Elan Meets Rafa (Ch 33, p 28)
by The Mice
8.5 x 11 in, pencil on board
Coppola Collection

Elan Meets Rafa is a weekly webcomic that ran for 7 years (2011-2018), and was created, written and illustrated by the artist known as The Mice. The Mice is a Latina illustrator working in digital and traditional media.

Synopsis: To free himself from his wealthy father’s demands Elan leaves everything behind to start a new life. He quickly finds that he is ill-prepared for the real world. He meets Rafa–a strong and resilient boy from a poor family, who provides protection for him. With Rafa and many new friends, Elan starts to find a place for himself in the dangerous urban neighborhood they live in. Then things turn horribly wrong and love is tested against deception, crushing guilt, and the demands of two different worlds.

These two illustrations are from the penultimate chapter in the series. By this point, The Mice had shifted from analog to digital, although I think her style (and every else’s) loses a little something in the translation. The infinite ability to correct and adjust infinitely often shows up in digitally constructed or edited drawings. I’ve picked up art from this series over the years, and The Mice was gracious enough to reproduce these two images using old-school techniques.

She writes: “Yes, I love old-school technology. But time constraints are impossible nowadays. Maybe if I could quit my day job!”