Frogs without the royalty

Archive, #24 Ugly, #24 Art & Comics / By
Erica Lange

Erica Lange is a comic artist and writer based in Melbourne/Naarm. Since graduating from RMIT University’s Creative Writing degree, she discovered a love for experimenting with form by interweaving elements of poetry and comics together in her work. Her comics have previously been published in Liminal Magazine and Cordite Poetry Review.

This comic has two pages. It is composed of shades of brown, beige, and cream solid colours, with dark-brown and black outlines, and lines of texture, background, and expression. The surface has some smatterings of fine white dots, giving it the look of a print with some of the colour not having transferred. Page One: The title is illustrated with brown bubble letters and coloured-in with green. It reads: frogs without royalty, and is followed by the text: erica lange. This text is book-ended by two illustrated frog’s eyes, which sit atop three panels. These panels, and their squares, are bordered by straight white lines, curved at the outer four corners. The top panel is a close-up of a hand holding a smartphone, texting. The phone’s display reads: leaving now babe Eta 11:11 😚 ❤️. The second panel is in two parts. The first square shows a person with shoulder-length dark-hair, parted in the middle, holding up a smart phone with a cow patterned cover. They are smiling, with a swirl illustrated on each of their cheeks. Their eyes are closed. The background has three small love hearts and the word ‘heh’. In the second square, their hair is up and in a hairband. They are rubbing face wash into their cheeks. The background has diamond shapes. The third panel is also in two parts. The first square shows the person standing in front of a mirror, tucking a long sleeved top into their pants. The second square shows them close-up, embracing a taller person wearing a T-shirt in front of a door.
Page Two: This page is composed of three panels. The white-lined borders of the panels, and their squares, begin to warp and curve, and progressively grow wigglier moving down the page.The top panel is in two parts. The first square shows the two people seated on a couch, facing one another, with a pillow between them. Here, the second person’s face is in view, and they have short dark hair. The background has soft, pillow-like lines and contours, and small crosses and diamonds. In the second square, the short-haired person is leaning forward, holding a game controller with two hands, facing out. The long-haired person sits upright, with one hand on the short-haired person’s back, facing out. Their heads have expanded upwards, from their brow lines. In the background, straight lines extend out from their heads, as if framing them and accentuating their growth. The second panel is in two parts. The first square shows the two people eating potato chips, facing out. Their heads have grown more bulbous and cone-shaped. Their skin is tinged-green. Green bubble text reads: burp. The second square is a close-up of the people’s heads, leaning into one another, touching. Their eyes are closed and mouths pursed. The text reads: snoooooreezzz. The final panel is a close-up of two hands holding, viewed from above. The hands’ skin is green and covered in wiggly lines and darker spots. In the bottom-hand right corner, green bubble text reads: end. Below this is an illustrated instagram widget and the text: erica.lange.

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