Chen Weng knows from coronavirus hot spots. The artist was born in Wuhan and now lives in Seattle, so it was only natural that her online comics would begin to steer toward commentary about covid-19.
“People in the rest of the world might not have known much at the time, but it was all people cared about in China,” says the artist, who still has family in Wuhan. “I followed the news closely and experienced a lot of emotions.”
To channel those emotions creatively, she first took a humorous tone, with the comic “Quarantine Makes Life Better,” which depicted a faux-news report of characters coping with stay-at-home life.
“I was hopeful,” she says, “and wanted to lighten the spirit a bit because most of the news was intense and heavy.”