‘Lil’ Scamps (With Grazed Knees)’ originally started out as a single comic strip, acting as a prologue for a short film idea I had featuring Markkie Pembergast, the lead character of 'LSWGK', meeting the guardian angel Celine. Although, I keep devising ideas for these ‘micro-narratives’ that explored the world and characters that surrounded Markkie, eventually transforming into a comic anthology.
Inspired by filmmakers such as Wong Kar Wai, Yasujiro Ozu, Sean Baker and Edward Yang, I wanted to evoke the sense that the world was much bigger than a child could perceive, only seeing the exterior of a quaint seaside town, but having omnipresent gods, aliens and banshee ladies residing underground, in outer space and alternate dimensions. I wanted this to provide an underlying atmosphere of confusion and fear, as the world is a disorienting and scary place for both adults and children, as the characters individually face loss, hardship and prosperity. Although, I attempted to present a certain openness to these more fantastical elements, allowing the reader to decide if they’re products of a child’s imagination. Furthermore, with characters such as Sasha Fahrtgarten, I wanted to explore that sense of never truly feeling like an adult, being alienated, unsatisfied, contrasting to the carefree naivety of the younger child characters. Additionally, much like Ozu and Yang, I wanted the stories to be a minimalist look at characters just existing, as their lives naturally flow into sometimes random and meandering directions.
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Another element I wanted to portray was the relationship between the characters of Markkie and Celine, with Markkie being an autistic coded character (with tendencies loosely inspired by my own), and Celine almost acting as her guardian angel, creating orbs of magic energy that then manifest themselves into films in Markkie’s reality. I wanted to imply a personal feeling of having a special interest almost passed down to you by Gods, like a comforting sense of euphoria or literal magic. However, I then wanted to question what if that God had their own insecurities and worries, so instilled Celine with a sense of imposter syndrome or doubt. Her appearance is also lightly based on the director Celine Sciamma.
