It is important to meet people where they are.
Instead of doing a big contextualizing history for a first post, this is where I am: literally, right now, I’m working at a coffee shop in my neighborhood of Avondale, Chicago, a damn fine neighborhood in the best city in the world. I’m a working cartoonist and illustrator developing a new book, an ambitious graphic novel that I vacillate between being excited about and terrified of. I’m a parent of 3 very small kids, a precocious & gentle 6 year old, a salt & vinegar 3.5 year old, and a beefy, happy little 16 month old. I’m newly (since January 2022) back at my drafting table after 6 years at the changing table, thanks to the full-time nanny care my family and I are privileged and grateful to be able to employ. My kids are old enough that I’m sleeping through the night, so I’m reading voraciously again, thank god—75% literary fiction, but I was on a real Agatha Christie Poirot kick for a while this winter, and I just finished and was delighted by Molly Shannon’s new memoir. (Audiobooks while drawing! What a concept!) I’m supporting the chronic health needs of one of my kids, going on walks and outside hangs with my friends after the kids’ bedtimes, trying and mostly failing to make fluid small talk at elementary school pick up, going on angry walks when I hit a wall in my writing, drinking too much coffee, trying to be a good spouse, feeling chronically behind on calling my parents, and absolutely flailing in the garden but throwing seeds in the ground with cheerful abandon.
All of this is to say: life is full to bursting. It is a joy to be alive, to finally have the time to write and work and process the gift of this sometimes-overwhelming life I am so grateful to keep waking up in the middle of.
I want to share what I’m working on, and also I hate the attention-suck that happens every time I open social media. This newsletter is an experiment; I will post what I’m working on, diary comics, book reviews, and some behind-the-scenes process pictures. As long as this doesn’t become a source of procrastination, I’ll hope to post weekly or thereabouts. Until then, here are some recent diary comics. See you around!
Cannot wait to see what you share here.