Trying to stay neutral and objective about "How I Became Yours" (or HIBY for short) is almost impossible. It does have a fan base, and about as many (if not a whole lot more) detractors. It has earned the dubious honor of being one of the most well known fancomics out there, perhaps not for the best reasons.
The story is set a few years after the end of the serie and mostly deals with the main characters' relationships and much drama.
First time I saw the pages, it had a home on Deviant Art. A first glance at little preview thumbnails looked impressive: fully colored detailed pages, characters that looked on model. A lot of work went into these pages.
You know what? Little thumbnails can be tricky.
I want to put HIBY in a cross over Alternate Universe. The author seemed to have wanted to do a straight, future continuation of the Avatar world, yet mixes the oriental influence of the show with unmistakable european elements. This is most evident in the characters' dress and environments. There is heavy use of photographs for the backgrounds.
I dare not even thread upon the subject of the story or the cast. An author can have fun with characters' personalities or their powers, but this story reached new heights in doing that. I may go as far as saying that a lot of things get twisted.
I'll never bash someone for their artistic abilities, but the blatant abuse of cut and paste is impossible to ignore. A lot of images look traced; it could be forgivable if only the author didn't keep denying it. It is hard to believe, especially since a lot of screen grabbed images from the serie fit almost line for line over some of the art.
Here is one example of overuse of cut and paste that can reach ridiculous levels.
You can see only one drawing was done for all the panels on one page (or for multiple pages!). All that was done was resizing Sokka, Zuko and Aang as needed, plus tilting Aang. Their expressions or eye directions never change, even in panel 4 where Aang is in a very uncomfortable position (what are you looking at, Sokka?)
It's still my favourite bad page.
The multiple grammatical mistake can either hinder your reading or make you laugh.
Forgive me for stopping here, my brain needs a rest. HIBY overdose.
If you're interested in knowing more about the comic, you can read the TV Trope here:
If you would want to see more (admit it, you are curious now), the original pages used to be hosted on Deviant Art. Unfortunately, the artist got banned and her gallery is no longer available. A bit of search on DA can still unearth some of the pages. The rest of the story can be found here:
Deep down, I hope it never disappears from the web. Not necessarily for the right reasons.
All art and story by Jackie Diaz.
Avatar, its world and characters, belong to Mike, Bryan, Nickelodeon, Viacom, Paramount.
