No new comic this week: we’ve just wrapped up the written manuscript for the cookie book! Before I hunker down for many, many months of drawing cookies, I’m taking a short break out of town with some of my best and oldest friends. ^_^

But! it is October, a month when many artists like to use the Inktober prompt list as motivation to draw something new every day. I’ve never been super into Inktober, but there was one year that I sort of participated. I ignored the official Inktober prompt list, and instead committed myself to drawing one thing every day: the Chicago Mothman.

If you are unfamiliar with the Chicago Mothman, you’re in for a treat: starting around 2011 and peaking in 2017, there was a rash of reported sightings across Chicagoland of a large, dark winged creature. Sometimes it was reported as an Owlman, or a giant bat, or a Lechuza, but it was usually large, winged, and humanoid, and often with red eyes. There were sightings all over the city and suburbs, and I was obsessed. I refreshed the interactive map daily looking for new sightings.

I started with a sloppy little marker drawing of our cryptid, picturing him in a Chicago flag tee, popping open a PBR tallboy. After that, I couldn’t stop imagining the Mothman visiting Chicago and taking in all the sights.

I drew the Mothman getting snacks in Chinatown, visiting Sue the T-Rex, playing in Crown Fountain, going to the Art Institute. I drew him riding a tall bike (which were a lot more common in my neighborhood in 2017!). I drew him getting tamales from everyone’s favorite tamale vendor and fishing at the lakefront. I drew him eating smoked shrimp at Calumet fisheries, and trying to get into the Stranger Things popup, which only existed for a short while in 2017. I drew him hanging out in Bridgeport and visiting Nickel the sea turtle at the Shedd and of course, trying an obligatory shot of Malört. I just kept thinking: if the Mothman were visiting Chicago, where would I take him? :)

I drew all of the pieces in marker and watercolor, without sketching them first, and I thought (and still think) they were pretty sloppy and silly. I’m pretty sure I made it through 15 or 16 days of drawing before I stopped, but I only have a record of 12-13 of them. I sold at least a few of the originals, but I still have a handful lying around.

They were popular enough that I eventually made prints of some of them! They’re all small, just 4×6”. I take them to shows if I have enough room on my table, which isn’t often. And every time I think I’ll just let them sell out and disappear, someone asks me if I have any more for sale, and I get reprints made.

Eventually, the Chicago Mothman sightings started to die down. I want to believe that people were really seeing a cryptid, but honestly, I doubt it. The vast majority of the sightings were reported anonymously to a single website, which was run by a guy who was selling a book about the Chicago Mothman. It was a bit suspicious. On the other hand, I did personally talk to two people who actually saw something, including a friend (who had a video! of a very distant black dot hovering in a weird way) and a bartender at one of my neighborhood bars. And the Chicago Reader posted a pretty convincing account, too. Maybe there was more to it? We’ll probably never know.

So it’s been almost ten years since the one and only time that I kinda-sorta participated in the Inktober challenge. These days I’m usually too busy to take up drawing challenges like that for fun. But hey, let me know if a new cryptid ever shows up in Chicago again, and I’m sure I’ll be back at it.

Upcoming Events:

Next up I will be at SLICE Expo in St. Louis, MO on 👻 HALLOWEEN! 👻 This is a fantastic indie comics show, full of some incredible talent. Come by and say hello!

What I’m Into Lately:

I recently picked up a charming graphic novel called The Library of Memories, written by my friend Barbara Perez Marquez and gloriously illustrated by the talented Lissy Martin. It’s a middle grade comic about a girl who wakes up with no memories of her own in a magical library that exists to preserve and maintain the memories of everyone in the world. It’s also a beautiful meditation on grief and family and how to live with terribly painful moments.

What Toki’s Into Lately:

Toki only seems to stick his tongue out when he’s really blissfully happy, so I have to assume this was a 10/10 square of sunlight.