神
A series portraying the giant black cat from The SHHAN beyond its original story
Summary
In The SHHAN, Shhan is a legendary being within the history of White Cats and Black Cats. For this project, I wanted to draw the giant black cat more freely rather than explain those events.
Continuing the flowing, intermingled bodies of Multiverse, I explored how far a cat’s form could change. I focused on each work’s color, texture and silhouette rather than keeping it within the comic’s settings.
The golden flow of Longing, the wings and halo of Devil or Angel, and the outlines dissolving into white light in One Spring Day are attempts to give the same cat different atmospheres. I kept its familiar body while changing its presence in each scene.
In Departure and Arrival, I placed a giant body beside a small person. Through a cat appearing or departing at an impossible scale, I wanted to shift the viewer’s sense of distance.
In Colossal Being, I also placed a small person before an enormous Shhan. I was interested in a cat whose quiet presence changes the scale of its surroundings rather than a destructive monster. I now gather the colossal beings I drew in pen for Kaiju Encyclopedia in 2023 within 神 as well.
Kaiju Encyclopedia · 2023
I also drew these colossal beings in pen. The drawings and notes once gathered as Kaiju Encyclopedia now appear here within 神.
The kaiju encyclopedias I read as a child classified imaginary creatures by name, characteristics and size. They felt less like character collections than records of beings that might really exist somewhere. I wanted to revisit that feeling through the animal I draw most often: the cat.
I drew cities, ruins, buildings, roads and small people alongside the creatures to convey their scale. I imagined how differently a familiar scene would feel if the cat we usually look down at became larger than a building.
I did not feel these creatures had to destroy cities or attack people. I kept a cat’s indifference in their enormous bodies, letting them simply stand or look at something. I wanted them to feel both frightening and familiar.
I chose the title Kaiju Encyclopedia to suggest discovering different creatures one by one, rather than completing a story around a single protagonist.
In Sleeping Kaiju, I drew a sleeping cat filling the space between a village and its roads. Its size alone changes the landscape. A whole village to a person becomes barely enough room for the cat to lie down.