Scrolling as Witness by Mollie Ruskin - Every day, I look at the world through my phone screen. The horrors are interspersed with ads. 

Trouble With Scissors by Sky Ford - Cutting my own hair made me feel in control, for a while. Then it made me feel out of control.

Artist Talks

✏️ In our Artist Talks series, cartoonists talk about craft and share their comics-making process. All talks are online and by donation.

» March: Mattie Lubchansky, the author of Boys Weekend, Simplicity, and The Antifa Super Soldier Cookbook, will talk about creating trans-centric narratives and punchy political comics. RSVP here. Wednesday, March 25, from 5-6pm PST/8-9pm EST

» April: Author and artist Thi Bui will talk about her approach to making emotionally rich nonfiction comics. Thi is the author of the groundbreaking graphic memoir The Best We Could Do and is currently working on a book about anti-deportation and prisoner support work. RSVP here. Tuesday, April 28th, from 5-6pm PST/8-9pm EST

Workshops

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

» THIS WEEK! Pitching Your Graphic Novel: Are you trying to publish a graphic novel but aren’t sure how to break in to the industry? This workshop led by artist Al Benbow will help you get started! Thursday March 26th at 4-6pm PST / 7-9pm EST

» Intermediate Digital Drawing With Procreate with Audra McNamee: If you’ve drawn in Procreate a bit, but still feel a bit confused or know you have more to learn, this two-hour project-based workshop will challenge you to use new Procreate tools and settings as you make a four-panel comic. Saturday, April 11 from 10am-12pm PST/1pm-3pm EST

» Make Your Dang Comic with Kane Lynch: Whether you’re new to making comics or an experienced illustrator looking to push yourself through an artistic block, this eight-week-long beginner-friendly class will kickstart your creativity and put you on track to create a finished comic you’ll be proud of. July 7 – August 25, on Tuesdays from 4pm-6pmPST/7pm-9pm EST.

→ Check out all our upcoming classes

Crucial is tabling at a couple rad regional zine and comics fests in the spring! All of these festivals are free and are a great way to connect with artists. Catch us here: 

🦅 Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Lancaster Zine Fest on Saturday, April 18th, 12-5pm 

🌽 Madison, Wisconsin: Print and Resist Zinefest on Saturday, April 25th, 11am-4pm 

🌭 Chicago, Illinois: CAKE on Saturday/Sunday, May 2nd and 3rd, 11am-5pm 

🍁 Toronto, Canada: TCAF on Saturday/Sunday, June 6th and 7th, 10am-5pm

Amy Kurzweil: Notes from a Burmese Prison

In 2021, cartoonist Amy Kurzweil got terrifying news: Her cousin, a journalist named Danny Fenster, had been imprisoned in Myanmar. Danny lived in Myanmar with his partner, Juliana, and worked as a reporter. After a military coup destabilized the country, the new government immediately cracked down on the press—including throwing Danny in prison. Amy’s family worked for six long months to secure his release and he finally was sent home to the U.S. Now, Amy and Danny have co-created an in-depth new comic illustrating his six months in captivity. Part of the interactive comic, published by The Verge, delves into the way books, writing, and podcasts kept Danny sane. Months into his incarceration, Juliana smuggled Danny a memory card full of episodes of This American Life, whose audio storytelling kept him company until his release. The comic is visually interactive, text pops up and images emerge as you scroll through the story. 

Amy is the author of graphic memoirs Flying Couch and Artificial: A Love Story, but in the last few years, she’s taken a turn toward  comics journalism not told from her own perspective.

This is a story with a very repetitive setting—Danny’s trapped in a small cell. How did you think about making this a visual story, so you wouldn’t just be drawing the same thing over and over? 

AMY: We initially had this idea that the piece  would have audio. We have access to the podcasts that he was listening to, and we have some calls with the embassy, and recordings Juliana sent him. But then, as we were working on the comic, we realized putting audio in the comic itself would be  like putting a hat on a hat. It would just be a bad idea. It became clear that the role of the visuals was to evoke the auditory quality, sometimes through handwriting, sometimes through gestures, but also just through texture. So the texture of what I was drawing started to feel really important. I noticed that drawing in pencil made me feel the gritty quality of the walls and the cell and the cracks. I also used a watercolor wash that feels kind of like a soundtrack to the story. It’s not actual sounds, but it's a mood. I was trying to use that kind of abstraction to control the mood of the story. 

Then there is this interesting aspect of having to translate Danny's memories. Nobody outside of the prison knows what it looks like. That process felt really journalistically important—to be able to document something that we don't have visual documentation of. So even if the visuals are, like, the wall or the bars of the prison cell or the dirt, I was trying to get it right.  Danny told me what it looked like. Then I showed the drawings to him and he was either like, “That’s not right” or “Wait, that’s really spooky. You're in my head.”

→ Read Amy and Danny’s comic: Notes from a Burmese Prison

» Do you make zines? A cute new pop-up shop called Paper Pushers in downtown Seattle is looking for zines to sell on consignment! They take submissions from anywhere—here’s the consignment application form. 

» Or give your zines away for free to librarians attending the American Libraries Association conference. If you want to get your zine in front of librarians, the ALA Zine Pavilion is looking for donations now through June 15th. 

»The Rumpus is looking for comics to publish on their site. Work must be previously unpublished (even on your social media) and they pay $100. Details here. 

» Artists with chronic illness: A zine called Substrata is looking for people to submit comics about chronic illness to their next issue. They pay $100 for published comics and the submission form is right here—the deadline is April 3rd!

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