"Diary of Red Panda" is a comic that I, Asnawy Mohamad, created to share my experiences as a Cham American. Cham are an Indigenous group whose ancestors link back to the Ancient Kingdom of Champa, which sat in present-day Central and Southern Vietnam. The Kingdom of Champa existed from 192 CE until 1832 CE when the last principality was annexed by Emperor Minh Mạng. The Cham people have endured generations of forced migrations, cultural erasure, and genocide. I can't speak for the experiences of every member of the Cham diaspora but I create this comic to make my existence known. We are not an extinct people. I hope you enjoy my silly comics about a red panda from Central Pennsylvania making silly little diary comics.
If you would like to read more, you can find new comic strips every Wednesday at 3 PM on Webtoon Canvas or on Instagram.
More info: Instagram | webtoons.com | youtube.com | beacons.ai
This post may include affiliate links.
Well Informed Citizen
Pup 2 (sunglasses) is mostly quiet, genuine, and mysterious. However, he likes to be a non-biased, well-informed citizen by diversifying the news outlets that he reads from.
Don't fret mon ami. Begin by eliminating news networks named after animals.
Throughout the day, I fill up the notes app on my phone with thoughts, songs I've listened to, poems, and phrases from others. I also take many screenshots, and pictures of what I read/watch. Some of these things will be untouched for days, months, years or may never ever see the light of day. Every now and then, when I am struggling for ideas, I will scroll through everything on my phone to see if anything I stored catches my attention. Once I pull an idea out of the hat, I begin doing thumbnail sketches. I do all of my thumbnail drawings and comics in a Moleskine sketchbook. One funny thing is I always lose my rulers so I use random objects to measure out my panels.
I'll Be Home Late
As a kid, like many other kids that had immigrant parents, my parents would work long hours almost every day. Many times I would be jealous of other kids that had their parents home all of the time.
Wait, What’s Going On?!
Hamster can be a little dramatic, but who wouldn’t be for a sweet treat? It’s the only thing that can bring happiness in this bleak world.
The current strip I am working on is measured out using a Wiglett Pokemon card. Before, when I did my comics using thick 2mm 4B leads, it would take me hours to draw out a single panel because the lead was too dark to erase without smudging everywhere. In the past year, I have switched to using a mechanical pencil to avoid this headache.
All my comic strips are traditionally hand-painted using watercolors after I ink my panels with a micron pen. It takes a lot more time than doing it digitally but the results are much more rewarding to me. I also like to physically hold each panel, so I think that's cool too.
How Are You Gonna Do That?
Red Panda struggles a lot with completing tasks and staying focused. Here Red Panda brings up solutions to this never-ending struggle of living in a world that measures people’s worth with their productivity.
What If Our Brains Are Connected To Like A Large Library?
I have always been fascinated by the thought of collective consciousness. I’ve been sitting on this gag since the beginning of this comic when it was only done in pencil. When I switched to inking my strips, I found this gag a lot easier to realize.
For decades now, I have browsed through stuff like string theory, metaphysics, multiple dimensions, etc., and pondered how something like 'consciousness' can couple into a physical, materialistic universe. I developed the fanciful notion that, as some physicists think gravity is different from other fundamental forces because it comes from a different space and kinda 'leaks' into our space, that mind and consciousness might originate in some other universe and leak through to us. And that our brains and nervous systems are just antennas to pick up some mind that they happen to be tuned to. Sadly, I believe there's no way this could ever be formulated scientifically or experimentally tested.
My artistic style has developed the more I draw and the more I consume movies/shows, art, books, comics, and cartoons. I would say at this point in my art journey my tastes and my artistic style have been rapidly changing. This is apparent with how quickly the quality of the strips has improved. I think this is because this strip has allowed me to draw so much more than I previously had done. It's important to draw a lot and digest a lot of whatever art there is out there in the world.
Growing up in a low-income household, my parents brought me to libraries where I read a lot of comics and manga. I read a lot of "Calvin and Hobbes" by Bill Watterson and I honestly think that changed my brain chemistry as a kid. Other titles like "Peanuts" by Charles Schulz, "Haikyuu!!" by Haruichi Furudate, "Yotsuba&!' by Kiyohiko Azuma, and Dav Pilkey's "Captain Underpants" were comics that were instrumental in my development. My art is also heavily influenced by the music I listen to. I don't create playlists so I will shuffle between Teezo Touchdown, Daniel Johnston, Hank Williams, or even Kero Kero Bonito. As somebody who paints, I look into artists like Edward Hopper, Francisco Goya, and George Bellows. There are so many more things that influence my work but I will leave it to you to see if you can pick out any influences that you may find in my work. That is one of my favorite things to do to other artists too.
Opinion
Red Panda and Rabbit spend a lot of time having discussions. Rarely do they come to the same conclusions. I enjoy this dynamic because it lets the reader see different angles in an argument. I make my own views public and I have definitely seen my own fair share of hate comments. I do not regret being vocal.
You're Wasting Time With Sleep
I go through moments when all I can do is sleep and other moments when I get no sleep trying to do the most with my days. Also, this is a Mac Miller (RIP) reference, if you haven’t noticed.
With my comics, I wish for my readers to understand that everybody is living such complex lives and many times it can be hard for us to empathize with the thoughts, actions, and feelings of others. I also hope this comic inspires people to follow their own passions, whether it's painting, sports, or making music. There will be many obstacles when following your dreams, but please continue working on them. The world needs your voice and other amazing things that you can share with humanity. Another thing I want readers to take away from "Diary of Red Panda" is gaining a new perspective. Seeing life from many different angles is imperative to understanding other humans and forming meaningful connections with your community.
I Swear This World Friggin Hates Me
Red Panda is often shown expressing his anxieties and bitterness of the world. Rabbit gives another perspective on how the world treats its inhabitants. How do you think Red Panda feels about this?
I’m Here…
I’m a big fan of horror movies so I had to express my love for them in one of my strips. If you watched the Scream franchise, this scene might be familiar to you. What caught my attention the most in Scream 2 was the sign “No Eating in Living Room”. The sign gets cut off with the composition for just a few seconds, which only makes the sign read “No Living”. Being a film major with a focus on animation, this small moment left a mark on me. This was a small detail that most people would miss out on but it adds to the eerie tone of the scene.
There is so much more I want to do with "Diary of Red Panda". In the future, I plan on going more into what it means to be a Red Panda. This is supposed to parallel the lives of many other indigenous groups in the world and the difficulties that these groups face. I also will be getting into topics that deal with wealth disparity. I have been slowly fleshing out my characters so they can fit into certain stories I want to tell. There are also going to be lighter stories I would like to develop, like Red Panda becoming a volleyball coach, but that may take some time to build up. In the meantime, y'all will just have to sit and wait for these topics and themes to surface.
Alone In The Woods
Rabbit is very knowledgeable when it comes to nature. The outdoors also acts as a safe haven from the stressful responsibilities that society pushes on the general population.
Dry Erase
The concept for this was in regard to how fragile human existence could be. This relates to how a lot of Cham history is lost due to cultural erasure.
Five years after I die, I doubt there will be any memory of my time on Earth.
Lemme Grab A Coat
Hamster loves to talk about her time at work, what else can I say.
Whoops
Volleyball is to "Diary of Red Panda" just like how Calvin Ball is to "Calvin and Hobbes" or ice skating is to "Peanuts". In "Diary of Red Panda", volleyball is used to share my personal experience with sports and other experiences that people go through.
Once my class was forced to do team building sports and my entire class was yelling swear words at me because I couldn’t catch anything
Tungsten Boride
This is a love letter to all the people that feel insignificant and also to the creator of "Calvin and Hobbes", Bill Watterson.
Corporate Overlords
When creating these strips, I enjoy inserting small moments that Red Panda and Hamster share. These are often inspired by interactions with my girlfriend and I.
It's Alive
I watched a supercut of Frankenstein references to find a bunch of different compositions for this strip. Mary Shelley’s "Frankenstein" had a huge impression on me when I was in grade school.
Fitness Court
There was a time in my life when I lived in the hometown of world renowned artist Keith Haring. There was a fitness court dedicated to him but I noticed that they kept out many details about activism in his life. The world loved his art but they failed to share the messages that he wanted to put out to the world.
Ap
As a teenager, I was much like Pup 1 in regards to his studious behavior. There’s nothing wrong with doing great in school but sometimes you need to take time to be a kid.
In Your Head
I feel like I can never express exactly what I want with language. However, I find language funny since people can always misconstrue your words. I tend to do this a lot and take what people say very literally most of the time.
Keep Dreaming
The frustrations that a lot of artists go through can be heard in a lot of rap songs. It’s no wonder that a lot of rappers can be seen as arrogant/cocky when they have overcome so many obstacles.
Whippoorwill
There is a song that I enjoy titled “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” by Hank Williams, which contains the lyrics.
Hear that lonesome whippoorwill
He sounds too blue to fly
The midnight train is whining low
I'm so lonesome, I could cry
I never fully understood these lyrics until I went camping with a friend in the State College area. I heard a whippoorwill cry for the first time and my brain exploded.
Phooey
Being a substitute is my day job and seeing the interactions of the youth is pretty hilarious. Many days can be mentally exhausting, though.
Ancient Civilization
This is based on when I wrote an essay on the Ancient Kingdom of Champa in middle school. The teacher gave me a failing grade on it because she didn’t believe it to be a true civilization. It was pretty traumatizing and many of my friends couldn’t really understand the pain that came with it.
Salud
Hamster is a native Spanish speaker and Red Panda is just trying his best.
Half The Time, I Got Tunes On
Music is life, music is love.
Window Shopping
This is the first comic strip of “Diary of Red Panda”. The comics originally started as pencil comics with watercolors and slowly progressed into fully inked strips. I have fond memories of making this after going through so many job interviews and submitting so many job applications to no avail. Who would have guessed that I would still be working on this after 2 years? Who knows, maybe one day I can catch up with the amount of "Peanuts" strips that exist. Sometimes quantity can be just as impressive as quality if the quantity is big enough.
Bird Watching
Hamster loves birdwatching, so you’ll see some interactions she has with these feathered friends.
Head In The Clouds
This strip was drawn without any pencil sketching so if I messed up a panel, I would have had to redraw it. Some of these panels took hours to make despite how simple they look.
Things Would Be Much Different
I often write a lot of my scripts in the notes app on my phone. Many times these scripts stay on my phone for a couple months and even years. This is mainly because I don’t know what I want the characters to do with the script or even which characters would fit in the script. A lot of these times my scripts are written without any characters in mind.
They Say Dress For The Job You Want…
If I can make enough money with my art, I would totally become the unemployed friend at 2PM on a Tuesday.
As a fellow red panda, I enjoyed these comics a lot :) the art style is adorable!
I really enjoyed these, especially as the artist gave us explanations about his creative process. Interesting, and I like the drawing style too.
As a fellow red panda, I enjoyed these comics a lot :) the art style is adorable!
I really enjoyed these, especially as the artist gave us explanations about his creative process. Interesting, and I like the drawing style too.
