I’m going to be MIA and away from the keyboard from July 14 to July 20 or 21. Family is going to be visiting.
I WILL, however, be at the Toledo Comic Arts Festival this Saturday!
The event is at the Toledo Lucas County Public Library’s Main Branch in downtown Toledo, from 10 am to 4 or 5 pm. I will also be participating in a quick draw event at 3, competing against other artists to see *who can be the best*!
If you can make it to Toledo Comic Arts Fest, I hope to see you there! If not, I’ll be back online after the 20th.
Webcomics and newsletter updates will continue as normal, though!
That’s all for now. Thank you for your understanding!
I have come back from A2CAF 2025, which was a MASSIVE success!
Holy banana pants. I’ve been to this show twice, and both times, I come back with my heart so full. It’s a great time every time I get to go. This year was no different.
to Scott McCloud for being so hyped when I told him about The Legend of Jamie Roberts! Thank you for getting volume 1!
to Kat Tuesday for the rad comics and the unexpected compliment about my coloring work.
to everybody who stopped at my table! Especially to the kiddos who were so psyched about my pirate comics and all of my kitty zines.
I also have to shout-out the organizers for putting together the Quick Draw! The Quick Draw is a drawing competition where two artists square off and draw prompts from the audience. Have a look at what I drew!
There aren’t a ton of pictures because good golly Mister molly, the event got PACKED. So many people came by to check out indie comics! We even had some folks from the No Kings protest trickle in. Here’s my favorite protest sign.
(Also I got some great protest posters from a zinester walking around. If you’re reading this, you know who you are. And You’re AWESOME).
So…What’s Next?
My next event is July 19 at the Toledo Comic Arts Festival in the Toledo Lucas County Public Library (Main Branch). The fest runs from 10 am to 4 pm. I’ll also be doing a quick draw-like event there, and showing off my comics and zines!
Speaking of zines, holy banana pants I sold so many of them at A2CAF! I need to reprint more. (If you have the means to leave a tip on Ko-fi, that will help towards the cost of printer ink!) I also need to order more copies of The Case of the Wendigo because DANG, y’all made me almost sell out of copies!
But what about between now and Toledo Comic Arts Fest?
Well, I’m giving my YouTube channel an overhaul. Like, I’m not doing Shorts anymore. Why? Because I made changes behind-the-scenes to disconnect more from social media, so there’s no incentive for me to keep making them.
I’m going back and forth on whether to keep doing livestreams on my channel. You can still find me making appearances on Ben’s Twitch and YouTube. Right now we’re playing the indie game Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea!
As for my own YouTube channel? I want to go back to making the videos I want to make, not what “the algorithm” is trying to make me do. You can keep an eye on this website, though, for more on that.
If you’re a member on Ko-fi, especially a Zine + Sticker or Art Club member, your rewards will mail out from my old address. Your June rewards will ship from the new one. (Also your rewards for this month got delayed another week. Sorry! They should ship out by May 19.)
These are on pause until June:
blog posts,
YouTube anything (videos, livestreams, etc),
Crowdfundr fulfillment for An Ignorance of Romance (between May 23 and 31 especially),
From May 23 to May 31, I have to pause shipping physical shop orders and making commissions until we’re done moving. Any orders for digital rewards (Like How To Promote Your Work Without Social Media) will stay open. I just won’t be able to send you a thank-you note right away.
That said, any and all proceeds from Ko-fi these next few weeks will help us with the move – especially with groceries! So if you have the means, leave a tip, shop, or get a commission on Ko-fi.
I’m going to try a personal challenge – no watching YouTube for the next 31 days.
That’s right. For the month of May, I’m going to make the effort to NOT watch YouTube. (This likely means no new YouTube videos on my channel, either. Apologies in advance to my YouTube channel subscribers. I will, however, be doing workshops with the Cartoonist Co-op as part of Nib and Ink Fest, and those workshops will be up on their YouTube channel. I’ll post links to those workshops in the next few days.)
“But WHY?” You might ask. “YouTube is everywhere! How can you possibly do no YouTube for the month of May?!”
So, before I get into the How, let me tell you the Why.
Why #1 – May is a BUSY month for me.
I mentioned the workshops I’m doing with the Cartoonist Co-op as part of Nib and Ink Fest. I will also be packing up and preparing to move to a new apartment before the end of the month.
“You could just put YouTube on in the background – “
No. That’s part of my next Why.
Why #2 – YouTube is More Distraction Than Helpful.
I need to keep my hands busy, usually with making comics and art, or packing my apartment up for the move. I can’t be distracted with shiny visuals. Also, I have caught myself – multiple times – scrolling YouTube to try to find *something* to turn on, but realizing that nothing is catching my interest.
This leads me to…
Why #3 – YouTube isn’t FUN anymore.
I made this collage yesterday to make art out of my frustration with YouTube. Because YouTube used to be fun.
Used to be.
Now, because of its algorithms prioritizing the same content delivered in roughly 1700 different ways (seriously, HOW MANY videos are there talking about “productivity” or “things I do to stop doomscrolling” – on a platform formulated for doomscrolling). There’s also the sponsors who are 99% of the time scams, the ads, and my once-favorite YouTube creators no longer being favorites…
Well, it’s time that I take a break from YouTube.
So, HOW am I not going to watch YouTube?
How #1 – the Unhook extension.
The Unhook extension built for Firefox has commands for when you *do* end up on YouTube. Unhook does things like turning off Shorts, bringing you to your subscription feed instead of the front page, turning off the comments section, and other quality of life fixes.
I’m leaving this extension on in case I have a moment of weakness and end up on YouTube. That way, Unhook makes sure I only see what’s in my subscription feed. Which, right now, is looking slim, since I unsubscribed from a lot of people who stopped being fun for me to watch.
How #2 – audiobooks.
I have a long-ass TBR list of audiobooks on hoopla, an app available from my public library. It’s basically free Audible (so stop paying for Audible. You literally get hoopla and Libby – two audiobook apps – free thanks to your tax dollars). So instead of turning on YouTube, I’ll turn on an audiobook.
OR, I’ll turn on…
How #3 – podcasts.
This one might be trickier for me, as I’m trying to cut down on the number of apps on my phone. Podcast apps are freaking storage hogs. Also, as it turns out, a lot of podcasts I listen to don’t have episodes available on their websites. Their websites are basically place holders to tell people, “Listen to us on Spotify!” Which does nothing to help me.
Still, some podcasts have their episodes on their websites, and those will be super helpful this month. I also have some of my favorite episodes downloaded onto my laptop, which I don’t mind listening to The Dollop talking about the 1904 New York to Paris Car Race for the 17th time.
How #4 – music.
Y’all. My music playlist on my hard drive is entirely too big and I don’t play it enough. I gotta turn on some tunes!
Also, my library offers an app called Freegal, where you can download 5 songs a month – for free – that you can keep forever on your devices. Freegal’s music library is a little tricksy to navigate, and they don’t have everything. Still, I like that they have some of my favorite bands on there.
If Freegal’s not your speed, hoopla also has music. Hoopla has a lot of songs that Freegal does not, like Chapelle Roan.
So here’s something I’d love to hear from you: how do you listen to podcasts? Let me know in the comments, because I really want to listen to more podcasts!
I made a comic about Lake Erie and the toxic algae blooms! You can read it now, freely, on Crucial Comix and The Revelator.
This is my first nonfiction comic publication, aside from a 3-page explainer for a Columbus, OH zine about the 3 Sisters crop arrangement (that’s coming later). I had not made a science comic like this before, and I’m glad I accepted the challenge!
To read the rest of the comic, head to Crucial Comix or The Revelator. Links are above the art.
I want to make more comics like this. The scientists who got me in touch with the biologists for this are expressing interest in working with me again on a separate project. We’ll see who likes the pitch and where we can go with it!
During the making of this comic, I learned *way too much* about Lake Erie. So if you have questions, leave them in the comments and let me know.
