Eat That Fish, etc.

Productive news!: I finally got all of my otter comics (official comic title: Eat That Fish) situated on their own little site. They've been retro-dated and tagged with key-words for ease. It's pretty fun to look at them in order and all in one place.
If you want to read them, go here: http://eatthatfish.tumblr.com/.
Might want to bookmark it (I recommend Google Reader/your RSS feed of choice, or tumblr, as is handy), as I probably won't tell you guys on here every time it updates, and I'm not yet coordinated enough to say something insane like "updates every T/Th!". That is too much to expect from me. I mean, I don't even get around to putting on grown-up clothes every day. Sometimes I just eat sauerkraut for meals. This is not what a coordinated adult looks like.

Death, from my comic

Writing comics has become my source of therapy. It's free, if you don't include paper and pen costs. Even then: does not cost me $100 an hour, and you don't need insurance. Plus, no awkward shrink break-ups if you don't vibe with them.

So earlier this week, I had this idea to personify my obsession with/sometimes fear of death as a grim reaper who only says--in best Ryan-Gosling-meme* fashion--"Hey Girl". The "hey girl" bit was accidental, actually. I drew it as a hilarious joke for myself, and then it was immediately apparent that this was going to be Death's shtick. It's funny (to me, at least) and makes an infinite, scary, existential concept into a physical entity I can engage with sanely. As a reader, these personifications in stories have often been entertaining and, at their best, enlightening, but it suddenly makes sense to me why years and years of writers (comics, prose, poetry, etc) have embodied ideas in this way: for the author, it's a means of taming monsters. The reader gets the benefit of some introspection, humor, etc, but the author gains ground on their demons. For one wonderful minute, Death is no longer a terrifying creature of fate and inevitability; he is reduced to an innocent caricature.

I hope to continue embracing things that freak me out (how I feel about my body/appearance, my writing insecurities, worries about the future, whatever else my brain comes up with to cause anxiety attacks) and drawing them--with cute otters. Goofy webcomics will save me until I feel like I can write prose again (and, Lord, may that be soon).

Lent starts today. Good ol' Ash Wednesday. Though my relationship with Catholicism is complicated at best, I think Ash Wednesday is particularly beautiful and haunting. I half-consider finding a mass to attend every year, but I never do. Sometimes I really do miss it. That's why people like religion so much, right? Community, ritual, tradition, and the pleasure of shared belief. It's that last one that's the real kicker. Once you don't share that anymore, it's alienating instead of inviting.

DEEP.

Ok, I'm going to go fix up my CV now. Very exciting.

*for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, here are some examples:

 Librarian Hey Girl

                       

 Ex Boyfriend Ryan Gosling

Feminist Ryan Gosling

Etcetera. I think you get why this is so great. I'm also a big fan of the crafting version, Handmade Ryan Gosling.