Confusing - 20.01.25

17 minutes (plus one minute to finish writing my sentence, I will not apologise!). This concept made sense at the time but now I think I’ve probably shortchanged both concepts by combining them.

Drogheda Zine Fair - 19.01.25

16 minutes? Every post is on a one-day delay at the moment, so this is about heading to Drogheda for the amazing Zine Fair on Saturday. What a lovely event with a great vibe. Can’t wait to go again (especially now I know the trick to escaping the car park).

My scans are gonna be a bit janky the next few days while I’m away, just a heads up…

Irish Goodbye - 17.01.25

15 minutes. Got home after midnight, a lovely day. The next few days I’m away, will try some alternate scanning methods…

Gestation - 15.01.25

14 minutes (+6 minutes, probably).

Park Loop - 14.01.25

13 minutes. I’m so embarassed about being afraid of dogs and I’ve mostly got over it, I love living beside the park now and seeing them all BUT there are 2 dogs there that have it in for me, this is the third and worst time with this wee guy. I was standing there literally frozen, panic rising, and his owner just ambling along, no rush, it gets to the point where he’s running into my legs before she arrives and leashes him, and I’m so freaked out and ashamed that I said “sorry”. Sorry your dog is so stressed out by me walking the other direction, 20 metres away. I just immediately go into this shame place where I think the behaviour is evidence that I’m a bad person, because dog people always say that dogs not liking you is a red flag. But most of them do like me, even if I don’t always know what to do with that. My dad instilled a fear of (big) dogs in me as a kid, which was then transferred to all dogs (and frankly, dog owners) when I was bitten in the park and the owner was unapologetic, just saying that the dog didn’t like 1. children and 2. running, so seeing a running child set him off. So I don’t have much faith in people’s ability to manage their perts.

Late posting this because I put off making it until I absolutely had to go to bed, so no time to scan last night.

Appearances - 13.01.25

12 minutes. I needed yesterday off but I’m annoyed that the minutes are out of sync with the days now, though I suppose they would have got off track at the end of the month anyway. Drawing this I was worried about misrepresenting other people, and now posting it I’m worried about being misunderstood myself! Autobio would wreck your head!

Borrowers - 11.01.25

11 minutes - well, more like 15 cause I couldn’t stop. I was planning to skip tonight, but I had to get down some thoughts about The Borrowers, and this still feels like it’s not enough. The staging was so good! The costuming - Mrs. Clock’s c*nty little shuttlecock hoop skirt! Pod’s matching map shirt and short set! Arriety wearing a TK lemonade label and some copy paper! Even if it hadn’t had a beautiful message about emigration, refugees and Travellers, it would have been amazing - but it did and I still kind of can’t believe it. I just went to see it because my mom and I used to read it when I was a child, but I’m so glad I did. (The dancing! The props! The pipes on these actors!!)

Succession - 10.01.25

10 minutes. Think I might need to expand beyond one page as the time increases. Or possibly I can use the time to try to draw better? I’m tired now, both because of poor sleep and because my eyes have been flame-grilled.

I think I like cooking so much because I decided after Junior Cert that I needed to learn some “life skills” before college and took up Home Economics outside of school, dropping Music. I do wish I had managed to do Music as well, but it’s one of the most distinct memories I have of being a caretaker for myself, making a choice that prioritised my long-term wellbeing over short-term enjoyment (which is pretty amazing considering I unofficially dubbed 6th year “the year of drinking” at the time - and then never named any more since they were all the year of drinking until I finished college and quit).

Mistake - 09.01.25

9 minutes. Wanted to skip tonight but battered on. That was the wrong choice, much like going for a run today after skating yesterday was the wrong choice. Rest is important! But I can’t skip tomorrow cause I’ll almost certainly be skipping Saturday, so I’ll see you tomorrow for 10 minutes.

Grace - 08.01.25

8 minutes. They’re not all winners, but I found my 0.1 pen.

Waxing Gibbous - 07.01.25

7 minutes. It was for Crumlin Children’s Hospital by the way.

One thing about me is, I have a pretty great sense of time (short-term). Like my body knows how long seven minutes is and draws with corresponding complexity. This sadly does not extend to e.g. important deadlines weeks or months away. Wish I could find the pen I was using before, a Unipin 0.1 - I’ve been doing some illustrations digitally recently for a secret project that I think are some of the best things I’ve ever done, and the Unipin gives a similar tiny monoline. I had big dreams of making the comics ever more detailed as time went on, but I’ve lost it so we’re back on the chisels (the chisel is also a Unipin, they’re good pens).

Song of the day: Full Moon by Brandy

Whose Soup? 06.01.25

6 minutes. This evening I attended the Food Not Bombs protest outside Dublin City Hall, against the DCC attempt to ban outdoor community food distribution. It’s been a long while since I was well enough to chance an event like this and it feels good to be back. It’s so easy to give in to cynicism (for me anyway) and it’s encouraging to be reminded about great work like this, and the past successes of similar actions. I did not look up a picture of Dublin Castle for the comic so you’ll just have to trust that it looked cool against the moon.

Also by “great hair”, I don’t mean like salon-ready or anything - it’s just that seeing people all standing/shouting/singing together at something like his reminds me how beautiful humans are, because I’m a cheeseball.

Vandalism - 05.01.25

5 minutes. From these comics you’d get the idea that all I’ve done with the new year is walk up and down the hill observing small moments and thinking about my childhood, but actually I’ve also: made dinosaurs out of Play-Doh; watched a 1974 film about dinosaurs*, and taken too many showers.

*it was The Land That Time Forgot, and it’s a great way to spend 87 minutes. We said “this German captain is a very complex character!” at least 8 times as he continually revealed new depths

Potential - 03.01.2025

I think 3 minutes will be the beginning of an uncomfortable period in this habit! You can see where I messed up this comic trying to fix the misplaced hand in the first panel after the 3 minutes were up. I don’t like posting this! But I will embrace the process until I am finally reunited with beautiful comics of 10 minutes and above…

White Deer - 01.01.2025

I’m trying out Sophie Yanow’s Gentle Comics Habit - drawing a comic daily, each day adding 1 minute to my comic-making time. I failed at doing this in under a minute, even though there is almost no drawing in it. I like a daily drawing habit, but the publishing is where I really struggle. So let’s give it a go, see if it can become a routine.

Today’s comic inspired by the fairy ballad Orfeo, especially the version by Anna and Elizabeth, and all the Green Knight/Wild Hunt adjacent folk and fairy tales that take place at this time of year. It’s easy to feel like it’s already too late to make things new by January 1st, but we’re still on the doorstep of the year! And whatever you chase, you’re bound to find yourself caught up in some other (mis)adventure on the way.

This sentiment also somewhat inspired by rewatching 10 Things I Hate About You and discovering that, while no one in the film comes out morally unspoiled, I think there is a certain dignity to seeking and desiring that justifies itself, above simply waiting in the wings “not hurting anyone” (except yourself). It’s good to do things, and try to do things, I suppose.

Relatedly, a few years ago for Christmas I shoddily transliterated a Green Knight-ish tale called Sir Gawain and the Carl of Carlisle into a live reading, starring a lo-res image of Channing Tatum and a lower-res image of the Green Giant from the sweetcorn cans. It will take only one request for me to re-record this and put it on the blog, because I crack myself up.