#relationshipwithromancecomic

And so we finish this series! God I feel like I have forever and everything to say about what was covered here 😭 Maybe most importantly, I wanted to end the comic with this emphasis on moving on, both figuratively and literally from that Romance section. For me personally, it’s been a big part of my journey with aromanticism. For those that need to hear it, I hope that you find the grace to move forwards too, even if it sometimes feels like there may be little else to find. Just like how there are more genres than romance, I promise life has so much more to offer 💚💚💚

BTW also, since I will be taking a bit of a break while working out my next comic series, I was thinking of doing some reviews of Aro-centric books as some buffer posts - so lmk if there are things you think I should read!!!

[Image Descriptions:

Slide 1: Celia lies on a bed of books, speaking up to the reader as she holds a pink one in her hands. 

“Recently, however, I think that I’ve entered a new phase in my relationship with romance.” 

Slide 2: “I no longer feel bothered by romance like I used to, and for a while I was even able to pick up some fanfiction or lighter romances and enjoy them as a story.”

Celia lies on her bed in blue pajamas. She gleefully smiles as she holds a phone up above her, reading a story on it. 

Slide 3: Shot closes in on her, now curled up holding the phone to her side and hugging a plush emu toy. She smiles, her expression reading as bittersweet but ultimately still happy. 

“But at the same time, it just … didn’t connect with me, not like it did before.” 

Slide 4: The current version of Celia sits on a chair, flipping through the pink book she held earlier. “Maybe it’s because I don’t really need it, the way I used to.”

Slide 5: “Romance used to be a kind of escape for me,”

The shot switches to a close up of her hands holding the book open. 

Slide 6: Celia, now depicted inside the pages of the book, stares back at a scene of a wedding drawn in a looser, watercoloured style. 

She says, “and in some ways it was one of the few places I ever saw meaningful bonds between people being developed.” 

A side note is written in lighter text: “And that mattered, a lot - for a child who grew up semi-forcibly socially isolated due to circumstances beyond their control.” 

Slide 7: “Maybe it’s because at the end of everything, I’ve accepted that I’m not going to enjoy being in a romantic relationship nor will it be a part of my life.” 

Still within the pages of the book, Celia stares off to the side looking at a scrapbooked section with a photo of her younger self taped down. The teen raises their hands excitedly in front of a sketchbook showing a shipping chart with OCs and arrows, and a pile of scrawled pages underneath underneath the sketchbook.  

The teen says “Shipping is my fav activity!” while an arrow pointing to the image says “trying waaaay too hard to convince everyone (myself included) that romance was my fav genre”. 

The older version of Celia looks at the collage, chuckling and nothing ‘I was so cute back then …’ 

Slide 8: The scene switches back to the normal style, showing Celia closing the book. “No matter what, I’m just … neutral about it. And maybe that’s okay.” 

Slide 9: A darker slide, with a panel at the bottom showing Celia putting a book back on the shelf. 

Slide 10: Celia walking away from the bookshelf, looking cheerfully away from the romance aisle. 

And so we begin the third and final comic I finished as part of this batch!! 💖✨🐸

Y’all, I’ve been So Excited to share comic (tho tbf I feel that way about all of them lol). For some context, I used to be a bigger reader when I was younger, and wish I was still but the combination of adult life + mainly a lot of professional obligations means that I’m often quite busy. Spare time tends to go towards comics making instead of personal reading time. This being said, I still visited bookstores every now and then and this moment from a few years ago felt impactful in a way that I wanted to capture.

For the books featured, they are:

Mooncakes by Wendy Xu

You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar

I chose these since I distinctly remember their titles as being good examples of what I was referring to on the slide from that time period! (Full disclaimer: I haven’t read the two prose novels yet, but I would like to and I’ve seen wonderful reviews for them and sure they’re great 🐸)

To all my aro folks - how do you feel your relationship with romance as a genre has shifted since finding out you were aro, if at all??

[Image Descriptions:

Slide 1: “I went to a bookstore recently,” 

A shot of Celia from behind, walking inside a bookstore towards a series of colourful shelves. She is wearing a pink dress and carrying a bright blue purse. 

Slide 2: “and I saw some new romance releases from authors I used to read.” 

Shot switches to show Celia from the front. She walks alongside the colourful bookshelf and glances upwards at the books. 

Slide 3: Shot switches back to a view from behind. She has stopped in front of the bookshelf and is now looking upwards at the books. 

“It was a little weird, to see these titles and shelves -”

Slide 4: Shot switches to a close up of Celia’s face as she reaches to pick up one of the books. She has a slightly curious, wide eyed expression. 

Slide 5: An abstracted drawing representing Celia’s childhood. A younger version of herself with longer dark hair reads a book, which emanates a protective blue aura around her. Surrounding her past this protective aura are a mess of red scribbles and shadow like claws closing in around her. 

“- that were once a safe haven, when everything else in my life felt too chaotic or scary to deal with.” 

Slide 6: Celia in the present day (of this comic) stares glumly at the book she has just picked up. 

Slide 7: A cartoon version of Celia’s head speaks to the reader: 

“Now, just to be very extra clear – I was STILL really happy to see the growing section of LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and otherwise diverse or less common forms of romance and representation that were sorely lacking in the YA genre (especially when I was growing up). 

I was still excited for the authors finally having their voices heard, and for the people who would find representation in their stories.”

Small cartoon depictions of some of these books and a rainbow pride flag accompany these speech bubbles. Depicted books include Mooncakes by Wendy Xu, You should see me in a Crown by Leah Johnson, and The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar. 

Was this an excuse to do some fun lettering? Art Style experiments? Perhaps 🐸 But also, idk if this makes any sense, but I want to put the extra effort into my aro-centric art because there is so little art explicitly about aromanticism in general. I want every aro person reading to know they are cherished and adored by seeing the care put into the work; to feel they are worthy of being celebrated and seen in the spotlight of emotional discussions and artwork, just as much as everyone else.

I hope that doesn’t come off too strong or mushy 😅 but I have been wanting to say this and wasn’t sure where haha. Y’all really do mean so much to me 💚💚💚

[Image Descriptions:

Slides 1-2: 

Two part slide. Celia plays with her hair sheepishly as she begins to explain: “I remember the first time something changed for me about YA romances  was when I was having my phase of … Aro crisis? Arospec Panic? Aromantic Flavour Existential Dread T M ?” 

The arospec emotions she just described are hand lettered in different styles for emphasis. 

She twirls around, laughing now, “Okay, I jest. What I’m trying to say is there was a period of time I became really uncomfortable with seeing anything to do with romance, because of my own insecurities with amatonormativity.”

Slides 3-5: 

Another multi-part slide. A panel of Celia leaning over the edges of the usual comic style box as she says “It was actually bubbling for a while, and it kind of hit its peak around when I wrote my jealousy comic as well as for a while after” 

The comic panels transition to a different, sketchier style with pencil like lines and grainy, textured colouring. Waves crash in a flat, illustrative style reminiscent of Lishui, a chinese pattern used to depict waves. 

“And that feeling came in waves, with crests where the mere sight of romance would spark unease and leave a bitter taste in my mouth,”

A series of panels shows Celia in the past (as shown by her shorter, chin length hair) watching a TV show, then seeing a romance scene between two people holding hands on the phone screen. She pauses the show with a blank expression, then looks off to the side in discomfort as a shadow crosses her face. 

More waves crash over as Celia at a future point in time is shown sitting on a couch watching TV on a full screen. She seems more amused now, saying ‘aw, that’s sweet’. 

“At mellower points, all it would do was prick at the back of my mind while I enjoyed the rest of the story.”