Sina Sparrow

Inspired by Marvel and DC Comics, Sina Sparrow started drawing his own comics when he was just 11 years old. At 16, he discovered queer comics and zines. With a unique style and voice all his own, Sina is the creator of cult comics such as his autobiographical work ‘BoyCrazyBoy’.

I’ve always preferred drawing people to anything else: they’re just more alive to me than things, like cars or buildings. I’m interested in human emotions and relationships and behaviour, so it just makes sense that I would love drawing people most of all.

I do hold back certain things but at the same time yes, I’m very honest in my autobiographical strips: what’s the point of doing autobiography otherwise I think? I go into a weird head space when I decide to do a really personal comic about sex or whatever, I really don’t think about the potential embarrassment until I’ve done it and it’s printed – and then it’s too late, ha ha!

Oh that’s really difficult! I really love my diary comics and my drawings from observation as well, but I also really love the more fantastical stories I’ve done. One really fun thing I did recently was a triple portrait of a guy’s boyfriend, that he commissioned for a Valentine’s Day gift… It was really sweet and interesting because at the time, they were in a long-distance relationship: so he wanted me to draw his boyfriend’s picture from a series of screen grabs taken from their video-chats. It’s really interesting how different forms of new technology influence the way we imagine and picture relationships now.