“Ocarina and me” is a comic idea about myself growing up and playing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in 1998 and learning valuable lessons of courage and the power of action. Dealing with autism as a child wasn’t easy but from a surprising corner came an educator that inspired me to face life with a little more hope. I owe this game a lot.
Here you see some sketches and early concept work/ideas including the very first draft and list of focal points for the comic.
Sketches
Board of inspiration from other artists
Sketches
Sketches
Sketches
Pictures of me as a child
Pictures of me as a child
Sketches
Pictures of me as a child
Pictures of me as a child
ARMATURE:
Learning that through courage and action I can shape the world around me
Themes:
Video games Mental illness Nostalgia
Zelda Autisme Growing up insecurities
Nintendo Courage Slice of life of a kid
What I remember from being 9 years old and now in my 30’s
BEGINNING - REAL LIFE TIME
At 8 years old I was a shy kid, always looking at the ground afraid of doing something wrong in the eyes of adults. The world was always alien to me. I didn’t understand that there were things I could and couldn’t do. (playing with toys that wasn’t mine and not getting that I couldn’t keep it) I felt isolated and lonely …I had no COURAGE to act my will towards the world. My parents were concerned for me. I was already in special education in a school set in the woods, away from civilization, Cause nature might do good for the psyche. To me it felt like we were put away. My dad tried to stimulate me by asking me to get some bread from the store down the street (literally 1 street away). I decline, to afraid and to overstimulated with all the moments that I could do something wrong without understand what or how.
GAME TIME
At 8 years old I was a shy kid, always looking at the ground afraid of doing something wrong in the eyes of adults. The world was always alien to me. I didn’t understand that there were things I could and couldn’t do. (playing with toys that wasn’t mine and not getting that I couldn’t keep it) I felt isolated and lonely …I had no COURAGE to act my will towards the world. My parents were concerned for me. I was already in special education in a school set in the woods, away from civilization, Cause nature might do good for the psyche. To me it felt like we were put away. My dad tried to stimulate me by asking me to get some bread from the store down the street (literally 1 street away). I decline, to afraid and to overstimulated with all the moments that I could do something wrong without understand what or how.
GAME TIME
Being stuck but happy in the opening area, just collecting ruppies and seeing all the deku tree kids. It’s a magical new world to explore and some place I feel safe, a place I can UNDERSTAND but over the horizon looms darker things.
As I can’t speak english well enough I am stuck for weeks in this spot until my dad looks at me playing.. “dad, what does this sign say?” “let me see, my english is also not the greatest…” “I think you can get a sword there” “oh really??” And I head in. Finally finding the blade!... “you also need a shield, says the little man” And so I gather all the tools and fight the very first enemy ever. It shakes me up a little bit, fighting the first piranhaplant thing in the woods right before the great deku gives a sliver of whats to come.
The deku tree gives an important speech, I don’t understand it but it feels important, then he dies, entrusting me with the weight of the world, the world that I have grown to love in such a short time. I don’t hesitate and enter the dungeon. It’s scary and challenging as with every conflict I fight the challenge and my own fear. Then I gained entrance to the boss room… I enter with sweaty hands, I am not ready, Nothing happens in the room it's dark and a slow moving mist covers the floor. terrified I press my back to the back of the wall and slowly circle the still chamber, nothing… I stand still for a while and then I slowly enter the center of the room with bated breath, still nothing… I start to drop my guard a little both figurative as well as literal (links shield). Then I discover what so many have before me, NAVI my little fairy companion keeps moving up when I walk over a certain spot. I focus, the music blairs up and a giant alien eye openes up and stares me down. I turn off the console
Next day on school a friend of mine tells me that the boss is hard and you need to shoot it 40 times in the eye with your slingshot (one of those lies kids tell to make beating the thing look impressive). I gast and feel like this fight is even more impossible then I thought before. Yet… I come back. As many things these deku kids are real to me, the realest real than anything before and only I can save them. I love being in the koroky village I can’t give up I literally felt that I couldn’t give up. I felt COURAGE for the first time ever. and I enter the room for the second time, I focus and this time I resist the urge to turn off my console, the monster drops down 3 huge legs and an eye, scarier then any spider I saw and 5 times bigger then little boy link, whom I called my own name, I have never been more immersed in a main character then this. if QUEEN GOHMA kills link she kills me. It is literally a fight to the death I shake, I sweat, I shake and sweat so much that I drop the controller 3 times during the fight, I run away in a panic when my sling shot bullets run out and start cutting the little grass, In my few years alive I have never felt a struggle as tough as this, as a 34 year old now I don’t believe I have. And then I do it. I win the battle, all of my anxiety, stress, and pure adrenaline is released. I finally notice that I am no longer sitting on the couch but fell off it and am in a really weird position on the floor. But I did it.
The deku tree gives an important speech, I don’t understand it but it feels important, then he dies, entrusting me with the weight of the world, the world that I have grown to love in such a short time. I don’t hesitate and enter the dungeon. It’s scary and challenging as with every conflict I fight the challenge and my own fear. Then I gained entrance to the boss room… I enter with sweaty hands, I am not ready, Nothing happens in the room it's dark and a slow moving mist covers the floor. terrified I press my back to the back of the wall and slowly circle the still chamber, nothing… I stand still for a while and then I slowly enter the center of the room with bated breath, still nothing… I start to drop my guard a little both figurative as well as literal (links shield). Then I discover what so many have before me, NAVI my little fairy companion keeps moving up when I walk over a certain spot. I focus, the music blairs up and a giant alien eye openes up and stares me down. I turn off the console
Next day on school a friend of mine tells me that the boss is hard and you need to shoot it 40 times in the eye with your slingshot (one of those lies kids tell to make beating the thing look impressive). I gast and feel like this fight is even more impossible then I thought before. Yet… I come back. As many things these deku kids are real to me, the realest real than anything before and only I can save them. I love being in the koroky village I can’t give up I literally felt that I couldn’t give up. I felt COURAGE for the first time ever. and I enter the room for the second time, I focus and this time I resist the urge to turn off my console, the monster drops down 3 huge legs and an eye, scarier then any spider I saw and 5 times bigger then little boy link, whom I called my own name, I have never been more immersed in a main character then this. if QUEEN GOHMA kills link she kills me. It is literally a fight to the death I shake, I sweat, I shake and sweat so much that I drop the controller 3 times during the fight, I run away in a panic when my sling shot bullets run out and start cutting the little grass, In my few years alive I have never felt a struggle as tough as this, as a 34 year old now I don’t believe I have. And then I do it. I win the battle, all of my anxiety, stress, and pure adrenaline is released. I finally notice that I am no longer sitting on the couch but fell off it and am in a really weird position on the floor. But I did it.
This ushers in the very first conflict I faced and overcame in my life. A proof of my own.
REAL LIFE TIME
A few days later my dad asks again if I could by a bread, I am terrified but I say yes. I by a bread as awkward as can be and I return home, horrified by the experience but I did it, I had COURAGE.
the third layer of Ocarina of time, the steps towards -