Thanks to everyone who has ordered Yearly 2020 in the past several weeks. I’m looking forward to hearing what people think about it.
I spent several days in early August having conversations on Instagram Live with three of my favorite cartoonists: Madeleine Jubilee Saito, Kimball Anderson, and Warren Craghead. You can’t watch them any more, because I decided not to keep them online permanently, but if you’re reading this maybe you watched them at the time.
I really enjoyed doing these and found them a great way to get a charge of inspiration and excitement for making comics. I’m thinking about how to host more “in conversation” chats with cartoonists in the future.
However, I want to talk in particular about something I said during my conversation with Warren Craghead. Warren suggested we orient our chat about two topics: first, how we do the work — process, materials, etc. — and second, how we get the work done — or, how to fit in creative work as part of a broader life, especially when that creative work isn’t paying the bills. I was happy to talk about these topics because I think about them all the time and because I’ve benefitted when other cartoonists have talked about them.
I told Warren that I spent two hours on comics each evening, and that I re-evaluate my schedule if I’m unable to make that time consistently. I’d like that to be true, but on reflection it isn’t. We’re now roughly six months into this strange disruption to our lives and our routines, with no end in sight. It’s been weeks since I’ve kept a regular schedule, and it’s probably best to accept that I won’t be able to do so any time soon. So there are days where I’m able to draw for two hours, or more, but there are also days when I’m not able to draw at all.
The only way out is through, I suppose. Maybe I can find a way to carve some new approaches to making art, and making time for making art, out of all this mess.
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Late Bloomer, Carol Tyler
Helter Skelter, Kyoko Okazaki
Laid Waste, Julia Gfrörer