Anxious Annie
In 2017 during my year 9 Learning For Life Class (Which was basically an amalgamation of English, Science and I guess a general life skills class) we were tasked with creating some media (art, a song, a poem, etc) about a mental health topic, and of course, I chose anxiety. Thus was the birth of Anxious Annie...
Despite the super weird school project, and the comic itself being weirdly drawn and horrifically laid out (seriously, I struggled to read this after seeing again) something about this character I really enjoyed!
After making my school project, I began to think about turning this idea into a full series. It was far from perfect, both from me having little experience at the time writing characters or stories, but it became a foundation that I would often return to for the next couple of years. I believe at this stage, there were only three characters; Annie (obviously), TAZ (who was just a generic nerd human character) and Patty (who would later become Pepper in the 2021 series).
One thing I do really like though is the gothic art style I was heavy into back then, It was very unique and I appreciate greatly how I wasn't trying to replicate any sort of specific style at the time!
2017 Original Series
After I briefly lost interest by late 2017, mid 2018 I started to go through a pastel faze aesthetically, and soon Anxious Annie came up again as I started to become interested in different ideas and concepts . Personally I'm not too much of a fan of this time period, but It was an important one none the less I suppose...
2018 Concept Art
In 2019, I rebooted Anxious Annie as a hyper pastelly comedy comic; which was drastically different to what it was based from. Though I used to have a lot of disdain for this version, there were a lot of concepts which did carry over into the 2021 series. The cast had expanded with characters like Rachael, Penny, a hippie character who would later be inspiration for Markas, and Ari.
2019 Reboot
Once I had wrapped up on making ideas for Anxious Annie once again, I started to focus on developing different comic ideas. One of which had been Dappypop. This series was going to include 6 main characters (which a lot didn't have names yet because of how early on in production it was) who all dealt with specific stressors in their lives (this is where the themes of 2021 Anxious Annie begin to meld in). Due to some personal events going on, I didn't get too far into this project unfortunately; however during the planning of 2021's Anxious Annie would end up using Dappypop as essentially a template for what I wanted most in Anxious Annie. to be a slice of life which would be able to talk about certain topics or emotions which myself and people I knew had experienced.
Maybe In the future there could be some sort of Dappypop overhaul, but for now I like to think of it as just Anxious Annie version 2.5
2019 Dappypop (Anxious Annie Precursor)
After the blunder of Dappypop, I started to get the strong urge to continue onwards with some of the ideas i had gotten while working on that series; so once again I started to head back to the drawing board and began to write "Anxious Annie: The Reboot" as It was first titled. This started to combine things I used from Anxious Annie in 2019, Dappypop, and things I had started to personally learn about and deal with going through my own battles with Anxiety and severe panic attacks.
I can't exactly pinpoint at what time I began exploring the idea of it taking place in a pseudo futuristic setting, It may have been when trying to justify Annie's somewhat freakish appearance to making her become an alien; but hey, it's ended up into some fun Erf lore which i can't wait to explore more as the series progresses!
2020 Concept Art
And thus we make it to present day! With this series being the longest standing and still being continued on in presently, you can find the whole series online in several places such as Deviant Art, Instagram, and many other places in the future! What started as a lame school project ended up expanding into a sci-fi slice of life comedy that I never thought I'd be capable of creating. I'm always still learning and growing as an Illustrator and story teller, but this has been a project which I can genuinely say that I'm proud of and the journey that has gone along with it.
I know in the future I will have many other stories and projects to create, but Anxious Annie will always be one that is dear to my heart; as It was my first time creating something as largescale and in depth. Who knew a pasty alien brunette with anxiety could be so interesting!
2021 - Present Day
In the year 3327, after Erf had colonized Marz and a raging battle between an intergalactic race ceased; humans, Martians and the Belyyan have lived in almost harmony for over a thousand years. Following the life of a 20 year old Belyyan named Annie Ro Leroux, she struggles with juggling between caregiving for her two sisters on her own and making it through art school.
When she spends her whole life taking care of others, is she able to take care of herself when she needs to the most?
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