The Last Year (New Work?!) + Appearances
Indie Comics Fests abound!
The transition to Fall happens in the blink of an eye up here in Vermont. Despite a drop to 57 degrees, I met my favorite walking trail in shorts and a tank top… but I opted for hot coffee over iced as a pathetic shield from the occasional chilly gusts. I must hold onto summer a bit longer; it’s so brief. The tighter I squeeze, the quicker it slips through my fingers.
The fact that we’re nearing mid-September is throwing me for a loop. It was only last August that I turned in the final files to A for Effort and would have to patiently wait until its release in March 2024 to hold it in my hands. I suppose I could’ve rifled through the archival box of all the originals, clicked through my digitally colored files, scrolled the lettered InDesign file, or scanned over the final proof yet again, but my moment was up. You reach a time in the making of a book where it’s the point of no return. My time in Jay’s world was complete and the next time I saw it, it would be to help shepherd it into the hands of readers.
With such a huge task off my plate, another realization happened: I haven’t stopped working for six years straight! On book projects, that is, all while balancing my amazing part-time job at CCS (for whose patience and flexibility I’m eternally grateful). From grad school, to starting at CCS, to selling my first book and then the next two. Whoa. What day is it? What year? What is this vague memory of “free time” exactly? What if my brain rusts over and turns to dust?
It’s been weird for me, in all honestly. Not having a big task that I chip away at day by day is not my preferred state of being. But I knew that if I didn’t recoup and take a breather that I would most definitely regret it. And so began this odd period of September 2023-August 2024.
In grad school every assignment was essentially a short story. It forced me out of my comfort zone but also made me covet the long-form thesis I planned to create. I figured once I started making longer work, I’d say “peace out” to the shorter stuff, that never quite worked how I wanted it to, and never look back. But here we are at the end of this weird yearlong period… and I’ve made three short mini-comics.
I swear to took a break. Many breaks!!
Unlike Work work, these felt more like creative experimentation. Comics taken from notes and writing done on my phone and various google docs from the last six years. Former Event, a covid lockdown diary reflection, done in pencil and blue watercolor; Tunnel to Dreamland, a diary comic ruminating on having tunnel vision in my professional and personal life and interpreted as a fantasy adventure, done in sepia ink and watercolor and in a landscape format; and Everyday Friend, another memoir piece about the similarities and differences between a best friend and an everyday friend, also in sepia and watercolor, but portrait-oriented.
I just posted Tunnel to Dreamland on my instagram and TikTok in its entirety to read. You may have to pinch and zoom. I will also have some print copies of all these minis along with my graphic novels at a smattering of East Coast comics fests, which you can see on the graphic below:
I’m really pleased with how all three turned out. The fact that I finished them in this weird period. And that I didn’t immediately jump into another book project, despite knowing that those long-form creative muscles can be hard to get back in shape when they aren’t exercised.
But I suppose I thought the same thing about short-form.
Maybe this year I’ll surprise myself again. —Jarad
