I started keeping a diary shortly before the pandemic began, and soon, wanting to improve my drawing skills and inspired by Lynda Barry, it morphed into a diary comic. When I took on the challenge of making a daily comic, I’d expected to draw about hiking, birdsong, and the mere mundane details of my life—a learning practice that would produce nothing interesting to share.
I just pre-ordered a copy! I love Lynda Barry and also keep a comic/writing substack, Time Out of Mind. I was diagnosed with a bad brain cancer three years ago and have since used writing and drawing especially as a kind of therapy (and lots of knitting!). xo
Thank you Betje! He is in remission, and now, a year after the last surgery, we are finally getting back to some of the things we love to do, such as hiking.
After toying with the idea for years, I finally started a diary comic because of seeing yours on Instagram... so thank you! I think how you describe the practice here is right on. It's a space where I'm communicating with myself about things I didn't know I was thinking out. It's a space where the mundane co-exists with the traumatic without my having to rationalize it with words. Little by little, my dairy comic revealed, for example, the chronicles of my diary comic created a loose and spontaneous narrative about my relationship and my mental health helped me see patterns. That visualization helps me grasp the concepts I've been learning through therapy but had struggled remembering or fully understanding. Just through the act of chronicling. So I can totally understand why the oncologist would recognize the impact on cancer patients of reading your book as graphic medicine. I can't wait to read it! (I pre-ordered it.)
Thank you Stephanie! I am totally flattered that I inspired you to start a diary comic and thrilled that you pre-ordered the book. I have so many thoughts about what keeping a diary like this is doing that I may have to write another post sometime, specifically thinking about the relationship between "you" and the drawn version of "yourself" (or, restated: my relationship with my comic avatar). There is something very different about drawing a diary than writing a diary....
They post really resonated with me because during the pandemic, and inspired by Lynda Barry, I started making my poetry (mostly haiku) comics that quickly turned into a diary, albeit much less narratively straightforward than most diary comics. In 2019, I had a cancerous tumor and part of my kidney removed. I’m excited to read your book!
I just pre-ordered a copy! I love Lynda Barry and also keep a comic/writing substack, Time Out of Mind. I was diagnosed with a bad brain cancer three years ago and have since used writing and drawing especially as a kind of therapy (and lots of knitting!). xo
Thank you for pre-ordering a copy! I will have to check out your substack! I am sorry to hear about your diagnosis.
Congrats, Amaris! I can't wait to see the book out in the wild.
Thank you and thank you for the wonderful blurb!
Congrats on the book. I hope your husband is OK now?
Thank you Betje! He is in remission, and now, a year after the last surgery, we are finally getting back to some of the things we love to do, such as hiking.
I'm glad to hear that.
After toying with the idea for years, I finally started a diary comic because of seeing yours on Instagram... so thank you! I think how you describe the practice here is right on. It's a space where I'm communicating with myself about things I didn't know I was thinking out. It's a space where the mundane co-exists with the traumatic without my having to rationalize it with words. Little by little, my dairy comic revealed, for example, the chronicles of my diary comic created a loose and spontaneous narrative about my relationship and my mental health helped me see patterns. That visualization helps me grasp the concepts I've been learning through therapy but had struggled remembering or fully understanding. Just through the act of chronicling. So I can totally understand why the oncologist would recognize the impact on cancer patients of reading your book as graphic medicine. I can't wait to read it! (I pre-ordered it.)
Thank you Stephanie! I am totally flattered that I inspired you to start a diary comic and thrilled that you pre-ordered the book. I have so many thoughts about what keeping a diary like this is doing that I may have to write another post sometime, specifically thinking about the relationship between "you" and the drawn version of "yourself" (or, restated: my relationship with my comic avatar). There is something very different about drawing a diary than writing a diary....
They post really resonated with me because during the pandemic, and inspired by Lynda Barry, I started making my poetry (mostly haiku) comics that quickly turned into a diary, albeit much less narratively straightforward than most diary comics. In 2019, I had a cancerous tumor and part of my kidney removed. I’m excited to read your book!
Wow, Jason, what a coincidence! I hope you have fully recovered and that you and your kidneys are doing well.