Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1475854
FALL 2022 11 previous page: Tacchia's own facial expression influences her art. this page, from top: An example of how body image is addressed in Tacchia's work; Tacchia's office with Post-its on the wall; the cover of Unimpressed; Tacchia uses her art to explore both romantic and platonic relationships. She wanted to focus on her own visual style, and a few years into her animation career, she began making cartoons during her off-hours. "I started doing these little Post-it comics, and it became kind of a regular thing," she says. The comics were inspired by what she calls "everyday life, observational things" like heartbreak, as well as a "continually evolving mindset and period of questioning about relationships. None of the cartoons were literal, but I did pull ideas from personal experience, and that influenced how I approached them," she says. Each cartoon was illustrated using only markers, a brush pen, Post-its, and tape. Over the course of several years, she built up a body of work that she decided to make into a book. She pitched Unimpressed to Fantagraphics in the fall of 2019 and got a deal. "Shortly after that, we went into quarantine," she says. With the uncertainty brought on by the pandemic, she took her time putting the book together, taking a brief pause before resuming at the tail end of 2020 "scanning artwork, sorting it, [and] trying to make sure the right caption was with the right image." "I would spend about an hour or two every evening just scanning," she recalls. "Scanning was the longest, most tedious process." Editing down her cache of content was almost as daunting. "I tried to be as true to myself as I could. I didn't want to take out too much. Even though I thought some of [the cartoons] were a little embarrassing or I had outgrown them, I wanted [the book] to reflect this stretch in my life [between 2016 and 2020] when I was doing them." Tacchia says that making this book is the high point of her career so far. Published in October, 2021, Unimpressed features more than 200 comics about women dealing with relatable issues like relationships (romantic and platonic), social media/technology, and self-image. "Body [image] was a big theme in my work as I was coming to terms with my insecurities and learning how to accept things that I couldn't really change," Tacchia explains. "In general, I usually try to use somewhat generic-looking characters, but I always go back to my own likeness when I'm doing reference just because I'm there; I can go to the mirror and see how it looks when I raise my arm up this way or if I make a face. I see myself in the mirror every day so it's hard for that not to percolate into how [I] draw." It also percolated into her book's title. "When I was a kid, people remarked over and over, like a broken record, on how little I smiled," she says. "I was told I looked angry, sad, or 'unimpressed' when I actually felt inwardly happy. I started realizing as I got older that even when I felt I was being physically expressive, I still just looked like Daria, or any other half-lidded, deadpan character you can name." For a long time it confused and annoyed Tacchia that her joy wasn't coming across to other people, and by drawing the characters in Unimpressed, she feels she was finally able to embrace her straight-faced exterior. – Sonaiya Kelley Photo credit: Stanley Wong F R A M E X F R A M E