Total eclipse of the art

Happy fall!

The summer's been oppressively hot over here, and it's a relief to finally start getting cooler weather again. I am not immune to the charms of fall, and I will, in fact, be losing my mind at my first sighting of a tiny pumpkin.

But let's rewind a bit to summer again. Remember the total solar eclipse that passed through the US in 2024? If you had the same kind of luck I did, you and your companion(s) of choice (mother, in my case) drove six hours to the path of totality to catch an approximately two-second glimpse of the sun in partial eclipse before the entire sky clouded out for the rest of the day. Don't get me wrong, watching a real-time speedrun of day to dusk to day was its own unique experience, but I'd be kidding myself if I pretended I wasn't disappointed to not see the solar part of the solar eclipse.

So my mother and I immediately booked a trip to the next total eclipse, and that is how we ended up on a ship off the coast of Greenland in August. Of course, if we're going to go all the way to Greenland, we're going to spend some time exploring first.

When we woke up on the morning of the eclipse, it was... completely overcast. It looked less and less promising as the day went on. At some point I comforted myself in the knowledge that it would actually be a little bit hilarious if we were cursed by the eclipse gods.

Then, an hour before first contact, the navigation crew found a single patch of clear sky. We followed that patch like a dog follows a person who has cheese in their pocket. And that is how we finally got to watch the total solar eclipse.

I decided not to take photos and take in totality with just my eyes. But fear not: I still have photos to share. The upside of traveling with a group of eclipse enthusiasts is that at least one, if not ten of them, have this photographing-the-eclipse thing on lock.

Until I can put together the proper words to describe the experience of watching a total solar eclipse, the best I can do is say that it 100% lives up to the hype. Check out that prominence in the lower left! I didn't know the eclipse would be pink!

I didn't know how to work this next part in without it sounding like I made it up, so I'm making it a postscript. Throughout the eclipse, we had humpback whales breaching around the ship. Three, if not more, of them throwing themselves bodily out of the water shortly before and after totality. I like to think that they were checking in on each other when the sun started disappearing in the middle of the day.

I'll spend the next few years trying to pick my jaw off the floor.

AND NOW FOR AN ANTHOLOGY

I'm so excited to be one of the illustrators for Heavy Are the Years, a story collection by Bonedust Press and Wildstar Press!

I'm illustrating for E.M. Linden's beautiful and heartrending story, Flight Patterns of the Dead. I'm super excited about the concept sketches, so please support the Kickstarter so that I—and the other amazing illustrators on this project—can continue working on making this book as beautiful as possible. There's even a tier where you can get a Heavy Are the Years-themed chocolate bar to savor while contemplating the nature of time. The kickstarter ends on October 4, so there's only a week left to make this book a reality!

KNOWING WHEN TO CALL IT QUITS*

*for now, at least

I'd been hoping to announce the completion of "Ace of Hearts" with this newsletter and post the link and teasers to the finished comic in September, when the We Heart Webcomics Digital Comics Fair would launch. Well, I had to admit defeat.

Trying to make an entire 54-page comic in the midst of traveling, learning a new program, changing my workflow, and shifting deadlines on other projects was a tall order to begin with. And then there was the wrist pain that cropped up in the final month before the deadline. Said wrist pain is relatively minor, all things considered, but I take these things seriously. (And I was right to—turns out I sprained it.) I need that puppy in working order for the rest of my career.

All this to say, I decided to call it quits on getting "Ace of Hearts" done for the fair. I'll finish it in the next few months at a more comfortable pace. There's a couple of reasons why I'm writing this: (1) to let you know why I'm not participating in the fair, and (2) to let anyone reading this know that, while I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't make it work, it was the obvious and correct decision. I'm glad I pulled the plug.

I've seen artists push themselves far too hard for the sake of their careers and their craft. I was that person in my teens and twenties. Some people can get away with it when they're that age. They're lucky. Some people come out of that phase of their practice with serious physical issues—lasting neck, back, and/or wrist pain—not to mention an unhealthy conflation of their work and self-worth.

I plan to make art for the rest of my life, and if I want to do that, I have to be physically able to. I'm at the age when health issues are going to start cropping up even when I'm not actively abusing my body. I've never once thought it was worth it after staying up all week to finish a project. On the flip side, I've definitely regretted it after pushing my body past the point of exhaustion to finish a project. Did I get chronic lower back pain from when I fucked up my back as a teen by pulling all-nighters to finish drawing comics? Yes. Did I get five thousand million adoring fans and their five thousand million adoring dollars by pushing myself through pain and exhaustion? You bet your ass I didn't.

At the risk of sounding like everybody's parents: health and relationships come first. I took time out of my schedule so that my roommate and I could cook a hearty, delicious meal to bring over to my friends who'd just had to put their cat down. We spent an evening eating and talking. It was the most worthwhile thing I could've possibly done with my time. My comic did not get done. I don't regret a single moment of it. I saw the shape my life had taken and, for a moment, I felt whole.

I'll finish up "Ace of Hearts" in the next few months. In the meantime, take care. And don't forget to check out the all the wonderful comics debuting in the We Heart Webcomics Comic Fair!

A DOSE OF DELIGHT

This taxonomic tree of illustrated elephants from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, created by Uli Westphal as part of his master's thesis.

This 1987 illustration of a 3.5-inch floppy disk guillotining a 5.25-inch floppy disk from PC Magazine. What a time capsule—in both content and style!

This piece on reintroducing beavers to Britain as a solution to flooding.

You can now get a copy of Lu and Ren's Guide to Geozoology wherever books are sold! I recommend getting it from Bookshop.org or from your local independent bookstore. If you enjoyed it, tell a friend and/or leave a review! And if you haven't already, please watch the animated book trailer!

RESOURCES FOR OUR TIMES

It’s a highly uncertain time right now, not least for our unhoused and our migrant neighbors. I urge everyone to inform themselves of their rights and their neighbors’ rights, and to be aware of what to do if you see someone being detained. Stay safe, and keep each other safe.

Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid (DC-MD-VA area) - look into mutual aid groups in your own communities
SALUTE zines (covers many major metropolitan areas in the US)
ACLU’s Know Your Rights
5 Calls
Gaza Soup Kitchen
Your local food bank

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