Despite the title of my comic, I don’t go by the name “Dim & Bright”. There’s actually a funny story behind my username and since I don’t have any updates or fanart to share, I think today’s a good time to tell it.
Back in high school, I used to only share my comics with my class’ Facebook group. I found it easier than talking to my colleagues in person, heh. One day, one of them told my English teacher about my comics and what luck, she happened to run a Tumblr blog on which she used to post pictures and stories made by her students (unfortunately, it’s not up anymore). She offered to post my comics on her blog if I translated them to English. I said yes. Fun fact, she actually appears in one of the comics on this site: Comic 25: Putrid Polysemy
This is the first comic I sent her. I dug up the Croatian version from the Facebook group and recreated the English version. Yes, I used to translate by typing (story for another day):
By my standards today, it’s freaking terrible. The art is clumsy, my handwriting’s messy and even the joke’s not that funny. I can’t believe I was 16/17 when I drew this.
Despite all that, the teacher accepted it and asked me what name she should credit me under. I don’t remember how, but I misunderstood her and thought she wanted me to give my comic a title. I thought, “In the comic, I’m trying to find a bright side to my boredom, so I’ll go with The Bright Side.” On her blog, she said the comic was drawn by Bright Side, but when I saw it, I liked the name, so I didn’t correct her. It was only a few months later when I told her what really went on.
So yeah, the name I go by to this day is here because of a misunderstanding. I don’t know if there’s a lesson in here somewhere, but I know that I’m still amused by this story. I’m glad my teacher encouraged me to branch out and get more ambitious with my comics. Who knows, maybe this website wouldn’t be here if it hadn’t been for her.