Natalya Lobanova's Comics About Everyday Annoyances

Archive feature, first published 2019-04-13.

“Why does it always happen to me?” A spilled coffee can summon that question even when the accident is small and far from unique. Natalya Lobanova’s comics make space for the disproportion: the feeling around a setback can briefly become much larger than the event. This 2019 feature introduced the artist as based in London and gathered scenes built from that familiar mismatch.

Natalya said she had been making drawings and comics since 2010. “I am also a painter, illustrator, and animator. For me, comics tend to be fun side projects I occasionally make. They are, however, the stuff people like best, because they’re the most relatable!”

More info: natalyalobanova.com | Instagram

The reaction is larger than the accident

The artist’s account above places the comics alongside painting, illustration and animation, with drawing and comic-making going back to 2010. The short format gives the passing annoyance a particular kind of attention. A reader enters quickly because the situation needs little explanation, then meets the reaction that makes this version of it distinctive. The subject does not have to become exceptional before it can carry a story.

A little distance from an ordinary frustration

The ending can give the frustration a different scale again. What felt enormous to the character becomes a small, complete scene that another person can recognize and laugh at. That distance is part of the humor, not a claim that every difficulty is trivial. The comic has chosen an everyday mishap and found a revealing response inside it. A look, a pause or a shift in expectation can carry more of that response than an extended explanation would.

Links from the 2019 feature: natalyalobanova.com · Instagram