I originally started drawing comic strips about parenting as art therapy for myself. Humour helped me to cope better with the challenging situations that motherhood sometimes brings. Becoming a mother was not easy for me at all. It was as if my whole life had been "reset". In some positive ways, of course, but also in the negative. Sometimes I felt as if all that was left of the once active woman with a bunch of interests, now was just a sleep-deprived bundle of nerves. And while I love my children more than anything, being "just a mom" was not satisfying.


I started posting comic jokes on my Facebook page, BBB Illustrations, six years ago. They quickly began to spread across social media, and the lovely responses came in from women (and sometimes men) who recognized themselves in them. I've received a lot of warm feedback on how these quirks help other women overcome their motherhood woes. This began to give my comics an almost therapeutic dimension—suddenly they had the power to "reset" negative emotions and help women on maternity leave better manage their daily routines with their children.


With the support of my fans and followers, I've already published two books of these comics through crowdfunding with Pointa Publishing – I Had It First! 1 + 2.


Bára Brůnová is an illustrator, comic book artist and mother of two sons, the main characters of the comic strips she has been posting on her social media as BBB illustrations for the past six years, which have been published in book form under the title I Had It First! 1 + 2. In addition, she also works in historical popular educational illustration (a series of books “Children's Journeys into the Centuries”, “Charles IV in the Magic Peephole”) and, in collaboration with writer Petra Braunová, has been creating comic guides to Czech cities for many years. She has her own e-shop: www.bbb-ilustrace.cz.