On Fire

A new comic published on Mutha Magazine

I have a new comic published at Mutha Magazine: you can read it here.

When I teach, I wear an enamel pen of a slug on my jacket. It's a little joke at my own expense, a way of turning a disadvantage into something to celebrate: I'm really, really slow. I'm slow to fully process my thoughts, I'm slow to come up with ideas, I'm slow at writing, and I'm really slow at making comics. 

Last May, after the Uvalde Texas school shootings where 19 children and two adults were killed by a mass shooter, I didn't have words for the consuming grief and anger and hopelessness that was consuming oxygen in every room I entered. I did all the things: called my representatives, donated to mutual aid societies in Uvalde and gun violence prevention organizations, texted my sister and other friends who parent young children to support our shared grief and anger and hopelessness. I hugged my kids extra tight, lingered in their morning cuddles, allowed one more book than usual at bedtime--none of it helped. 

I was writing a lot during this time, following Summer Brennan's Essay Camp prompts, and this comic came out. Slow as I am, by the time I finished drawing, summer break was here and I put this comic aside, unsure if it was for anyone but myself. As school came back this fall, all of these feelings of powerlessness and vulnerability came back up. As the mass murder of children in Palestine consumes the oxygen in every room I enter, as 18 people in Maine were killed by a mass shooter last week, as our country's leadership accelerates the dehumanization of the most vulnerable and powerless among us, it’s just fire, fire, fire. I’m so mad and exhausted that the feeling at the heart of this comic continues to be relevant.

I'm very grateful to Meg Lemke at Mutha Magazine for publishing this very personal comic. 

From this morning at school. RIP, Jubi.