R-Hi Comics is a series I created exclusively for the R-Hi Newspaper website. The first one was released in December of 2024 and a total of 6 comics have been published. When the R-Hi was printed physically, it had similar comics and drawings scattered throughout the paper. I wanted to return back to those days. This is the behind the scenes into how they were made and other unused content. It was quite the journey making these!
Creating the Comic
The idea of creating a comic was first proposed during June of 2024. However, production of the series wouldn’t start until that September. Everything was drawn on the drawing site called Sketchpad. I wanted to go for a children’s book art style. Backgrounds and characters would look friendly and colorful. Some might recognize the speech bubbles are the same from those on Google Slides. That’s because I would assemble the finalized comic in Google Slides.
Something that I underestimated was the amount of time it would take to make a single one. I was balancing school work and doing other extracurriculars. There would be several month gaps between comics. I initially planned to do a once a month schedule, but quickly realized that wasn’t possible at the speed I was going. For example, the comic “F is for Frightening” was supposed to be released in late October for Halloween, but was delayed into early December.
Backgrounds
I wanted to make it clear that the comics takes place in Rutherford High School. I took reference photos of the school and redrew them. Characters were overlaid on top of the backgrounds.
Characters
In order to have the characters’ personalities be obvious, each one was given a name that would be a play on words. Readers would automatically know what type of student they are based on their name alone.
“Will B. Nice” is kind hearted and wants to be everyone’s friend. “Joy T. DeWorld” is cheery and cheeky. “Tom Foolery” is troublesome and likes to play tricks on others. “Ivy Leaguer” is a top ranking student who wants to maintain high grades.
Unused Content
The below images showcase unused aspects that didn’t make the final cut. The early design of Will B. Nice was intended to be the final one. However after thinking about it further, I couldn’t see myself using that design for the next two years. It wasn’t friendly looking. Just five days before the first comic, “Hall Traffic” was published, I drew the final design for Will B. Nice. Talk about cutting it close!
Scrapped Ideas
These are ideas that never ended up getting used. “Forgotten in the Phone Caddy” would have been about Joy T. DeWorld searching across the school for her missing phone. “Study Hall” would have been about Will B. Nice getting distracted by social media instead of studying for an upcoming test. These were mainly scrapped as I made the decision to not have technology present. This way it’s ambiguous if the comics take place in the past, present, or future.
Mini Comics
As one final treat, here is “Beat the Heat” a short comic made for the bulletin board outside the cafeteria. Thank you for viewing!
Sources:
Created by Matthew Chu
*This work may not be used to train Ai.