Meursault, contre-enquête, Kamel Daoud
Epoxy 5, John Pham
Crickets 5, Sammy Harkham
Uptight 5, Jordan Crane
S. Song, Sarah Ferrick – Reread in preparation for Sec
The Blonde Woman, Aidan Koch – I had put off reading this in print because I had such a clear, distinct memory of my experience reading it online. It was different to revisit it after a few years. Different in a good way. I like this comic a lot.
Ganges 1-5, Kevin Huizenga – I reread the whole series because I was surprised to find I liked but didn’t love #5. It was really nice to see the deep and multi-layered resonances throughout the work, but even after the reread and some consideration 5 still hasn’t clicked for me in the way the others do. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, and I’m certainly thinking about it a lot. So maybe my opinion will change. I wonder to what extent I’m influenced by the fact that 5 isn’t in that Ignatz format, whether my comics lizard brain accords extra merit just because of that lovely thick cover stock. Similarly, I normally love little strips and extras like those in the back of 5, but 1-4 are such impeccable, hermetically sealed objects that the extras didn’t feel right here. Hm.
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I was talking yesterday to a friend who said he missed seeing my work online as often. I guess I have been more radio silent than usual. It’s hard to tell. We also talked about how the Internet – maybe just the “comics Internet” – feels very different than it did a few years ago. Maybe it’s just that I feel weird about Tumblr. Maybe it’s stupid to use my fickle views about a website as a barometer for much of anything. Are we all going to start using Instagram, where images are even further prioritized/venerated over text?
Here are some recent projects I haven’t mentioned here: I wrote a short piece about 73 Notes on Comics for du9. I recently started an Instagram (ha). I’m in the anthology Over the Line: An Introduction to Poetry Comics with a piece where I tried to appropriate from my own work. I’m not sure how well it worked, and I wish I had used different colors. Maybe I will put it on the Internet so that you can Consume that Content.
I’m doing a project this year that I’m not allowing myself to talk about online at all. I guess I just broke that rule. Self-sabotage or clear-headed opting out of self-promotion as an aspect of my practice? Practice is a funny word. I wonder what exactly it means for me.
I’m trying to be pragmatic and purposeful about my work. I’m trying to make good decisions and stick with them and keep moving forward.