To celebrate my husband’s end-of-March 40th birthday, my family drove down to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee over my kids’ spring break last week. Like any family vacation, it was the best of times/it was the worst of times! I had a motherhood-identity-crisis in front of a literal funhouse mirror in a Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, we stayed up late eating s’mores and telling scary stories and watching the stars; my toddler tried to climb out of my arms on an open-bench ski-lift gondola thing over a deep ravine, my kids ran free and played in a meadow in the sun surrounded by spectacular mountain views; etc etc. I left the week feeling deeply in love with my family, refreshed by the time in nature, and confident that I wouldn’t shed a single tear if a meteor hit the MagiQuest in Pigeon Forge and destroyed the building and every living memory of it.
I started drawing some comics about it and think I’m going to keep it up; I’ll share more as I go, and might assemble it into a minicomic. To keep myself loose I’m drawing straight to ink with a new Pilot Kakuno fountain pen in an 8.5” x 5.5” hardcover sketchbook.
The last panel is blank because my pen ran out of ink! More coming when I get some new cartridges.
Xoxox marn
I love your line. That turkey is fabulous. And I feel lots of solidarity on parenthood identity crises
This made me smile so much! I love your lines and pacing - this was just a balm to read. 🧡