Comics! Reading! COMICS READING?!

I'm organizing something new for my local comics scene and I'm excited to tell y'all about it!

Apr 09, 2025

Howdy friends!

In my last newsletter, I mentioned working on something exciting and promised to share it with y’all soon. Well, here it is. Y’all are the very first to hear about…

(drumroll please)

Inky Eyes: A Quarterly Comics Mixer! It’ll be part comic reading series and part drink and draw, hosted by local weirdo bookstore Alienated Majesty (the best place to get indie comics in Austin) and open to local (and visiting1!) cartoonists of all experience levels who make work in the indie/diy space.

This event is inspired by all the cool comic readings I’ve attended or admired from afar, especially seeing reoccurring events like Bug Milk in Toronto, or Frog Farm in Brooklyn that look so fun (special shoutout to Liz Yerby, seeing them post about their Portland-based Comics Club gave me the idea). I’ve only just recently dipped my own actual toe into comic reading, when I read at 3 different events last fall to celebrate the release of my book The Skin You’re In, but after having so much fun being a reader, and being an audience member at non-comics readings at Alienated Majesty, I knew I had to try to make something cool happen in the space.

Our first mixer will be on May 7th. If you happen to be in Austin that day, please come out! There will also be a sign up sheet for folks interested in reading at a future one.

I’ve been chewing on this idea for a while, but I’ve been feeling the need to make more community spaces quite keenly post-election— I love comic shows, but since a huge part of them is selling your work, it’s hard to really get to connect and celebrate each other (thank gob for after parties and getting brekkie with fellow exhibitors). I want to meet more people excited about making things, and I want to really help make space for people who are just starting out in comics, or are feeling burnt out or hesitant to share their work. I need to laugh and get hyped and inspired and remember why I love this medium so much… it might sound corny or cliché but I think I also need an extra reminder about the best qualities of humanity— creativity and community. And I don’t think I’m alone in that.

I’m equal parts excited and nervous since this is my first time putting something like this together. But I’ve done a reading once in the space, and everyone at Alienated was so helpful, and I’ve a good mix of close friends and friendly acquaintances as readers for this first one— I’m hopeful it’ll be so fun and special and something we can make happen again and again. Wish us luck!!!

Other News:

I’ll be at TCAF this June. So excited to visit Toronto again and see lots of comics friends.

We recently celebrated my dog Theodore turning (we think) 15 by having a quinceañera-themed picnic in the park. It was so cute and lovely and he got so many snacks. Shoutout to my friends who were like “hell yeah we’ll turn up for your dog quince!”

Another Austin-specific event— this weekend is the Austin Texas Book Trail. I’m really excited to visit lots of local bookstores (even though my bookshelves are already filled to the brim and my TBR is scary haha). I’m friends with the organizers, and I did the poster art for it last year. This year’s art was done by one of my favorite local creators, Strawberry Milkweed. If you haven’t checked them out yet, they’re a printmaker who makes these beautiful hand printed shirts.

I’ve officially drawn HALF the book I’m currently working on. It’s a middle grade graphic novel written by Insha Fitzpatrick called The Girl Who Loves Monsters. It’s giving Bailey School Kids but COOL!

I’m typing these very words while sitting outside at a coffee shop and I just met a 3-legged poodle named Fozzie and I got to pet him and am feeling very blessed. Shoutout FOZZIE!