When I teach comics camps for grade-school-age kids in the summer, things are maximum-busy during that week, and then they sure leave me a lot to reflect on afterward.

These are kids who play Minecraft and video games and watch Amazing Digital Circus. One of them taped a little trash can icon and to the white board eraser, which I found hilarious. They know technology. They’re swimming around in it.

But in our comics club room, there is no presence of computers doing anything for anybody. And there seems to be almost no mention of it, either. No phones, no nothing. There is some music playing on my phone and that is about it.

Paper gets folded and cut into pieces and taped together. The kids self-organize games that change around every five minutes. They create pop-up books with springs in them. They make books just to make books, whether or not there’s anything inside. A lot of things fall over or fall apart and then are aggressively reattached. Often my role is to hold a thing up while a kid applies more tape.

(We do staple things quite a lot. The stapler has a pretty important role. So that is a technology we use, I guess.)

I am grateful to the kids this summer for helping make a place to be in for a few hours a day, that is full of paper and tape and glue, and where it feels really effortless to think for ourselves and then try to make our thoughts into something and maybe show to the other kids or keep to ourselves or take home or work on again tomorrow.

Neptune Road

Things Of The Week

There’s this site called “Worse on Purpose” about the enshittifying of various brands, but I think the best part of it is this Approved list where you can find brands that DO have integrity and are worth it.

OMG a whole site where you can make the sounds of various keyboards. The IBM and electric typewriter are my favorites.

A nice list of things you can do that are relaxing and do not involve a screen.

Books, Art, Cartoons

All Three Sloth and Manatee books are at Radiator Comics!!

Brainwaves cartoons collection 1: The Fountain of Stuff at BookShop

Brainwaves cartoons collection 2: Best of Brainwaves Volume Two: Mom, Dad, I'm a Cat at BookShop

License my cartoons: CartoonStock are terrific and I’ve been with them forever

Art Prints: Capybaras, Moose, Baphomet, more in the Print Shop at INPRNT who also are great and have cards too

Okay! That's enough nonsense for now.

May you have some of your own thoughts, may you think thoughts about those thoughts, won't you be my neighbor? - Betsy

“Wherever we go, we are friends” - Sloth and Manatee