It was challenging for me to comprehend which story impressed me the most because at least three of them left a significant imprint in my memory. As a result, having compared the volumes and details of the stories, I decided to take the narrative of Makayeva (Glasheva) Zoya Akhmatovna as a basis and proceeded to quick drafts.

MOKAEBA (GLASHEVA) ZOYA AHMATOVNA, born in 1934 (8 years old at the time of events)

My grandfather, Glashev Gergok, and grandmother, Orkuyat, nee Edekaeva, had five adult sons alive at that time: Uzeir, Khyzyr, Akhmat, Abusam, Ramazan. All were married. They lived as separate families but under the same roof of a large house. Uzeyir had two sons and two daughters, Khizir had two sons, Akhmat had five children, Abusalam had one son, and Ramazan had one daughter. Ramazan was at the front, while the rest of the brothers were not called up and lived in the village.

On that day, our family was at the funeral in Kosparti. By evening they returned home, and only Uzeir's wife remained in Upper Cheget with her brother, Andreev Zhagafar.

After Ramazan left for the army, who lived with his grandmother (there was no grandfather by that time), I spent the night with her. Grandmother gave me a piece of sugar and said: “I’m restless, I’ll go tell the guys to take refuge in the old house: it’s safer there.” The old house was located away from the new one, and cattle were kept there. With these words, she went out into the yard, and I remained in the room. In the courtyard, the grandmother saw her sons, whom you led out of the rooms and prepared to shoot. My father also said: "In vain, you came out, we would have been enough." Then all of them, together with grandmother, were taken to our room. During the day, guests from Cheget came to us, so we had benches lined up in a row, we did not have time to clean them up. Three sons - Uzeir Akhmat, Khyzyr, and their mother, Orkuyat, were forced to raise their hands, their faces were illuminated with a flashlight; soldiers planted a bench and started shooting at them. I was laying on the bed and saw everything from under the covers. When everyone was killed, they turned in my direction and fired once at the bed, the bullet went higher. I was not illuminated with a flashlight, and therefore I cannot say whether they noticed someone or not. Most likely, they fired without a reason.

Five bullets hit the grandmother in the chest, but she died later than her sons. She still managed to hug all of them and died, hugging Uzeir. Uzeir, who had children left in the room, apparently tried to crawl to them but could not leave the room. He beat his head against the threshold and never crawled over it, and died in the arms of his mother.

I stayed in the room until the morning, no one moved; I could see a sentry was on guard at the threshold in the yard. He soon left. After that, I went to my mother's room. She still didn’t know anything about executions and was sitting, waiting for her husband...

Our rooms were on one side of the long house, and as it turned out, they were the first to come to us. My mother recognized among them Osmanov Alibi, whose wife, nee Toguzaeva, was her relative.

Khyzyr was taken out second, leaving his wife and small children, Uzeyir was third, and then they approached the threshold of the room where Abusalam was and wanted to enter, but father said that his brother was in the army. Abusalam was at home, but his wife did not open the door at the knock, and they believed Akhmat and did not insist, and just at that moment, the grandmother came out.

...Mother examined everyone, but except for the father, there were no survivors. She put a big thick handkerchief under him and left. My little sister, who was two years younger than me, was left to give him water.

In the morning, going around all the houses, the mother said that, apart from the children, there was no one alive.

The whole village was gone. We went to the place "Zyrkyh", where lived under a large stone. Later, the wounded were also transferred there.

Glashev Osman's wife was killed. Osman was not at home that night, he was at the funeral in another village. His eldest daughter took her two twin sisters and left the village. The twins were breastfeeding, and their sister, who was also young, failed to wrap them properly.

It was cold. By the time the adults approached, the twins had already cooled off.

Apart from these two babies and my own relatives, who were shot before my eyes, I did not see anyone from the dead.

After that, I started experimenting with different colours. Also, to see what style the comic would be in, I decided to draw the first spread.

Tutor's comments:

- Sons do not cause sympathy. Their poses are too picturesque like they are taken from stock photos. It is possible to picture them working or playing with their children. Alternatively, portray them as formally as their parents are shown. Now the most significant emotional response is caused by a soldier because of their posture.

- The search for colour is worth continuing. What does the palette of the comic refer to? To nature or to history? Pastel colours are not very suitable for the theme of genocide. The comic as a whole can be left in black and white, highlighting only exceptional objects in colour (as in Sin City).

- Now the most crucial thing is to start actively drawing so that the comic begins to take on more or less weighty outlines. Colour issues can be resolved later.

Thoughts on the given comments:

- I was tormented by the same doubts that the teacher pointed out. It seemed to me that with the sons, there also was the problem that the clothes looked too modern, although I specifically looked for historical references.

-As for the colour, I was also not entirely satisfied with my options. But I really liked the suggestion to use colour only to highlight certain objects.

-Based on all these comments, I proceeded to correct the spread.