I’m Anna Samoteeva, a fourth-year comics student at HSE Art and Design School. I write my own stories for readers 12+ and young adults and draw them all the way to finished pages. Inside: a poster series about my childhood, a children’s comic I made on my own, a learning kit for kids with dyslexia, a popular-science comic drawn to a publisher’s brief, and Enka, the manga I’m working on now.
I write and draw comics for readers 12+. Give me a story, mine or yours, and I’ll take it from the first sketch to finished pages.
Four years of comics at HSE Art and Design School: a finished children’s book, a brief from a real publisher, and a manga in progress.
I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. In art school my strongest work was always storyboards for films and books, so I planned to go into book illustration. Then I ended up studying comics, which I hadn’t even let myself dream about.Now I draw mostly for teens and young adults: everyday stories, school, friends, small failures that feel huge at fourteen. I can work with my own script or with a text from an editor, on my own or in a team with other artists.
Anna, but smaller: six posters about my own childhood, each one a different story.
Task. Tell a personal story in a series of posters.Idea. Six moments from my childhood, from crayons on the floor to a password screen on the family computer. Every poster has its own story, but they all share one frame made of small squares, like a board game I keep playing.What I did. Everything: the stories, illustration, photo collage, pixel graphics and layout.Result. The series was later shown at exhibitions. It’s also where my favourite palette settled in: pink, lemon and green.
How Yan Didn’t Learn His Lesson: a children’s comic I made on my own, from the first line of the script to the merch.
Task. Make a complete comic book with my own story.Idea. Yan decides it’s his time to shine and goes looking for friends outside his class. After a couple of flops he asks his not very talkative sister for advice, and she sends him to the winter garden, where he finally fits in.What I did. The script, characters, storyboard, final pages, cover and book mock-up. Then I turned the book’s world into a set of patterned scarves.Result. A finished book with a cover, laid-out spreads and merch. It shows best how I work when the whole story is mine.
SPRINGROO: posters and cards that help kids with dyslexia learn to read, made for a real learning centre.
Task. A brief from Vernye Slova (Right Words), a centre that teaches children with dyslexia. They needed materials for kids and their parents.Idea. A bouncy orange kangaroo jumps through sounds, syllables and stress, so the rules feel like a game.What I did. Together with Anna Sokolova we made a poster with a game that helps kids remember the right stress in words, a set of cards with key terms, and a poster about myths around dyslexia.Result. A complete kit for a real client and a good lesson: young readers need clear pictures more than long explanations.
Navuka: a popular-science comic about the scientific method, drawn to a brief from the publisher Peshkom v istoriyu.
Task. The publisher Peshkom v istoriyu (Walk into History) set a brief: a book about how science works.Idea. One spread, one idea: Popper’s criterion, science and pseudoscience, the power of mistakes, why science needs philosophy. Each spread gets its own scene, so the idea sticks.What I did. Illustrations and comic scenes for the spreads and the cover.Result. A book that explains the scientific method, criteria for hypotheses and stories from the history of science in pictures. And my first experience of working to a publisher’s brief.
Enka: a slice-of-life yonkoma manga about three tenth-graders who really, really try to get to class.
Format: yonkoma manga, 120 pages planned. Audience: 12+. Status: storyboard and script polishing. This is my diploma project.
Task. My diploma: a finished manga, not a fragment.Idea. Mira, Tasya and Nika are in tenth grade. Going to school matters to them, at least for the attendance. Every time they set off to school, and every time it ends the same way: they don’t make it. No big morals, just routine, friendship and very creative excuses.What I did so far. The characters, the script and the storyboard I’m drawing now. Final pages come next.Result so far. A clear concept, three heroines and the first storyboarded pages. I’d love to finish Enka with an editor’s notes and see it in print.
Looking for a publisher for Enka, and happy to draw comics to your text.
How I work with a text: a rough storyboard first, then final pages after your notes. I can prepare files for print and help edit the script if you need it.Write to me:
Telegram: @godotbruhAll my projects: hsedesign.ru
