Heading to SPX this Weekend!

Hey friends! Just a reminder for those of you in the Washington, DC area I will be at the Small Press Expo this weekend selling comics–including my limited run of the Ignatz nominated CARRINGTON’S WORLD! I will be at Table W63 with Ellen Lindner, Jennifer Hayden and Robin Ha!

Please be advised: Due to COVID-19 restrictions only two people are allowed at the table at once, so we will be taking turns at the table–if I’m not there when you get there, there will be a schedule posted! My stuff will be there–including the gorgeous 2nd printing copy of All the Sad Songs!

As for the Ignatz Awards: Voting is now closed and so we will find out on Saturday night who wins. THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to vote for CARRINGTON’S WORLD. I really appreciate it!

Those of you not attending the comic fest who would still like a hard copy of the comic fret not–I will be putting the remaining copies in the shop when I return!

See you there, I Hope!

Small Press Expo

Saturday, September 17, 11am-7pm, Sunday, September 18, 12pm-6pm

Marriott Bethesda North Hotel & Conference Center
5701 Marinelli Road.
North Bethesda, MD 20852

Carrington’s World is Nominated for an Ignatz Award!

Well, bust my buttons! My mini comic Carrington’s World is nominated for a dang Ignatz Award for best Mini Comic! I guess this means I’m going to have to reprint it and actually go to SPX in September! I’m taking a break from social media right now for mental health reasons, so I was late to find out. Actually, it was so nice to hear about it from a friend than a tweet!

It’s my first Ignatz nomination and even though my experience as a juror back in 2016 taught me that being nominated, while an honor, is also a miracle (considering the sheer volume of submissions and the anonymous system of ranking and voting among the jury members), I always hoped I would get a nomination. I am so pleased that something made it through the meat grinder of that process. Thank you to the Ignatz jurors!! I hope you still like comics after that giant job!! If not, Comics still likes you and will wait for your recovery and return!

This mini was something I threw together last spring when I thought I was going to go to MoCCA, but didn’t. I’ve always wanted to make a mini about the artist Dora Carrington and now I have and now I get to be nominated for something that is like an Oscar to me! Well, there you go!

If you’re going to be at SPX on Saturday, September 17th, you can vote for me while you are there or any of the other amazing cartoonists nominated (seriously, what a list!!!!!). CORRECTION: I just found out that they will not be doing on-site voting this year, so if you want to vote you can! All you have to do is request a ballot here! If you’ve read the comic please consider voting for me! Thank you!

New Comic: Raymond Briggs

I have a new comic up on my Patreon about the amazing cartoonist and children’s author Raymond Briggs, who died on Tuesday at the age of 88. As a way to honor and celebrate this amazing artist, I’m temporarily removing the paywall for the next week. Come on over and read it!

He was blooming marvelous!

A Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher in New York

Last night my mind was blown when I got a RARE sighting of a bird normally found no farther than Texas in a cow pasture 30 minutes from my house in New York! And what a bird! The scissor-tailed flycatcher is probably as glorious a bird as there is. I only saw it fly a couple of times, but with that tail it was hard to miss! 

Flycatchers are my new favorite bird (don’t tell woodpeckers) and I had put the scissor-tail on a dream list. I never thought I’d see it so soon! It was surreal and oh so magical. Only the cows were not impressed!

Some Recent Thrilling Sightings

Here’s a sketchbook spread of some recent thrilling bird sightings. Actually, since drawing the list, my birding has gotten even MORE thrilling. It’s my first migration season and it’s absolutely incredible out there. Birds! The best anti-depressant I have found!

4 page comic on Daphne Du Maurier on Patreon and All the Sad Songs Featured on Backlisted!

It’s Friday which means there is a new comic on my Patreon! This week it’s a 4 page comic on the British writer Daphne Du Maurier’s obsession with the estate Menabilly. Menabilly was the inspiration for Manderley in her world famous novel, Rebecca. You can access it now along with many other comics and posts for a modest rate!

New comics are still coming every Friday along with occasional posts about my memoir in progress and thoughts about comics as a creative practice. I have really been enjoying having a space to share what’s been happening in my world–come on in! It’s colorful there!

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!

On Monday I had the delight and shock of my life when I discovered that ALL THE SAD SONGS was featured on my favorite podcast Backlisted! Some of you might remember me gushing writing about Backlisted in December when I shared my sketchbook spread of Queens of Crime. Imagine my shock to hear Andy Miller, writer and editor and co-host of Backlisted sharing ALL THE SAD SONGS as his pick of what he had been reading and loving this week! WHAT?? IS THIS REAL??

It’s hard to adequately say what this means to me. That podcast has done more for refueling my inner life in the last year than anything else has in years. In some ways it has recommitted me to a life of reading and writing in a way that I had forgotten was possible. Andy and John Mitchinson, and their array of guests, are so smart, funny, generous, and engaging that it’s truly infectious. To be included in that show and to be read (and praised) by Andy Miller is just…mind blowing (to say the least), and (dare I say it?) deeply affirming. Not all attention helps refuel, but I have to admit, this puts some strength in the heart for me. In the words of Tom Waits, I’m going to take it with me when I go.

It’s perfect timing because ALL THE SAD SONGS just went into a second printing! After a brief period of it possibly going out of print in the US, Retrofit decided to do a modest second print run, and I just got the first shipment of new copies. The price will be going up once my current supplies go out, so if you have been sitting on it–now is the time to get it!

New Comics Every Week at Patreon

Hi Friends!

After years of thinking about it, I finally decided to to launch a Patreon for my diary and sketchbook comics.

My daughter Poppy was diagnosed with Long COVID and is home for the foreseeable future, which is making work slow and intermittent. I am still working on the book about my mother, but the needs of my Homelife (trademark pending) have caused me to rethink work in general and I’m unable to take on any large projects outside of the book right now.

I’ve resisted the Patreon idea for a long time. The vulnerability around it is huge–what if no one comes? And who needs another reason to be on the screen? Yet, I have a backlog of unpublished work and I can’t afford to print it in a new issue of Paper Pencil Life for the time being. Also, so much of what I make is about knowing how and what I am living and thinking. Sharing it helps me feel connected to what others are living and thinking too, something I need more than ever now. I’d love to be able to share it with you.

Subscribers will get comics weekly, with occasional posts about my memoir process and missives about comics and life. Come on over! It’ll be good!

This Is Serious Too

I only have permission to post this panel from yesterday’s COVID diary. I’ll just say this: we hit a mental health limit. I’m not sure I will continue posting, but I want to thank everyone who has sent messages of encouragement and solidarity and shared their own COVID experiences. This pandemic is no joke and as much as we try to control and grapple with a way to manage it, there seems to me no one way this virus moves through. My family is adjusting from day to day. It sucks and is hard, and community, even from afar, is something so vital. Stay safe everyone. Love to all!

Peace on Earth from Me to You

We live in the weirdest and uncertain times, but I’m gad you’re here. Sending you the warmest of wishes from my little corner of the world to yours. Let’s do this 2022!

Sketchbook Spread: Queens of Crime!

This week’s sketchbook spread is on the mystery writers “Queens of Crime.”

I’m so burned out on podcasts and tire of anyone who starts a sentence with “Have you heard the podcast…,” but the one podcast I am utterly devoted to is Backlisted, which is a total delight and has completely revitalized my reading life and love of books and writers. My friend Chris has been talking about this podcast forever and I finally listened to it and was so hooked at their humor, their intelligence, and just the joy they bring to some of the most obscure books. It seems to me so utterly anti American in that it is for the love of art and literature and yet there is absolutely no slime or put downs in it. It has made me believe in intelligence and joy co-existing–something I had forgotten that could exist in discussions of art and literature. As a result, it seems to me so far seeing–a real rarity these days. I don’t always agree with the opinions of the hosts, but I adore listening to anything and everything they have to say. It deepens my curiosity and just makes me want to do and think in deeper ways.

Their episode of Josephine Tey’s novel Miss Pym Deposes is one of my favorites and completely opened me up to the world pf mystery writers–which I had no idea about. I knew about Agatha Christie of course, but not that she was part of a large “Golden Age” of detective fiction, nor that she was considered only ONE of six women who were considered the “Queens of Crime.” I’ve read Agatha Christie and seen almost every Poirot episode (perfect for coloring comics to!), but had never heard of any of these women–who seem all quite astounding in their own way. I just finished Tey’s novel and I’m listening to Ngaio Marsh book right now as I color pages in my memoir. In addition to being a jaunty beret wearer, and a prolific mystery writer, was from New Zealand, and I guess was a fantastic painter and theater director?? I swear there is not enough time in this world to learn and read all there is to discover! I’ll just keep drawing as much as I can!