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Soft Things: Comics about science, research, & being human
Soft Things: Comics about science, research, & being human
Substacks about comics! Part 2

Substacks about comics! Part 2

A round-up of indie comics-related newsletters, to the best of our knowledge

Cara Gormally's avatar
Nora Hickey's avatar
Amaris Ketcham's avatar
Cara Gormally
,
Nora Hickey
, and
Amaris Ketcham
Mar 28, 2024
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Soft Things: Comics about science, research, & being human
Soft Things: Comics about science, research, & being human
Substacks about comics! Part 2
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Cross-post from Soft Things: Comics about science, research, & being human
We've teamed up with Cara Gormally to create this annotated bibliography: a list of substacks about comics! It’s not comprehensive, but we hope you will find some new favorites. And let us know if you have a recommendation that we missed and did not include! - -
Amaris Ketcham

As promised, here’s Part 2 of the compendium of indie comics-related Substack newsletters. If you missed it, here’s Part 1—which is a list of indie-comics newsletters.

I (Cara) classified comics-related substacks into 5 categories:

  • comics substacks, where images > words (check out part 1 for those!)

  • substacks that function like comics anthologies

  • substacks about making comics

  • substacks about comics (reviews, interviews, etc.)

  • and substacks that aren’t strictly comics—by cartoonists

Substacks that function like comics anthologies

  • The Gutter
    is a constantly revolving carousel of comics from a wide variety of creators. Reading it helps me appreciate the vastness of the comics universe.

Substacks about making comics

  • From the amazing Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW) community comes the helpful How to make a graphic novel. Check it out if you too want to make some comics. Comics are for everyone!

  • K. Woodman-Maynard
    makes Creating Comics which is a newsletter about creativity and productivity in making comics. Her videos about being in the process are thought-provoking and useful for sustaining an art practice.

  • Kelcey Ervick
    creates The Habit of Art which is a warm and delightful newsletter about what it sounds—the practice of making art. Read Kelcey’s interview with Autobiographix here.

  • Maple Lam
    talks about the comics-making process and I enjoy how she analyzes comics “ingredients” on Learning Comics & Graphic Novels.

  • And, if you’d like a very friendly beginning way to draw,

    Wendy MacNaughton
    offers Draw Together—a low stakes way to start a drawing practice.

  • Josh Lieb
    describes comics he hopes other people will make at Cartoons I can't draw which I think is hilarious.

  • Robert James Russell
    offers drawing lessons and prompts and thoughtful musings about making comics, as well as reviews of comics he’s reading on
    How to Draw ____. (w/ RJR)

  • Meaghan McIsaac
    writes
    Authorstrator
    , musings on the drawing/writing process and being in the creative process.

From an interview with Kelcey Ervick at Autobiographix.

Substacks about comics (meta!)

  • Amaris Ketcham
    &
    Nora Hickey
    are responsible for Autobiographix. Nora and Amaris share reviews of comics and interviews with cartoonists.

  • Sequential Soup
    was recently launched by Molly Kate Young. She reviews comics on the substack. I look forward to seeing how their substack unfolds.

  • On Serio Comics,

    David Cowen
    reviews noteworthy pieces of graphic literature.

  • Colleen Doran
    writes
    Colleen Doran's Funny Business
    about the creative process and the comics industry.

From an interview with S. Mirk at Autobiographix.

Substacks that are more than comics—by cartoonists

  • Sophie Lucido Johnson
    writes You are doing a good enough job, which always contains wise calming words that are soft things.

  • Teresa Wong
    writes Closet Dispatch, which is about what we wear—fashion in the least pretentious, most approachable way, with lovely illustrations of key wardrobe pieces. It’s fashion for us regular people! Read Teresa’s interview with Autobiographix here.

  • S.MIRK
    writes Mirk Work (I can’t with the cuteness of that rhyme), which is about a great mix of comics, stuff they love, and what they’re reading—and stuff you might care about, too. Read Mirk’s interview with Autobiographix here.

  • Zoe Si
    writes and draws Zoe Sees which is a collection of words and images. Newsletters include travelogues and relateable comic ramblings about the creative process.

  • ashlyn
    tells stories with words and pictures at For the fun of it. There are some thoughtful posts about art practice.

  • Sheri Roloff
    ’s Art Oasis is about the process. I like her poetry-ish comics. They remind me to breathe.

  • Cara Bean
    recently launched Cara Bean Comics, which shares updates about her comics, including her new book.

  • William ChendrawsZeno's Arrowwhere he is serializing a graphic novel, and posts art and musings.

  • Gillian & Li'l Bean
    write about being human and joy and healing on
    Spark in the Dark
    .

  • Anne Belov
    creates
    Finding my Inner Panda
    —comics that feature pandas and some chat about political satire.

  • Khalid Birdsong
    creates
    A New Creative Life
    which features comics—I’m a fan of the mindfulness superhero with meditation cat—and comics-making wisdom.

From an interview with Teresa Wong at Autobiographix. Click here to read it!


If I’ve missed someone—let us know! We’re happy to add more. And, If you have a favorite post from one of the newsletters mentioned above, please share it in the comments!

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Next week, I (Cara) will be sharing comics pondering how to balance life and a book contract. If you’re new here you might wonder why I’m curious about shame, why this newsletter is called Soft Things, and who the heck I am, anyway. For more comics and creative process-processing, check out Instagram: @cara_gormally

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Soft Things: Comics about science, research, & being human
Soft Things: Comics about science, research, & being human
Substacks about comics! Part 2
39
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A guest post by
Nora Hickey
Nora has previously worked at comic publishers Devil’s Due Publishing and Drawn and Quarterly. Her writing appear in Guernica, DIAGRAM, Bennington Review and elsewhere. She teaches at Colorado State University and Aims Community College.
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A guest post by
Amaris Ketcham
Amaris writes about comics for Autobiographix. She is the author of Unfiltered: A Cancer Year Diary, a collection of daily comics about caregiving and kidney cancer. She is an artist-in-medicine for the University of New Mexico.
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