CAKE is this weekend

Chicago friends: come say hi!

This weekend is CAKE, the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo, my beloved hometown comics show! I’ll be tabling at 307B all weekend (11-6pm Saturday, 11-5pm Sunday) at the Irish American Heritage Center, 4626 N Knox Ave right near the Montrose blue line stop.

I’m bringing a few copies of all my old comics and minis, some funny zines by my kids, a few prints including the Comics Scriptorium print I made for the Medievalist conference, some buttons, and plenty of copies of my newer books including two debuts: Really In It: Volume 2, collecting all the diary comics I’ve made since Vol 1 was printed for last year’s CAKE, and a mini I hope will be helpful facilitating this weekend’s small talk called HEY MARNIE, WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON? That one has some in-progress and finished pages from the graphic memoir that’s taking up absolutely all of my brain and, frustratingly, only a small percentage of my time.

Testing out the new book display stand yesterday

With two, I reckon I’m establishing a pattern of melodramatic visual metaphors on the back of these diary collections. Last year was hard.

I’m in a spiral about these pages of comics! Some are the best things I’ve ever drawn, which make the workhorse pages feel awful. Trusting the process can be hard.

From “A Little Zine of Horrors” about a monster that appears at a zine fest! (Spoiler: the monster is a book)

If you’re in Chicago this weekend, please do swing by and say hi—just look for the haggard one drinking too many coffees. Can’t miss.

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My kids have been out of school for a week and a half and we’ve already done So Much: a road trip to see grandparents and aunts and cousins, a long hike in the woods, mini golf, the beach, hosting a sleepover for sweet sibling-friends who had never slept away from their parents before, a solstice party, the beginning of park district summer camp, literally 7 kid doctor appointments, and so many trips to legendary Chicago ice cream spots. I feel very tired and very alive. Here are some beautiful things I’ve seen recently.

my prairie grass & prairie flower garden

front yard splash pool and beast

my daughter stopping in a clearing to sketch

goslings at Foster Beach, hanging out with their parents just like all the other kids!

Merrimack Caverns. My four year old said it “exploded my BRAIN”

Perfect typographic design at Novelty Golf & Games

Happy summer!

xox m