fresh ink

We’re all on hold with the IRS here.

These last few months, I’ve been struggling to draw; every idea seems dumb and my hand has stalwartly refused to move good. Austin Kleon said once that problems of output are usually problems of input, so in a rare storm of good sense, I decided to read more comics.

Lynda Barry’s “Making Comics” came out this year, and it’s been sitting on my shelf. I read it cover-to-cover in a few days, and marked every exercise and prompt with a sticky flag. I’ve been keeping a version of Barry’s “compbook diary” and trying to complete a few other exercises each week. It’s been incredibly refreshing—since I started I’ve actually wanted to draw again!

Here are some drawings and diary images from this month that have made me feel like maybe I can still make comics:

This weekend I re-learned, for perhaps the millionth time, that you can’t wear a crop top on a prairie.