From a geopolitical perspective, 2017 was a horrible year and the chances that our civilization will survive the coming climate catastrophe still seem remote. Our woeful lack of preparation for extreme weather events was unfortunately evident when the homes of my friends and family in Houston were imperiled by the record-shattering inundation of Hurricane Harvey. My parents’ house was inches from being flooded. I feel so grateful that they escaped that nightmare and I feel so much sympathy for the people who are still rebuilding in Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico.

In response to the climate change denial, racist policies, and class warfare of the current Republican government, I was more politically active in 2017 than I have been in any year since 2003, when I participated in anti-war protests against our invasion of Iraq. It felt good to fight back and I feel like progressive forces in American won some victories.

Despite the national calamity, I continued to make comics. Madeleine Witt and Andrew White, the editors of Warmer: A collection of comics about climate change for the fearful & hopeful, included my submission in their anthology. I experimented with creating abstract comics from a template and Mike Getsiv posted some of the results of my tests on the Abstract Comics blog.

Abstract comics test. Each of the pages has the same circle shape, deformed or modified in different ways.

My biggest comics accomplishment was when Retrofit / Big Planet Comics published Tales from the Hyperverse, a collection of my short comics that I’ve been planning to put out for years. It’s difficult to match the feeling of excitement and anticipation that I got when I picked up the first box of comics from the post office. Tales from the Hyperverse will arrive at local comic shops that stock Retrofit / Big Planet Comics on Wednesday January 10th!

My friend and fellow cartoonist Colin Panetta drew this fan art of the Floating Crystal Witch, who features prominently in Tales from the Hyperverse.

Both Warmer and Hyperverse were funded by successful Kickstarter campaigns. Thanks to everyone who supported those campaigns with a pledge or a post!

I tabled at two comic fests this year, KC Zine Con for the second time and Cartoon Crossroads Columbus for the first time. I self-published a small print run of my minicomic Drumstick Pit for KC Zine Con. I’ll probably do one regional and one national show again next year.

It was fun to xerox and then fold and staple Drumstick Pit. It’s been too long since I last made my own mini-comics! An essential comics skill.

On this blog, which passed its tenth anniversary this year, I posted four book reviews:

• Earthseed by Octavia Butler
• As the Curtain Falls by Robert Chilson
• Earth in Twilight by Doris Piserchia
• The Ends of the World by Peter Brannen

I’ve got a few projects in the works that may see the light of day in 2018, including a collaboration with Zach Taylor on a videogame code named Project Quinoa. You can see updates from Zach, including videos of his great pixel art, on his development log.

Here’s a drawing I made this year that I might use for one of those aforementioned 2018 projects:

Dome city drawing.

And here’s a couple pages of a comic I’ve been tinkering with:

“So I Folded” Miizzzard grid comic page.

“And Piped Out” Miizzzard grid comic page.