Diary comics
from old, old diaries
I made a comic for The Emancipator about the early funny years, that came out last week. Here are the first six panels - You can read the whole thing here.
This is the first time I’ve drawn a comic about this particular moment. There was an annual comedy debate in law school called the Guile Debates — anyone could enter and you had to argue for or against a random topic. I thought I was funny and I was tired of people thinking I was only capable of cute cartoons, so I signed up, made horrible crude dick jokes (within a cogent argument!), and succeeded to the finals. It was weirdly one of the most formative experiences of my life.
I’m grateful to editor Frankie Huang at The Emancipator for asking me to contribute to their theme of the month (“femininity and humour”), which got me thinking about finally putting this story to paper. As I was finishing it (colouring it on the plane trip home from NY), I once again was overwhelmed with the thought that “comics have saved my life!!!!” Or that I somehow managed to save my own life, through comics. :’)
In the process of writing the graphic memoir, I’ve been mining for other important memories by reading my old diaries (from like 2008-2012). It’s been ENLIGHTENING.
I was such a different person back then that it just feels like reading someone else’s life. Some of them are depressing…
but i’ve also been really pleasantly surprised at how wry and funny a lot of the entries are. They’re like, sad and horny dispatches from a complicated time where I was actively becoming the person I am now, so reading them feels like i’m talking to an old friend (until they get too sad and I have to stop). And reading them has also made me want to illustrate them into scenes, because ALL THAT I USED TO DO in those days was draw sad and horny comics on Tumblr about my sordid romances (to distract from the crush of law school), and now I can try doing it again, without all the subterfuge!
These old diary comics feel a little too intense to put into public but HEY, that’s why the paid tier exists ;) Part of the work of cartooning is that you eventually just have to draw everything out, and you discover things you didn’t know about what you want to say in the process. So I don’t know which of these, if any, will make it into the book, but it would appear that these are the places I’ve got to go in the process.
Thanks for reading! <3