Don't look back, but do

Is it time for an annual reflection? I suppose it is.

For a while, I didn't consider myself an autobiographical cartoonist. I used personal comics to reflect on things in my life, ranging from highly emotional and complicated to simplistic and beautiful in the mundane.

As someone who does reflect a lot, I've often wondered if there is a problem with looking back all the time. Whenever I try something, I immediately evaluate how the experience went, how it made me feel, etc.

The short answer I have is: no, I don't think it's bad to look back. As long as I'm learning and moving forward, that is.

I spent a lot of 2023 being introspective. This year, I'm focusing more on fictional work (specifically, a Sid & the Sickos sequel book), and my autobio work isn't necessarily coming out the same way it did last year. This is also in part related to being more present and engaging with myself as a community member.

What the past two years have taught me is that it's okay to have these ebbs and flows of work styles of being more isolated over sociable, so long as a perspective is maintained along the way.

Having autobiographical work has been this beautiful record of my life and also my technical growth as an artist and cartoonist. And just because I spend one year doing less autobio work, doesn't mean I'm not reflecting or growing.

Anyway, I'm excited to see where the process takes me this year. We all have a bit of imposter syndrome, but I'm feeling pretty content with the direction my art is going in, even if I don't always feel like a real ass cartoonist, whatever the fuck that means.

2024 Schedule

Here's what's on deck for 2024. It may, of course, change. My partner and I will be traveling to a few places well (not on comics business, but I will be exploring the local scene for sure)

• March 29 - An Evening in the Gutter (Athens, GA)

• March 30 - FLUKE (Athens, GA)

• June 15-16 - Tentative: A2CAF (Ann Arbor, MI)

• September - Hocking Hills Cartoonist Retreat & CXC

• October - Zinecinnati (Cincinnati, OH)

I'm also hosting a Monthly Comics Club at Indie Northern Kentucky! If you live in the Cincy/NKY area, definitely check it out and support this cool small zine shop.

And lastly, here's what I've been listening to on repeat. Find 'em on Bandcamp or wherever you listen to music:

• Letter to Self by SPRINTS

• Three Bells by Ty Segall

• Ad Nauseam by Telemarket

• The Joy of Sects by Chemtrails

• Homework by Daft Punk

  Notable mentions to the new IDLES album, TANGK, and the upcoming new Pissed Jeans & Metz albums (TBR)