Hourly Comics 2026 + Economic Protest

It’s Hourly Comics Day! Draw what you’ve been up to so far this morning! It’s fun!

This year Hourly Comics day was moved to February 8, which I learned after my last newsletter encouraging folks to give it a try. I happened to have a more open Feb 1 on the calendar vs Feb 8, and a more open day is always a more interesting day, so I took notes on Feb 1, drew them this week, and am sharing them with you now.

Feb 1 was also my family’s first day of an economic protest. We cancelled all our streaming services, digital subscriptions, and cancelled amazon prime (should’ve been done years ago, I know), and we committed to not buying anything new for at least a month, though I expect it to carry on longer. Our personal guidelines are that thrifting or local businesses are okay in a pinch—we’ve got a few delightful kids’ birthday parties this month—but we’re halting the majority of our consumerism and all of our online economic activity.

This decision is not part of a focused collective action. We did not hit the cancellation button on the day of the National Strike like I’d planned—the day got away from me with three kids’ chaos and joy and many needs. But in a moment in history where everything feels urgent and the focused action I am already doing doesn’t feel anywhere near sufficient to the moment (and also don’t stop calling your representatives! support your local mutual aids! keep sending $$ to organizations on the front lines! etc), this was something else we could do. At the very least, it feels good to stop sending part of our paychecks to tech giants and corporations who are profiting off the fascism and continued destruction of democracy that they are enabling. (I also know that Substack platforms and profits off Nazi newsletters, and Meta is wildly complicit too, but I haven’t yet figured out a better way to stay connected than a newsletter + Instagram…I’m still navigating it all.) If you can pull back even a little, where you can, I encourage you to join me. Hurting bottom lines seems to occasionally break through.

We explained this plan to the kids last Saturday: since we don’t have any ways to play physical media, cancelling streaming services effectively means no TV or movies except for what’s on PBS. As a no-video-games/no-tablets family already, that is their one point of connection to technology and collective childhood culture. Also: I love tv and movies! It’s a big decision, and a big ask. Ada asked a few clarifying questions about why we are doing this, about why we’re asking for everyone in the family to get on board, and said “Oh, yeah, we don’t want to give money to Death Eaters.” Bingo, my girl.

This protest is also a way to double down on humanizing acts: to resist fascism we have to keep our humanity intact. Less passive watching, more card games, you know? More community and shared food (even if it is too spicy so the kids get cereal for dinner), more music and dancing, more books and drawing and storytelling.

With love from my home to yours,

xo m

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