were. 

unchanged. 

Changed.  These changes were kind of rare and only happened if the text was important and really couldn’t fit inside no matter how hard I tried. And trust me, I tried a lot. Changing sentences so it would have the same meaning but still be smaller of fit different. I came on clutch. Often. 

This translates to the same thing, but here’s a good example of Stella using more Quebec slang and speaking with a joual accent.  Some characters who spoke with English slang had to have it removed or changed. 

“OMG! Really!” Instead of:

All chapters have the same names. Certain names are in English, and others are in French. The thank you note at the beginning of the book, and the origin of the comic pages at the end are both bilingual, as organizing and setting things in different folders is just a hassle. Certain characters had a name change, except for Burgundy who ironically had the name of a color as her name and so it would have translated kind of easily... except...I thought “Bourgogne” sounded ugly.  Andrew became André, a much more traditional French name.  Edwin became Edward. ‘Édouard’ would have been the better French spelling, but in in this context, Edwin is actually anglophone, so have it be spelled the English way, but be more pronounceable to French speakers is the ideal here. Sure, Edwin might be a bit iffy on pronunciation but try Riverley K in French. My own name sounds hideous. I should have changed my own name instead! Dimitri is a pretty name in French, but unfortunately, DIMITRIUS is just a terrible sound in French. Luckily, it’s long and nobody calls him by his full name.

Speaking of Edwin being an anglophone tho, his ENTIRE CHAPTER is different and much funnier.  In the English version, Edwin was a hard ass. Respectful, super Canadian, and polite, but still firm in not wanting to sign the contract, all until... ya know the plot twist. (Read my comic!!!)  But if French, he’s all that and extremely bad at talking in French. Added dialog of him saying as much and apologizing is the icing on top. 

“ I’m happy that you came, but she has passed away. I worry that nobody can sign these papers. pardon my French.”  Notice how he says ‘je worry’. worry is an English word, he’s not saying it right. he should be saying ‘Je suis inquiet’ (I am worried) but even that isn’t right. I payed a lot of attention to my own French mistakes, and my biggest errors were using English grammar structure or sayings and applying them into French, which would create broken syntaxe and bad grammar. Language is complex, but I’ll keep it simple for the sake of this post not taking ages.  Other types of errors/fun details: 

Clearly, he just said an entire sentence in English. That's not French!

“That’s illegal. we are met now. You know me not.” He fails spectacularly to the point of this phrase barely making sense. 

More anglicismes (using English words in another Language). Using ‘caller’ instead of ‘téléphoner’ (the verb, to call) and of course, using smart instead of intelligent or rusé. 

“The money was (was?) - has been stolen.” I know this translation is wrong in English. Saying has is right for the context, but in French, Edwin questioned his own grammar and got it right! There are so many other mistakes he makes, but most of it is grammar related. He only used masculine ‘déterminant’ like Le and Un. In French, nouns have gender, and so there’s La and Une he’s not using. He also gets conjugation mixd up, using ‘est’ and ‘a’ incorrectly. This is basic stuff that’s very hard for new learners, but even then, Edwin is from Ontario, where English is still taught in school. Edwin is a himbo tho.  Other small edits: ..or lack there of. 

In chapter 8, Donovan’s hotel room is the name in either language. Mainly because I edited these directly on the image file itself. The hotel was actually my grand parent’s old folks home hallway. Their hotel room was the basement at my aunt’s house. I needed to edit out their address and names. 

In French, Stella references her ‘info-man’, which is a popular comedy in Québec.

Certain sounds, like a gasp is not translated. Mainly cause I don’t know what a French gasp is...

Dimitri’s slang for ‘get high’ was translated to ‘défoncer’ but actually that means  something much more intense. Basically Dimitri said “I’m gonna go get shitfaced.” 

Beatrice also speaks in slight joual. Also, that’s my bedroom. 

I don’t know why her swearing in French was censored....

(Warning this post gets a bit sad and dark) MK: 6 Rue Avenue This book has a lot more of myself in it. There's no shame and having a self insert character. It would be bad writing not too, as most writers write what we know anyway. The story of Emilien Flaversham is that of a overworked kid forced to labor in his mother's restaurant while she is dying of cancer. He sacrifices his education, social life, hobbies and well being in order to keep the family business afloat, until she dies. This scenario is very exaggerated. People go thru this, I'm sure, but it's overly tragic on purple. Emilien's character is all about people pleasing, selfless sacrifice and workaholism. This relates a lot to my compulsive need to work or finish tasks, as well as this isolating feeling I get when in social situations when I'm not helping/cleaning something. Essentially, if I'm not working/helping somebody, I'm either wasting my time or useless. Emilien has 'ant philosophy', a mind set I developed ever since I was 14. In high school, I didn't have many friends, and I was encouraged, even forced, to study in order to get into a good college. Due to being bullied and isolated at school, I decided to spend my free time working as much as possible. I prided myself on being as productive as possible. It felt good, but it would cost my mental health. It has taken over half a decade to heal from this era in my life. Even to this day, I struggle to give myself breaks. The scenes were Emilien confronts his father and runs away from home, seeking a new life is very eery to me now as it was writing before I ever ran away from home... But it happened! During production of the comic, A fight between my mother and I broke out. I packed all my things and lived in a homeless shelter all summer long. I even finished my comic there. It was fun, but dangerous. I was hospitalized, I watched suicide attempt, overdoses, seizures and heart breaks. I was lucky to have avoided most of that pain, but I made friends with people who I considered family. I had formed a 'mafia kids' of my own! Then, slowly, I watched them all erase themselves from my life. Emilien's story ends on a happy note though, he succeeds his escape and goes to live with his sibling. I ended up moving back in with my parents. As for the vapourware aesthetic, it was chosen because: - It looks cool

Jack, aka 'Jacklyn Jacqueline Jackoleen Anderson' is one of my longest used OCs, even before Dimitri. She's now making her first debut in the Mafia Kids world as a co-star in the 2 Times Alive. This is the origin story of Dimitri but also her... But her life didn't start at 16 years old moving to Canada. Back in Finland, she lived thru some pretty unusual events. Early life: Jack's father is a world renowned detective, Mr. Anderson. He's a very strict and perfectionist man who raised his daughter to be exactly like him. Her mother, Agent Catrina was a strong willed and skilled police officer, who cared about protecting those in need. Jack was the pride and joy of the family. Any other parent would be proud to have such a pretty girl as their daughter, (Jacklyn is one of my OCs who's meant to actually be pretty) but her parents didnt care about look. Anderson wanted her to excel in school and get smart. Catrina wanted Jack to exercise and get strong. Unfortunately, they discovered thru exercising that Jacklyn was born with a rare condition making her muscles and lungs very weak. She's never be able to bare children let alone live an active life style. Her mother was devastated, and this was the first time Jacklyn was ever anything less than perfect... And it would be the last time. Childhood: Starting elementary school, Jack studied a lot and became a gifted kid. She was often paired with the 'troubled' students to help them. Jack enjoyed this a lot as they was constantly being praised and in direct contact with those who could benefit from her. At this point, jack still has her empathy intact and she enjoyed being about people. She didn't make any friends with the gifted kids, as she jealous of them, but all the 'troubled' students liked her a lot. It was at this point where she befriended Rory Riquette, an odd ball kid with a bad Homelife, but a big heart. She is introduced to making plush animals and furry art at thru him. She loves cats and cute snuggly plushes. At was at this point where her mother went missing. Jack was still very young and didn't really understand the severity of this. Her mom was gone, but she'd be back, right? Now a single parent, Anderson began to bring her to crime scenes as he struggled to find baby sitters. At first being at these crime scenes were traumatic and scary. She'd cry seeing the corpses and police officers, but Anderson reassured her and made it fun. He explained that this was like a puzzle, and they had to find clues. Suddenly it became easier to ignore the dead people there, and over time, the dead bodies were no longer fellow humans, but just props to her. The story of 'Perfect shot' is completely cannon. It was a short crime mystery I wrote for English class in high school where in a 9 year old Jack and Rory solve their first murder. Jack is also struggling to win her father's approval as being a single parent, he's become distance and harsher on her. Teen years: Jacklyn is more grown up and mature, but her father's horrible parent has really changed her outlook on life. She's become a bit of a control freak and extremely insecure. She wants to be the best at everything and feels this immense pressure to succeed. At this point, her and Rory have a falling out as he's not good enough to hang out with her. Jack stopped tutoring the 'troubled' students, focusing on improving her skills instead. Her worldview has become much more paranoid as being exposed to her father's work constantly has made her believe that the world is a dangerous place full of serial killers, murder and violence. Jack has taken an interest in researching true crime and has set her sights on being a better detective that her father is. She's become completely desensitized to violence, often watching snuff films and gore online to 'study'. She loves horror movies and thrillers but really she's become obsessed with reliving that high she experienced as a child solving her first case. It's at this point where she decides to solve the hardest case of all: her mother's Catrina has never