Love punch is a slice of life short story that centers around Alexis Rayne, a high school senior who is determined to share her feelings for her crush, Gareth Hall. However, it won’t be easy. Alexis has an unwanted reputation of having an aggressive nature due to a daily sparing match between herself and another student, Orson Barret. Orson won’t leave her alone until he defeats Alexis fair and square, which with her years of mixed martial arts training, won’t be happening any time soon.
It’s a story that I developed years ago after reading way too many adorable Japanese and Korean shojo mangas. I wanted to create something I would like to see, specifically from the vantage point of an American high school experience. I was homeschooled for a good portion of my education, but I did enjoy my public high school years and wanted to show them in a way that everyone else could also experience.
This story does have a bit of an action hint due to the mixed martial arts twist. Most of my dream stories have both physical and mental conflicts, so I think this is my way of adding a bit more of my kind of fun into the mix while still keeping it short and light. And since this is my first run at this, I wanted my first attempt to be a story that had a clear end that I could spend a year or two devoted to the project.
Due to lots of reading and research, I decided I’m going to draw the pages in book format first, then once I have a substantial amount, move them over to a webtoons format. This will ensure, not only that I will have something fully fleshed out before posting it publicly, but I should have enough content to have a regular posting schedule.
So far as I’ve plotted it out, the story should have 18-20 chapters, though I’m not exactly sure how that will play out once they become webtoon episodes. With some narrowing down on how the comic is drawn and designed, I’ve been able to complete two pages a week. After my recent decision to stick to block coloring instead of adding additional shading/highlights, I’m hoping to up that if I can, but that is still up in the air.
All and all, I think it’s the perfect piece to use as practice before moving to the stories I want to tell. Hopefully, you all will like it too! Peace be unto you!