Midyear/New Change of Gear
A webcomic is on the way, f%$#^@ing finally!
First off — thank you to everyone who stuck around as paid subscribers while I’ve been sorting things out. Together we donated over $180 to various families trying to survive the zionist genocide in Gaza. In some ways, that amount feels like nothing against the horrific scale of devastation there, especially looking from the outside; but it does matter a lot to the people receiving it, can quite literally mean the difference between life and death, and I’m deeply grateful that we were able to contribute.
Starting next month (June), I’ll be switching things up again, going back to the regular format of paid subscribers (actually posting content/not donating half). One of the main reasons that I originally changed things up was because I wasn’t able to post regularly, and didn’t feel right taking the whole of regular contributions without doing my part. But now, after much procrastination and planning, I’m finally in a place to treat this more like an actual job and, most importantly, finally — launch my webcomic!
It’s called QUICK BRIGHT THINGS — and it’s like if John Wick and A Midsummer Night’s Dream went on a date to see Sinners and then all three of them had a lovechild. Soooo — more on that in a future post hahahaha….
I’ll be updating a page a week on Thursdays and using the paid tier to post behind-the-scenes work, concept art, sketches and process thoughts, along with the semi-regular essays on craft and writing in general that I’ve been doing. Posts on Palestine, freedom, and random life shit/updates on my work will always be free.
Why have i been clawing away at the idea of doing a webcomic these days? Maybe the better question is — why has it taken me this long to finally do it? Both are valid, tbh. Sometimes it feels like it’s been clawing away at me rather than the other way around. Besides that I love comics — making them, reading them, writing them, all of it, and always have — it feels somehow like that’s the truest, most direct format for my creative brain right now. It’s the language i’ve been thinking in, whether I want to or not. I’ll start the seed of something, a novel or a screenplay, and it’ll immediately siphon itself into comic book form in my brain. I can’t help it! So I gotta flow with that, even though, if I’m honest, it’s intimidating as hell.
Yes, I’ve always been a cartoonist, as I’ve talked about before here. It was my first artistic love, and while I have no regrets about putting it down for looong stretches (I was listening to the same impulses then that led me away from it as I am now coming back to it) — I also gaze in awe at the incredibly talented folks posting artwork all around me and can barely fathom putting myself in the same category as them. It’s intimidating! And that’s a good thing, a reason to move forward, not freeze.
So I’ve been studying my ass off for the past few years, taking classes on Proko.com and other sites and badgering artists I know with annoying questions and drawing a million Little Guys and creatures and cities over and over. Most recently, I finally got to the color portion of my self-determined curriculum. I was always a pen and ink kid, and color has been beguiling to me my whole art life, but now that I’m in it I’m loving it and it led me to arenas I never thought i’d get into, like digital painting. Throughout this post are recent studies I’ve done in that medium, having way too much fun. Back in the line art department, I got to draw a soon-to-be-revealed variant cover for the final issue of The High Republic Adventures — which was both thrilling and came with a massive dose of imposter syndrome! more on that in a future post!
All that to say, if you’ve been enjoying my art, do not be shy!! Encouragement is encouraged! My high school art teacher emailed me yesterday to tell me how much he loved this snail study and it made my entire f’ing dayyyyyy! Also, as always, if you have questions about process or craft or anything else, drop them in the comments and I’ll do my best.
The uncertainty about feeling ready comes in the form of hesitation. I’ll catch myself finding reasons to put off launching this comic, and then I’ll realize none of them, at this moment, are very compelling; they’re just me not feeling sure enough to put myself out there.
Truth is, I could keep studying art (and surely will) for the rest of my life and never feel ready or be satisfied. As i learned in my ambulance years, there’s only so much you can learn in the classroom. At some point, you hit the streets and make the actual decisions, and that’s when you really become a medic. In every discipline, there comes a moment when you have to leap, and there’s no magic equation or recipe for knowing when that moment is — it’s fucking vibes, alas. Like so many things. I had a lot of false starts, thinking I’d try it this way or that way, but the time wasn’t right, and a lot of honestly more pressing things got in the way — life, death, and other deadlines (new memoir title??) But here we are, my work on the High Republic is over and done with, and God has a damn plan, I know that much, so all I can do is roll with it.
Up ahead: QUICK BRIGHT THINGS. Get ready…
¡Pa’lante!
Above is a pic I created for the
post for the recently freed political prisoner Rümaysa Öztürk, who was abducted by ICE for advocating for a free Palestine:
Also, please check out this incredible fundraiser the Sunbirds are doing with the International Board on Books for Young People — one of the few literary organizations to take a stand against the genocide. They’re supporting libraries in Gaza: https://www.ibby.org/awards-activities/ibby-children-in-crisis-fund/story-sunbirds-libraries-are-havens-fundraiser
And I have several online writing classes coming up, including a several months long YA novel generator — keep an eye on this space!