2024—what a year it’s been. Seems like we say that every year, lately... It’s not all been poop fans and poopsicles, though!
This year-end post has a lot in it, so let me just say at the top:
It has been such a great experience this year making comics and art and writing for you all, not least of which is because of how you and people in person have shared your reactions on how my work has connected for you. Thank you for joining me.
I hope you’re getting some time off at the end of the year to reflect, refract, and recover.1
I’ve got lots for you in this final issue of the year:
We Are 100!
Making Of: A Sweet Snake Design for New Year Greeting Cards
Print Your Own Copy of My Greeting Card!
Looking Back at 2024 and Ahead to 2025
What I’m Watching
What I’m Playing
What I’m Listening To
If you’re reading this in email, the post is going to get cut off, but you can see the whole thing on the website or app.2
And in spite of all the craziness around us, I hope you have a great 2025!
We Are 100!
And by “we are 100”, I mean we’ve passed the 100 subscriber milestone!
Thank you all for being here!
I made this illustration of Zoe to celebrate the milestone. With this one-off illustration, I took the opportunity to play with some different brushes and a background texture in Clip Studio Paint. Loving the results.
Hope you enjoy it, too!
Here’s the congratulatory message from Substack:
Let’s go!
Making Of: A Sweet Snake Design for New Year Greeting Cards
I made this sweet snake design and block-printed cards to send to friends and family.
2025 is the year of the snake in the Chinese zodiac. I was wary of doing a snake design at first, since people tend to have negative associations with snakes. But then the idea for the design hit me, and after sketching it out, I thought it looked awesome and decided to go for it.
I made an effort to make the snake look friendly. ;)
The blue is actually turquoise in person, but the lights in my living room are very warm toned, so the white balance makes the design look like a darker blue in these photos.
Many thanks to my neighbor for offering to lend me her block printing tools and even gave me a spare block to carve! If she hadn’t done that, these cards wouldn’t have happened, and I really enjoyed creating these.
Here are the progress pics:
Print Your Own Copy of My Greeting Card!
Are you thinking of someone who would enjoy receiving a card with my snake design?
Well, here’s a free PDF with the design oriented so you can easily print off a copy of the card on letter-sized paper!
All you have to do is fold the paper in half twice after printing and you’ll have a card.
Looking Back at 2024 and Ahead to 2025
1. Took a Sabbatical
2024 was a pivotal year for me—as in, I pivoted the balance of my life toward different priorities. I left my old job and took an eight month sabbatical to dive into making and publishing a comic, learning about being an independent author, and also experience living life off the clock, away from the grind.
Time extremely well spent.
I wrote up a retrospective at the end of those eight months, as I was heading back to a regular day job. You can read it here:
Reflections At The End Of A Successful Sabbatical
A bit of a longer post today with a lot to reflect on, feel grateful for, and celebrate from this year so far. I know how lucky I am to have had the resources and ability to step away from the need to keep earning money and explore fresh avenues of being and living.
I haven’t yet gotten around to writing up why I’m not “going for it” full-time, but I still intend to! With the day job, personal time is at a premium, so I’ve been prioritizing the comics creating.
2. Started This Website
Back in January, at the start of my sabbatical, I launched this website/blog/newsletter as a way to share my comics, art, and writing, and to track what I got up to on sabbatical.
I enjoy all of it, the creative projects and the short essay writing. And I find the other creative and journalistic work on Substack to be interesting to read, too.
And as noted above, eleven months after starting it, there are now 100 people in Zeno’s Arrow’s community!
So the platform is working out so far.
3. Created Comics
This spring, I wrote and illustrated Phased. I enjoyed creating it and figuring my way through the business side of independent authoring.
It’s been gratifying to hear from readers how Phased has connected for them. Several people have said to me a variation of “I feel phased.”
Phased was even picked up by the UK’s National Art Library for their comics collection!
And in the latter half of this year, I wrote and started to illustrate and serialize online Blood of My Blood. I’m having fun telling the story of Blood, and I’ve been able to improve on my craft, sharpening my linework in particular.
4. Tabled at Short Run
I also tabled at a festival for the first time when I got to be an exhibitor at the fantastic Short Run Comix Festival. This was an energizing experience, getting to meet so many people interested in comics and graphic storytelling, both readers and authors.
I wrote up a reflection on that, too, which you can read here:
Newb Successfully Tables At A Festival For The First Time
What a great experience I had yesterday, tabling for the first time at a comics festival (or at any event)!
5. What’s Coming in 2025?
First, I’m going to finish illustrating Blood of My Blood next spring, and then do a print run of it.
I’ll try and get into a couple comic/zine/art book festivals as an exhibitor. If I do, you’ll hear about it here, and I’ll hope to see you there.
And regardless of whether I get to table some more, I have my next couple comics projects in mind. Won’t say anything yet, but I’m looking forward to them. Just gotta finish the project that’s in front of me first. :)
6. Intention for 2025
And finally, an intention for 2025.3
I’d like to build more connection to my local arts community, particularly in the overlapping comics/zine/art book/printing spheres. I’m going to make an effort to attend a local biweekly Sketch Team gathering regularly, besides the occasional artist talks that come up.
On Substack, I want to try to connect with other comics creators more. I find it difficult, though, since you have to devote more time checking and engaging on social media, basically. It’s not something I particularly enjoy, and that fundamentally important part of how to build a presence on online platforms is a block for me. And when I do try to comment and engage with others’ posts, it feels like things just go into a void, whereas with in-person gatherings, the interactions are more organic (you’re not scanning a feed for things you want to respond to) and I know that every time you interact with someone, you gradually build toward a threshold where you become familiar enough to each other to become acquaintances and friends.
But I’ll try!
What I’m Watching
Interior Chinatown
Has anyone else watched Interior Chinatown?
How awesome was it when commercials came up during the Ad Man episode?
No, seriously, I thought it was a great juxtaposition, even if (sort-of?) unintentional.
Anyway, I just finished the show and it’s fantastic. Well, first it’s just well crafted and enjoyable to watch. But what makes it stand out is a great commentary on and deconstruction of the roles we’re allowed to play and the stories that we’re told.
It’s on Hulu, but if you’re like me and don’t subscribe to any TV services, then you can get a month’s free trial.
What I’m Playing
Chants of Sennaar
I used to be more into gaming when I was a kid. These days, they don’t hold my attention like they used to, as I’ve got a lot more competing interests that tend to take precedence.
But the medium has and continues to evolve and grow in its expressive power, and people can do really interesting things with “games”.
So I still keep an eye out for games that seem to be doing something different, and critically, also won’t require a ton of time to get through.
I recently played through Chants of Sennaar, and would totally recommend it if you’re into puzzle games and beautiful storytelling.
The puzzles in Chants aren’t ever that difficult, but they’re novel and well designed. The visuals have a sharp aesthetic. And the story of the game—it’s set in an interpretation of the Tower of Babel—is poignant in our time of division.
What I’m Listening To
How Stores Are Spying On You
Holy crap! I didn’t realize just how far surveillance capitalism reaches.
I knew about cookies and how websites, Google, Meta, our devices, etc. are watching our every move. But did you know how much brick and mortar stores track and infer information about you when you visit?
A good episode from KUOW’s Booming podcast.
You made it to the bottom of this long post!
Here’s the pot of gold.💰
Thanks for reading, and subscribing, and sharing your thoughts and reactions.
Best wishes for and see you in the new year!
I added “refract” and not just “reflect” since with reflection, light bounces off a surface, but with refraction, light goes through something and is shifted in the process. It feels like it connotes deeper processing.
After-the-fact footnote: turns out the whole post shows up in email? I guess Substack’s estimation is off. Oh well, good that it didn’t cut off.
I actually don’t really don’t set new year resolutions or approach these things on a calendar year basis. We can set intentions and goals and try to do better any time during the year. I already started doing these toward the end of this year, but milestones like the turning of the year are handy as points when we remember to take a step back and reflect on how things are going and where we want to go.
My sisters said that your drawing is so good , your expression of the story is excellent !
Love it