Issue 28: Tschüss, 2024!
The final newsletter of 2024! Reflecting on the year and sharing comics.
Hello hello, friends and good folk!
❄️ Happy Winter Solstice! ❄️
I want to start this final newsletter of 2024 with a hearty THANK YOU!! 💖 Thank you for being here, for reading this newsletter, and for supporting my work. I truly appreciate you. I hope you’ve enjoyed the little gifts I’ve made for you here and there throughout the year, and I hope you’ll look forward to more in 2025 💖
I’ll be skipping the first of the month in honor of the New Year, and you’ll see me back in your inbox in just a few weeks!
2024 REFLECTIONS
I always enjoy the end and beginning of a year; I like reflecting on how I’ve grown and what I’ve accomplished (even if that’s just surviving some years) and thinking about what experiences I’d like to have for the new year, what new things I’m eager to try, and all the fun things I’ll get to make.
This year has been a surprise in a few ways— I got much more involved in the Cartoonist Co-op than I ever anticipated, ending the year as chair for two committees and active on a third. As part of these committees, I ran numerous newsletters, events, and meetings with my fellow members; I served as a juror for a brand new online festival I helped create; and I made so many guides, forms, calendars, and spreadsheets that I genuinely can’t remember them all.
It’s all been an amazing boost for my self-confidence, as well as opening my world up to include some pretty incredible people. Working with so many wonderful people to help create things that support our community and to strive to make real changes in our industry is incredibly fulfilling, and I’m so grateful for the relationships I’ve made with so many cool and like-minded people.
It was also a lot of fun to make some art of our mascots Inkling and Nibford for the Community Board and Members newsletters and events 😄
I’ve made a lot of really great progress in my therapy this year, too— my testosterone gel helps a lot with my anxiety, of course, but I’ve done a lot work to get to a point that I’m pleased with, especially with my trusting in myself and improving my self-esteem. A huge thank you to my wonderful therapist for her support and encouragement in this progress!
I didn’t make as much art as I had hoped I would in 2024, but I feel more prepared for trying again in 2025 than I did at the end of 2023, and I’m pleased with the things I did make this year. I also applied to and got accepted into a couple of places that I’m very happy about, and I promoted my work, even when it made me nervous. That’s all pretty great in its own way!
I sewed a LOT more than planned lol, and it gave me a good deal of satisfaction to hold things in my hands that I’d created with those same hands. I’m excited to give the gifts I’ve made with them, and I love wearing and using the others I’ve sewn for myself and our home.
I even made a micro comic about sewing!
And I kept up with this newsletter! I’m excited by the changes I’ve made and the process I’ve developed for myself, and I’m really enjoying this more frequent communication with y’all. It encourages me to keep sharing my work and to open up about what I’m doing these days.
All in all, I’m pretty satisfied with 2024 on a personal level! I’m pleased with who I am as a person and who I’m becoming, and I’m deeply grateful for the wonderful relationships I have in my life at this point.
There are, of course, many things that I would change about 2024 outside of my personal life, but I’m grateful for these positive things from this year.
What are you reflecting on as we prepare to enter a new year?
IN THE STUDIO
This month, I’ve been busy with sending out and corresponding with folks about their NIF submissions results (we had about a 65% acceptance rate, which I am absolutely delighted by!!), as well as making my own comics like my piece for NIF’s Oops All Comics Zine coming out in May 2025 during the Fest.
Here’s a pre-authorized sneak peek:
Pretzel Font by Sara Linsley
Our theme for the inaugural zine is “Colourful,” and I think I definitely met that with this one 😂 I worked on my lettering a bit more this time; that’s one of my skills that I’m working on, and it’s funny— I realized as I was typing this that I forgot to punctuate that first speech balloon 😅 Something about adding a period after an apostrophe just feels weird to me, though lol.
CONTENT NOTE: The images for this next comic contain illustrations of birth. Feel free to skip past the images with the bright pink sticky notes if you’d like to avoid them!
I’ve also been working on my piece Burden for Polly Guo’s Comics Intensive. Our assignment, if I haven’t mentioned yet, is to make a 10 page black and white comic using only 1-2 panels per page. Polly later allowed us to make it up to 20 pages and using up to two colors in addition to black and white, which I’m excited about!
Polly (who is absolutely lovely btw) challenged us to make our thumbs using a folded 8.5” x 11” paper and using sticky notes, which was really fun! I used a Paper Mate Flair Pen (size medium) which makes some satisfying lines that smudge very easily which I find strangely enjoyable. I didn’t sketch anything out beforehand, just dove straight into each one.
It’s oddly freeing to use a pen on paper in this way— I think I’ve gotten so used to taking a long time to make my thumbs digitally, and it helped a lot to have this external deadline and an emphasis on completion rather than accuracy or beauty. I really enjoy how Polly’s class has opened my mind up to how making a comic doesn’t need to take an extensive amount of time. Good for my struggles with perfectionism!
Here’s a look at the first few pages:
My comic ended up being a total of 18 pages, but I’m planning to include a cover with it, which will add a few more to it. I’m considering printing it once it’s done, too, which I find exciting since I haven’t printed one of my comics yet.
Our next step is to finish the first draft by January’s session on the 19th, and I’m feeling eager and nervous about the challenge! Here’s to hoping my carpal tunnel cooperates! 😂
Not to jinx myself, but I’m hoping to make 2025 a year of completed comics. I’m on a good track right now with that goal with Burden and Don’t Feed the Faeries, and I’m hoping that momentum will encourage me to make more in the new year!
COMMUNITY FEATURE
Around this time of year, I always try to make a donation to the various libraries I frequent throughout the year, and this year is no different! I’m so grateful for the services our libraries provide, and I’ve learned so much through them— and not to mention how much they’ve helped me save in reading costs!
I haven’t done the math for 2024 yet, but they saved me $1,500 USD in 2023 alone! I say “saved” like I just had $1,500 in comics-money lying around lol It’s more like they enabled me to read $1,500 worth more in comics than I would have been able to 💖
This year, I’ve donated to the Brooklyn and New York Public Libraries, as well as the Orange County Library System and the Mid-Continent Public Library. I borrow so many comics through the first two, and OCLS and MCPL have been excellent sources of really high quality storytelling, community, and writing education throughout the last few years.
I’m so glad we live in a world where libraries exist, and I hope you’ll consider joining me in donating to your local library this month if you’re able, too! And if you can’t support them financially, even just getting a library card can be helpful to help prove their usefulness to your community! I use mine almost exclusively virtually— the Libby app is my best friend when it comes to reading comics.
RECENT READS + FAVORITES
I vowed to myself to catch up on Recent Reads before the end of the year, and here we are! I’ll see if I can do a 2024 recap in January 😁 You can see all the links taking you directly to each comic in my Recent Reads 2024 post!
And here are some of my favorite things from the past few weeks:
Eating: Bonchon (they finally opened one up by us!)
Watching: A Winter Wildlife Wonderland from BBC Earth
Listening: Holiday Lofi
Using: This Snowman Kitty Notepad from Kukubee
How about you? What have been some of your favorite things lately?
I hope you have a lovely rest of this year, a wonderful start to the new one, and I hope you get time with loved ones and eat lots of good food 💖 Thanks for reading!