By Thea Srinivasan

I’ve seen several artists showcase their lives in the form of comics. But I’ve never seen anyone make me want to get a dog as much as this artist has done. As a person who has never wanted a pet, I now want a dog to love and to cherish. I think I’ll have to settle for my stuffed animals though.

Art is my joy follows the life of the creator as they go about their daily life with special guest appearances by their dog Mingu. Although the summary may not be a lot, I can assure all of you that you will find yourself relating to at least one topic in the anthology. If you’re looking for something more in-depth, adventurous, or even with more detailed artwork, I’d suggest you close this webpage right now.

While the art style is very simple and laid-back, I do think they have a similar art style to Jaiden Animations, a famous YouTuber who makes animations. (Pun intended) The mini-strips are a lot of fun to read and I found myself laughing and pouting at her for a few moments.  Reading about her life was like trying to write an essay on something I really liked. I was looking forward to the relaxing pace of slice-of-life, but then I met a roadblock when it came to her ideas on dogs. Finally, I just learned to love dogs like she did.

I really liked learning about her love of wrestling and her opinions on different ideas like social media and Halloween. She’s a normal woman who loves to draw, is passionate about wrestling, loves her dog Mingu very much and has a lot of wit. People shouldn’t be going in hoping for anything from this comic. It’s more of a reflection of what the creator wants to show about herself and that could be a tipping point for some readers who always expect something from a comic.

The biggest highlight of her work was wrestling. I liked how she brought attention to her love for it and I really wished I could see more of it. It’s rare to find a female wrestler and I hope she makes a separate series simply dedicated to this topic. I’m sure a lot of girls would get inspired to take up wrestling and show that girls can show their tough sides as well. Plus, I’m sure there are a lot of athletes who would relate to the daily antics of just being an athlete. (I don’t know what athletes generally go through considering how lazy I am.)

If you’re someone who loves dogs, wrestling, people, exercise, art, slice-of-life, etc this comic is a good relaxation piece to pick up.  If I had one thing I would change about the comic, I would prefer adding some color to panels. Although the creator put a lot of time and effort into shading her work and taking care of action cues, I’d like a little more color on the panels to give them more pop. 

Score: 3/5

Art is my joy
Written & Illustrated by Kelly Kusumoto
Self-Published
Available for purchase here.