>> The Sound of Warplanes by Aude Abou Nasr 

 From my home in Beirut, my cat Luna felt a season of bombings by its sounds and smoke.

>> Gibby by Citizen Christensen 

How a small frog brought joy into my life.

Aude Abou Nasr’s comic “The Sound of Warplanes” has been four months in the making.  The Lebanese artist pitched the idea for her comic about how animals experience human wars to Crucial back in May. “In Beirut, during the first days of the 2024 Israeli aggression on Lebanon, we read the sounds around us, from a drone to a warplane or a bombing,” says Aude.  “We were guessing how far away a strike had landed and what kind it was, then we watched or scrolled through the news to confirm where it had hit. My cat Luna heard all of it without any of that knowledge. This comic follows her senses and asks what a war means for the other lives that go through it. Luna was lucky to live through it inside an apartment, a shelter many animals did not have.”  While she’s an accomplished illustrator, Aude didn’t have much experience making comics. Crucial editor Shay Mirk took on editing the comic. The two emailed back and forth to figure out how the mostly wordless comic set in Aude’s Beirut apartment could work. After reading through a sample script, in July Aude wrote, “I think I know the shape I want. We stay down at the cat's level, mostly in images, with just a little narration from me up top. It's tender more than anything, the three of us getting through each wave by holding onto each other, until the war reaches in and shakes even that.” After that breakthrough, Aude got to work on a pencil draft, then an ink draft, and, finally, the colorful finished comic.

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✨ All of our classes and workshops are online and sliding scale. Reply to this email to ask about free spots for low-income students in any class!✨

Classes

In Graphic Detail: Horror Comics with Mel Gillman is a four week course about writing and drawing horror comics. Students learn about topics like tension building, creating strong narrative surprises, creature design, and horror character building and character arcs, and typically draw a short original horror comic of their own to bring in for in-class show and tell at the end. Tuesdays, October 6th – October 27th, 4pm-6pm PST/7-9pm EST.

Upcoming One-Off Workshops 

Intro to digital drawing with Procreate: Want to get into drawing digitally? Or maybe you’re a seasoned Procreate user looking for some new tips and tricks? This beginner-friendly workshop with Audra McNamee will go over a basic comics-making workflow in Procreate. Sunday, October 25th, 10am-12pm PST/1pm-3pm EST

Intermediate Digital Drawing with Procreate: You’ve been around the block with Procreate a couple times, but you’re not totally comfortable with alpha lock and clipping masks, or you want to be more efficient when you’re coloring your artwork. This project-based workshop by Audra McNamee will challenge you to use new Procreate tools and settings as you make an illustration. Thursday, November 5th, 4-6pm PST/7-9pm EST

Artist Talks

Lucy Bellwood on tackling years-long projects: The adventure cartoonist who previously penned short comics aboard wooden ships and river rafts shares strategies for staying focused while working on long-term, land-locked graphic novels. Sunday, October 11th, 12pm PST/3pm EST

Blue Delliquanti on writing science fiction: The teacher and author of beloved series O Human Star will talk about their approach to making a compelling science fiction series. Thursday, November 12, 4-5pm PST/7-8pm EST

→ Check out all our upcoming classes

Brazilian artist Laura Athayde often points her pencil toward politics. Her newest comic for Crucial, The Dirty Politics of Denying Science, documents the dangerous impact of right-wing groupthink in Brazil. Her other recent work includes a comic for the collection Bossa Nova – Música Popular em Quadrinhos, and the picture book that was Je veux être ta maison.

Why did Brazil's right-wing anti-science conspiracy theories feel important for you to write about?

I was born and raised in Manaus, a city that was severely impacted by the Covid pandemic. I lost my grandfather to the virus and had to watch beloved friends fighting death in hospitals. I was living in Belo Horizonte by then, and had to watch from afar while people dear to me begged online for oxygen tanks. I will never forget the pictures of mass graves opened, waiting for the coffins of the victims to be piled up inside, after the city’s funerary capacity was long exceeded. Later, investigations were launched and studies were released revealing how much the government’s denialist policy exacerbated the effects of this crisis. Brazil has free universal healthcare and we could have prevented 400.000 deaths with the early adoption of measures such as social distancing, masks, and vaccines. Still, the country is currently so politically divided that many people defend that denialist government, to the point of drinking dish soap to show their loyalty in a more recent health scandal. 

It's easy to feel overwhelmed with rage and frustration about the power these right-wing people wield. What emotions were you hoping to express in your comic?

Presidential elections will take place in Brazil in the first week of October and I have to try pretty hard not to give into despair. The policy of denialism is being championed by [former right-wing president] Bolsonaro's son, who is polling very well. I think that’s why I tried to make my comic fun. It was really good for me to try to come up with interesting, humorous images to talk about such a heavy subject. I’m a firm believer in the power of fun and joy and hope. After all, there is no change possible without hope.

Our readers are mostly in the U.S. and Canada. What other Brazilian artists should we follow?

Yes! There are many amazing artists focused on real stories and journalism in comics form, such as Carol Ito and Gabriela Güllich, focused on issues affecting vulnerable women, and Pablito Aguiar, focused on issues concerning Amazonian peoples.

→ Read Laura’s comic The Dirty Politics of Denying Science

» AAPI artists! The Creative Catalyst Fellowship is offering $30,000 for eight Asian American and Pacific Islander artists to create work on the theme of “belonging.” Zine makers and graphic artists based in the U.S. are welcome to apply. The deadline is October 15th. 

» Cartoon Crossroads is now taking exhibitor applications. The annual comics and animation festival will happen April 15-18 in Columbus, Ohio. Applications are due November 3.

» Dykes who publish comics or zines! The Dyke Distribution collective is looking for lesbian artists and writers who self-publish. Apply to get them to distribute your work at upcoming book and small press festivals. Info here.

» Hooray for the Boston Comics Arts Foundation, which is offering $250 “lightning grants” for any cartoonist in Massachusetts. The lightning grant cycle opens November 2nd, so get ready.  

This newsletter was written by Shay Mirk. Crucial Comix is supported in part by our backers on Patreon and by the Sequential Artists Workshop.