Hey everyone,
Here’s what I have for you today:
Let’s get to it!
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8/3 Comics Convo Event Is Happening!
It’s happening! We’re confirmed. Here are the details:
Comics Convo
WHEN:
August 3, 2025
1:00pm
WHERE:
Mam’s Books
608 Maynard Ave S
Seattle, WA 98104
Calling all comics enthusiasts!
Come join a Comics Convo @mamsbookstore on 8/3 starting at 1pm with local indie comics authors William Chen and Bread Lee.
Listen in on a casual conversation and have a chance to ask your own comics questions!
Bread and William will ask each other about the following before turning it over to audience Q&A:
📖What draws (you secretly love the pun) them to comics as a medium
📖Their inspirations
📖Their latest comic books
Poll: Death Haiku Comics Book Title
When I came up with my preliminary title for my death haiku comic anthology, “The BOOK of DEATH Haiku Comics”, I thought it was a funny tongue-in-cheek title that would convey that death doesn’t need to be so heavy a topic. This is in line with my hope that sharing Japanese perspectives on death might help broaden our perspectives.
But how’s it land with you?
While I’ve been doing these death haiku comics, I’ve worried that it may be uncomfortable and off-putting to people, namely since a few people have started unsubscribing since I started this series (it could well be unrelated; there seems to be a platform-wide slowdown happening, as well as a social media-wide slowdown—which I hope means everyone is shifting back to connecting offline instead. I certainly am part of that shift, myself).
On the other hand! A lot of people have expressed excitement and interest in the death haiku comics at the shows I’ve tabled at so far this summer. And while I lost a few subscribers after death haiku posts here on Substack, I gained a few subscribers after death haiku posts on BlueSky. *shrug*
The in-person exchanges are the most impactful on my feeling on this, so I’m inclined to stick with “The BOOK of DEATH Haiku Comics” (although, my tabletop flyer for the death haiku comics doesn’t have the book title). But I’m curious for your thoughts, so here’s a poll!
If you have a different brilliant idea for a title, feel free to drop it in the comments or message me.
A few festival attendees have told me that they like my vibe, looking across Phased, Blood of My Blood, and the death haiku comics (thank you!). Aaand I feel like “BOOK of DEATH” is more my vibe than “Farewell to Life”. Plus there’s a fart haiku in there. I appear to be talking myself into sticking with the first idea. But if everyone is like “no ‘BOOK of DEATH’ will scare people away”, I’d probably listen.
Sketchbook Share
Last weekend I got to attend a great workshop at Sketcher Fest 2025 in Edmonds, WA. We had perfect weather this year for outdoor sketching: a sunny and warm day that was just the right temperature for an extended time in the sun and little wind to blow your pages around.
Joey Mason, a professional animator in his day job, came to give a workshop on using animation tricks to bend the rules on perspective. I tapped his mind for thoughts on how to break out of my predilection to stick with literal interpretations of the scenes I sketch. And after a little chatting, I came away with this takeaway:
You can draw “caricatures” of buildings and inanimate objects.
Or alternatively:
Let the buildings be characters.
With that in mind, this lamppost felt to me like Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast, so I gave him a proud pose to expound to passersby.
I’m not sure this belongs in my Blue Period collection, though...
