24-year-old Alvin Juano from Jakarta, Indonesia is the brilliant mind behind The Square Comics; short, darkly funny comics that take you through a range of emotions in just 3 or 4 frames.
With over 430k followers, his easy-to-digest webcomics have become a hit on Instagram, the perfect medium for regular doses of bite-sized comedy. The comics often begin full of cheer and optimism but struck you with a dark plot twist that has become Alvin's trademark. Scroll down below to check the deliciously dark comics out for yourself, as well as a little background from Alvin himself.
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"I started The Square Comics in 2014," Alvin told Bored Panda. "I was doing so badly at school that I was almost kicked out of the course. It was one of the lowest periods of my life and I needed something to get out of the funk. Creating funny drawings was it."
Some of my inspirations are: Ricky Gervais, I enjoy how honest and unfiltered his sense of humor is and how sarcastic the opinions. When growing up, my favorite cartoon was Doraemon & Crayon Shin-Chan, and Cyanide & Happiness, Safely Endangered and War and Peas are the best funny comic strips!
Gotta say, as a human mum, I'm kind of glad our babies don't peck their way out.
Coming up with new material is a unique process for any comedian or artist, and Alvin has preferred method. "Usually before I sleep, I’d try to think of things that could be funny and write it on a notebook/phone," he explained.
"The next day, I’ll pick out the ones that I find interesting and work on it. I’ll then show a sketch of the strip to my friends & see what they think. If they don’t find it funny, I’ll work on it further or scrap it. But, if I think it’s funny and they don’t, I’ll ignore them and post it. I try to have this process, but sometimes good ideas come at random times."
Does that mean dogs are just trying to lick the ugly off our faces? I feel so betrayed.
"For the process, I usually sketch out a couple of things on paper, take a photo of it and then draw the digital version of it on photoshop. I use pens and papers to sketch. To digitize it, I use Wacom Intuos Comic. It’s really small so it’s easy to carry around and it’s also cheaper than the other models. And a MacBook."
"As for my humor, I think it’s definitely on the darker side. I hear it can be sometimes depressing. Definitely not something my mom would approve!
" There's someone for everyone, your someone may be 5 cats in a trench coat" . I have 4 cats and 1 dog. I'm looking to trade the dog....
Roasted like a burnt, bad tasting marshmallow that a kid dropped in a fire!
What if there are intelligent forms of life on another planets? And they just do not want to contact us because we are for them something like lice are for us?
They probably passed by ages ago, took one look at and were like NOOOOOOOOPE next planet please!!!
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That actually makes me feel sad, I am Earth in this comic. One time I invited ONE person to my "friend" birthday party, ya know not with family, they said they were my best friend and never showed up. The next Monday at school they were telling how awesome it was at another friends house, an said I was a weird freak that invited them over. This kind of stuff isn't something to joke about.
Wow I'm not American and always thought this was only a "movie" thing
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I heard that Luna orbited Terry for a few eons, and then she caught humans too.
Humans, the equivalent of lice? as a human, I resemble that...lol
Some of these were depressing and twisted. Those were my favorites.
Very funny. You made my day better. Don't stop drawing because you are very good combining humor with drowning. Thanks for the sharing.
You can replace the T-Rex cartoon with Trump and the punchline is still valid!
Is it me or does it seem like this person is depressed and contemplating suicide? I hope he's okay. He sounds a lot like me and how I think.
I was feeling sad after some depressing conversations about real-life things and stumbled over this while looking for cute animal pictures on Bored Panda - I laughed so much! Thank you for the anti-humour, just the ticket for me today!
Some of these were depressing and twisted. Those were my favorites.
Very funny. You made my day better. Don't stop drawing because you are very good combining humor with drowning. Thanks for the sharing.
You can replace the T-Rex cartoon with Trump and the punchline is still valid!
Is it me or does it seem like this person is depressed and contemplating suicide? I hope he's okay. He sounds a lot like me and how I think.
I was feeling sad after some depressing conversations about real-life things and stumbled over this while looking for cute animal pictures on Bored Panda - I laughed so much! Thank you for the anti-humour, just the ticket for me today!
