💚 Say hello to Crucial Comix

I'm so proud of what we've built!

I turned 38 a few weeks ago. 

On a hike through the woods to a waterfall, a friend asked, “How does that feel?” 

“Oh it’s okay, I just have so many things I want to do before I turn 40.” 

“Like what?” 

I thought about it for a minute as we walked. Then I stopped and turned to them. 

“Actually,” I said, “I’m already doing everything I want to be doing. I just want to be able to keep doing more of it.” 

It’s rare to feel like you’re right where you want to be, doing what you want to be doing. So rare! It’s big to realize that I’m making the work I want to make in the world, surrounded by people I love. I just hope I can keep living this life without going broke. 

I’ve been pretty quiet online this summer because I’ve been working behind the scenes on a major project: a nonfiction comics press called Crucial Comix. This week, Crucial launches! My collaborator Audra McNamee and I built a whole beautiful website to be the home for essential nonfiction comics online. Check it out. Admire the swoopy lines and bright colors! See if you can find the photo of my dog Twyla hidden somewhere on the site. 👀

The idea for Crucial came out of The Nib closing down last year. Suddenly there was nowhere to reliably publish nonfiction comics online. I was seeing a lot of great artists put up comics for free on their Instagrams and newsletters, and also picking up amazing nonfiction zines at various festivals, but I didn’t see anyone gathering all these comics together. Being an artist can be really stressful because each person has to run their own business. Not only are you an illustrator, but you better understand how to be your own Chief Financial Officer, Shipping Manager, and Marketing Director or you’re liable to go under. I thought that we should work in a different way. I want a hub where artists can share their comics together and build a community based around skill-sharing and mutual support. So that’s what we’re making. Crucial Comix pays artists for their nonfiction comics and we’re funding it all by running classes taught by artists.

Here’s a little introduction Audra and I wrote about Crucial, which was published this month in Behind the Zines:

I’m really proud of what we’ve made! This is the direction I want to go in with my work: not just selling my own comics, but using my time and skills to help lots of people create work that’s important to them. I’ve always felt like supporting other peoples’ work is just as important as creating my own. That’s actually a pretty radical idea, in this economy. 

The idea of centering this project around classes stems from my own experiences teaching comics classes online since 2020. I thought teaching on Zoom would be kind of an awkward bummer, but instead the memoir and queer comics classes I’ve run have felt profound and beautiful. I’ve definitely cried during every session I taught, because it feels like magic to see what deep and brilliant art people create when you give them the space, attention, and care. When each class ended, it felt like a whole new group of friends just disappeared. So I wanted to find a way to continue the community that’s built during a class… but also, I didn’t want to rely on an institution to do this. I’m feeling pretty cynical about teaching in colleges these days. I want everyone to be able to have the ability to make art—without having to pay $20,000 a year to do it. The classes at Crucial are a vision of a different approach: every class is sliding scale, every class has spots set aside for people who can’t afford even the lowest rate, and every class has profit-sharing with the teachers so they’re paid a fair wage. 

Some ways to get involved: 

• Come to our Portland launch party! If you happen to live in Portland, we’re hosting a drink and draw next Wednesday, September 25th, 6-8pm, outside the “world’s best comics shop” Books With Pictures.

• If you don’t live in Portland but still want to celebrate, give me your address and I’ll send you some free stickers! 

• Check out the amazing roster of Fall classes Crucial is offering on everything from facing your fears of drawing to creating your own recipe zine. Everyone who takes a class or workshop has the opportunity to be added to our Discord, so you can keep talking with other people who make comics and zines. 

Thanks for supporting my work over the years and making it possible for me to dream big. What I’m doing feels really good—let’s see where it goes.