Cartoonists Against ICE: “My art will not save me, but community might.”

This January, as a reported 3,000 federal agents deployed in the Twin Cities, three Minneapolis-based cartoonists teamed up to start an urgent campaign: Cartoonists Against ICE. It’s easy to feel hopeless in the face of heartbreaking arrests of everyone from small children to grandparents, but cartoonists K. Woodman-Maynard, Jason Walz, and Trung Le Nguyen leapt to speak up. The trio created a call-to-action, #ICEOUTComics, that asks cartoonists to create short comics about the real-life impact of ICE in their communities and to post the comics across social media using an icey-blue template. Dozens of artists have jumped in to create comics about ICE in their communities, from Oregon to New York. “I really hope that these comics come off as truthful and urgent,” says Walz. “Minneapolis is a red line right now, and it's crucial for our country that that line isn't crossed.” 

Nguyen, who lives near George Floyd Square in Minneapolis, wrote a comic documenting how since ICE descended on his city, he’s largely avoided leaving the house. “While I’m a citizen, I still cannot leave my house without risking a major disruption to my life,” says the author of The Magic Fish. “This is not a rhetorical problem to me. My art will not save me, but community might. And doing this work—connecting with other cartoonists and with readers in the area and around the world—is really only a tiny part of engaging with community. It’s a small part of a greater and more essential effort.” ⚫️

This week, Crucial published an excerpt of Cooklin’s graphic memoir Ace of Hearts, which tells her story of coming to comes to terms with being asexual. Cooklin is a writer, journalist, and cartoonist based in Vancouver, Washington. We asked her to talk about what impact she hopes her new memoir will have.

CRUCIAL: What did you want this book to add to our understanding of asexuality that you think is missed by other books or media? 

COOKLIN: There’s a concept in queer circles known as “compulsory heterosexuality,” which is when a gay person engages in heterosexuality because they believe it’s what they are supposed to do. This is well understood even outside of the queer community. In ace circles, we speak a lot about a similar phenomenon we call “compulsory sexuality,” and this is less understood by society at large. Most of the asexual stories that I’ve consumed have centered around young people who come of age and realize they’re asexual before they engage in such compulsory sexuality. I am happy that these stories exist, but my story involves a lot of that painful compulsory sexuality, so they do not reflect my experience nor the experience of many ace people I’ve met. I hope Ace of Hearts can help the important conversation about compulsory sexuality break out of the asexual echo chamber and into the mainstream.⚫️

→ Read a Chapter of “Ace of Hearts”

Artist Talks

» Lee Lai: The author of Stone Fruit and Cannon kicks off our 2026 artist talk series. In this one-hour talk, cartoonist Lee Lai will talk with Crucial publisher Shay Mirk about her comics-making process and her approach to writing and drawing her newest book, Cannon. After the conversation, the audience will be invited to ask Lee their own questions. Sliding scale $0-10. Wednesday January 28th from 4-5pm PST/7-8pm EST

Workshops

All of our classes and workshops are online and sliding scale.

» Age Inappropriate - Making Comics About Aging: This workshop led by Barbara Osborn, who teaches a class on “Reimagining Aging” at UCLA, invites you to surface unchallenged assumptions, share stories, and draw your way into unexpected insights about aging. Sunday February 1st, 10am-12pm PST (1pm-3pm EST)

» Self-Care Stretching and Movement for Artists: In this free one-hour workshop, Kriota Willberg will lead participants through small stretches that every artist needs to know! Living a creative and productive life centered around creative practice, and/or a small-scale work area can be liberating for your mind, but hard on your body. Sunday 2/8 at 11am-12pm PST/2pm-3pm EST.

» Graphic Essays: Using Comics to Make Academic Theory More Accessible Cartoonist and academic Darya Foroohar discusses different ways to incorporate academia into the graphic medium and gives examples of existing works students can learn from. Thursday February 12th, 5pm-7pm PST (8pm-10pm EST)

» Telling Trans Stories: Let’s make trans comics! In this two-hour workshop, artist Al Benbow will talk about some of their favorite trans comics and cartoonists, discuss trans character-building, and different ways of exploring trans identity and experiences in comics. Thursday, February 26, 2026 from 4-6pm PST (7-9pm EST)

» Draw Your Feelings: Whether it’s impostor syndrome, creative anxiety, or wider worries about the world, comics are a great way to face and move through big emotions. Artist Cassy Lee leads this two-hour workshop about illustrating your feelings as a tool for emotional regulation. Saturday, March 21st, 10am-12:30pm PST (1:30pm-3:30pm EST)

Multi-week classes

» STARTING SOON! Facing the Blank Page - Creating Comics When You’re Afraid of Drawing: Are you interested in comics but think you could never draw your own? Join the club! This extremely encouraging, low-stakes class taught by Ali Holmes starts with drawing blobs to help you face anxiety around drawing. January 24 – March 14, on Saturdays from 10am-12pm PST/1pm-3pm EST

» Making Memoir Comics: This seven-session memoir comics class will focus on telling real-life stories about your life, identity, and family. Artist Shay Mirk guides participants through writing and drawing a 20-panel personal story, and everyone also creates many shorter comics to practice different techniques and find their visual voice. February 10 – March 24th, on Tuesdays from 5pm-7pmPST/8pm-10pm EST

→ Check out all our upcoming classes

We published a new zine! We're very excited to have a copy of a new zine in our hands! This 44-page collection Tired AF: A Collection of Chronic Illness Comics is edited by Zareen Choudhury features 16 comics about chronic illness. You can buy the zine or download it for free here.

This zine came about because we wanted to build on running monthly meetups of the Chronic Illness Comics Club for a year. The monthly meetups became very important to a core crew of creators. At the end of 2025, we asked people who attend the meetups: What have you gotten out of the chronic illness comics club? Here are just a couple responses:

• "It’s been really meaningful to get to share my experiences with other people but not like in a support group way, and it’s also ensured I spend at least an hour a month making comics at all."

• "I have ADORED CICC. I never saw myself making comics, but this has really gotten me going."

• "Everything. The ability to feel like I am not alone. The belief that I am an artist no matter my skill level or disability status. The dopamine from connecting with cool people going through the same (or similar) thing as me. A general hope that there will be a world where there are more activities like this for people like us. So, so much."

The Chronic Illness Comics Club continues in 2026—our first workshop is about stretching and self-care for artists!

→ Check out the zine

>> Cartoonist Studio Prize: Applications are open for the Cartoonist Studio Prize, which celebrates two exceptional comics each year. All genres are welcome (fiction or nonfiction) and the prize is for both long-form and short-form comics. It’s free to apply, just send in your work by February 28th.

>> Want to publish a mini-comic? Paper Rocket Press is open for submissions for its annual prize. Winners will get $500, their comic (between 24 to 90 pages) published by Paper Rocket, and also space to table at MoCCA festival in NYC. Deadline to apply is February 1.

>> Or maybe you already have published a mini-comic! The Cartoonist Cooperative is hosting a mini-comic award to highlight comics of up to 150 panels. You need to be a co-op member to submit. Deadline is January 31.

>> Zine makers: A pop-up zine vending machine popping up is touring the U.S. this spring—and its creators are looking for mini-zines to feature. They pay $20 for zines—details here.

This newsletter was written by Shay Mirk. Crucial Comix is supported in part by our backers on Patreon and by the Sequential Artists Workshop (thank you, friends!).