this was supposed to be the december recap email but the only thing i worked on was my annual new year's comic so here it is.
art ✎
also up on my site if the formatting ends up weird on here. i usually put my year end/new year comics together from bits of writing i've collected in my notes over the year, and they're usually very abstractly about time/ death/ cycles/ change/ renewal which conveniently are both themes i'm interested in and topical for a so-called new year.
usually try to edit these down to the minimal amount of words/ pages but wanted to do something a little longer this year (might try to do a print version of this with additional illustrations). it was interesting trying to plan this out/ fit the words together, though also because these sort of break my rule of no more "personal" comics i can never tell if the writing is wince-inducing or not (i've sort of gotten out of that in the past by the aggressive cutting).
some inspo for this: shang dynasty crouching bear carving (though ultimately bears did not feature here); mythology around fox (+ other animal) spirits taking on human shape; "rest assured, empires will fall" (sufjan stevens, genuflecting ghost); best management practices for trapping furbearers in the united states; the tigress jataka. i only remembered it while deep in work but maybe subconsciously drawing from the vibes of "all the world will be your enemy... and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. but first they must catch you" (richard adams, watership down).
also would like to thank my summer camp counselor coworker for telling me that thing about biting off fingers like carrots that one time years ago.
other stuff ✷
nothing for now! thanks (as always) for sticking around and supporting my work. i appreciate it a lot.
wishing you all the best in the new year,
— a / formyths