I know this is ostensibly a comics newsletter, but uh… since graduating from comic book school I have been possessed by demons* so I’ve mostly been focused on other kinds of making.

_{(*the inexplicable fear of making comics for public consumption combined with being so overwhelmed by Everything it’s taking all my hard-earned therapy skills to prevent a full-on crashout)}

Most of my engagement with art-making lately has looked like this

or this

…or this.

But last week I had a rare 45 minutes to myself while the 5-year-old was out of the house and the toddler was napping and I’d already caught up on the dishes and laundry, so it was my turn with the children’s art supplies.

While the demonic possession continues, my cartooning degree is primarily being put to use on our fridge whiteboard, to document a very important award in our house.

Despite the aforementioned demon possession, in February I did try gallantly to make a comic for Hourly Comics Day, but I was waylaid by my third (fourth?) illness of the season.

…and then Clip Studio crashed and my autosave failed and I lost approximately eight hours of inking when I was already days behind on posting, and after that I couldn’t muster the willpower (or, frankly, the free time) to redo/finish them. But here are a couple of panels I didn’t lose, as a treat <3

In the category of Other Things I’ve Made That Only Kind of Count As Art, baked goods!

March was my turn as Snack Guy at my local knitters guild, so I made four (4) varieties of scones to share. (I make an average of 3.5 dozen scones and/or muffins every week just for my household, so these were on top of that)

A lot of my “making” energy this winter has been devoted to knitting and mending clothes. Since mid-January I’ve been running a weekly “Make & Mend” community skillshare workshop at RePlay Arts, our local creative reuse nonprofit, and it’s been really successful! I just got approval to continue it through the spring and summer :) If you’re in the Upper Valley, you’re invited!

I finished this sweater in January, and here it is after being washed and blocked! It fits perfectly and I’m so pleased with how it turned out :3

This little ray was a birthday present for Iris (pattern here)

And these mittens were Iris’s late christmas present, finished sometime in January

I am in my Visible Mending era — I’ve learned how to darn and I am unstoppable.

I’m in my Visible Mending Era.

When it comes to mending, I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I figure a lopsided, awkward mending job is still better than not mending it at all. It’s not like I could make it worse, really. I’ve been trying to apply that philosophy broadly — doing it unskillfully and imperfectly is still better than not doing it at all. Be new at things, be bad at things, and do them anyway, just like Felix says in this reel.

…And I leave you with this teaser from the zine I’m halfway done inking that documents Quincy’s various crimes.

Until the next,

💜Maia