YEAH it's hard to also make work about mental health because you need to get back in that headspace, which can be hard and also make you symptomatic again. My book goes over my first nervous breakdown and then my second, far worse one, which is pretty embarrassing I did it twice but oh well
One thing I didn't anticipate about making a mental health memoir is how hard it is to make a cohesive narrative. I got diagnosed 18 years ago and my journey has had SO many dips, detours and periods of complete paralysis. I feel like I need to edit my journey just to make it more concise
I think I also want to simultaneously be honest, like yes, this is a chronic illness for me that I constantly have to monitor and deal with. But I also don't want it to be too much of a bummer, because I do have a good life despite what a shitty brain I got saddled with.
Yeah, it feels like that bit from the Simpsons with all the germs getting caught in the doorway, but it's too many ideas clogging up your brain and giving you decision fatigue
i've done paid work as a comics artist, writer, and artist+writer, and: writers make less per page because it is less labor to write a single page of comics by an order of magnitude lmao. v weird to see people get sectarian about it when we're all broke! crab on crab violence here in the big bucket
I'm going to sound like a broken record, BUT the only way for working conditions to get better is for everyone that actually makes comics to work together, publishers aren't going to do that for you and you shouldn't expect them to! No amount of niceties will change that.
cartoonist.coop
I'll be doing a reading this weekend at the Pulping launch party event in #Toronto! June 8th at the Houndstooth (818 College St), 8-10pm. Come hear Fiona Smyth, Eric Kostiuk Williams, Jenn Woodall (@funeralbeat.bsky.social) and more! pulping.fun
aw thanks! Only the cover is 4 colour, insides are just 1 colour, but different inks used on different page colours. This is the first time I ever printed a riso book completely on my own so I wanted to not make it as horrible as it could be
Dumbass is now available to preorder - I sold out of the first print run, and since I am doing all the printing myself, I'm leaving the preorder open until mid-June. 32 pages, risograph printed on multi coloured pastel paper. A mix of autobio, comics on burn out + art-making. Preorder in my shop
