For the past five years, I’ve posted a recap of my previous year in January. For 2020, I’ve struggled with how to approach this, but now that I’ve passed the one year anniversary of when I started social distancing in March 2020, it’s time to mark that dreadful milestone. The past 15 months have been full of upended expectations, struggle, and grief for everyone around the globe. I’m fortunate that I’ve been able to keep my job and stay healthy.
I neglected to mention this in my post about 2019, but Tom Spurgeon passed away that November. I didn’t have the pleasure of knowing Tom personally but his passing has left a hole in my comics life. I used to read The Comics Reporter every weekday while drinking my morning coffee. In 2020 I missed his insight keenly. I’m sure he would’ve had a lot to say about all the back-and-forth between Diamond and DC, not to mention the cancelling of San Diego Comic Con and so many other shows.
This Tom Spurgeon tweet makes me laugh every time I see it.
It’s hard to see what shape the comics industry, such as it is, will be in after the pandemic ends, considering the shifts in the direct market and extended gap between in-person indie comic festivals. My brother runs a comics shop in San Antonio and the lack of statewide mask orders for keeping retailers safe and DC distributor changes have made this an incredibly hard year for him (if you want to support his shop, check out his eBay store). I only virtually tabled at one show in 2020, KC Zine Con. They did a good job of organizing virtual panels and creating a website that mimics the experience of browsing zinester’s tables, but it definitely doesn’t match the energy, or amount of sales, that I get from being in a cavernous room with everyone. KC Zine Con is the one show where I can usually count on making some money because I don’t have to travel for it. Luckily, I’m not dependent on that show income because of my day job, but how many cartoonists and small press publishers need it to keep going? How many of them will still be in business when these shows can hopefully happen again in 2022?
I don’t have the answers. Fortunately there are other options for art comics to get out there, through excellent distros like Birdcage Bottom Books, Spit and a Half, or Domino Books; or just by posting online. Several high quality comics have been recently serialized through daily Instagram updates, like Simon Hanselmann’s Crisis Zone, Alex Graham’s Dog Biscuits, and Michael DeForge’s Birds of Maine. DeForge has been going the web-serial-to-print-book route for years now, from Ant Colony (FKA Ant Comic) to Leaving Richard’s Valley to this latest one.
I put out two new comics in the past 15 months via this site. Even though I’m not leaving the house much it’s been a struggle to find the mental capacity to be creative when most of my days are spent juggling working at home and helping my kid with online school.
In February 2020, I finished a four-page comic for a zine organized by Kelsey Borch that she hoped to print and hand out at local climate action events. The sessions where we brainstormed ideas for it were one of the last times I hung out with people inside a building. I volunteered to make my comic about dealing with anxiety caused by ruminating on climatic catastrophes, a topic with which I’m all too familiar. The pandemic put a crimp in Kelsey’s plans for the zine so I decided to put my pages up here. If you’re putting together a zine for climate activists and would like to include my pages for free, just send me a message via the social media accounts or email listed on my About page.
Some crops of pages from Anxious about Climate Change?
In November, I finished a second collaboration with the humorist and writer Mark Peters. The comic is called The Big Baby and it was a blast to create! You can read all five pages here.
The Big Baby page 2.
I also drew fan art for my friend Pat Aulisio’s most recent graphic novel, Grid Observer, in July.
By the end of 2020, I finished 10 pages of A Reluctant Oracle, a continuation of a story in Tales from the Hyperverse. I’d planned to self-publish A Reluctant Oracle #1 for CAKE 2020; when that show was postponed, I decided to postpone my comic as well. They’re letting everyone keep their tables for the next in-person show (hopefully I’ll see y’all in Chicago in 2022), but I’m planning to self-publish it this summer and sell it here. I’ve also made progress on A Reluctant Oracle #2.
A couple preview pages from A Reluctant Oracle #1.
In January of this year, my friend Amy Middleton passed away. Her kindness and friendliness were an integral part of the Austin indie comics scene. She always made me feel welcome at draw nights and 24-hour comic book day marathons, even when I was a newcomer. And the one-eyed bear costume she made for Zach Taylor to promote his Bear Quest comics was an eye-popping presence at Staple! every year.
Amy Middleton and Zach Taylor in the bear suit she made.
