March Round-Up
- Abs Bailey
- Mar 31
- 6 min read
What's that quote by Sylvia Plath - "In March, I'll be rested, caught up and human"?
Time is funny - I very much feel caught up and far more human than I did through the winter, but somehow this month disappeared in the blink of an eye, too.
That's probably because March has involved a bunch of fun stuff, the most exciting thing being that the Laydeez Do Comics Online Fair has started announcing it's participants, and I'm one of 'em! Like other online comic fairs, this involves a selection of artists debuting a new comic as part of a month-long online event in July.
Mine is the comic I teased in last month's round-up post, titled MOTHER.
"Sylvie is a loser, and a lonely one at that. When a patch of mould begins to grow on her body, she decides to raise it as her own child. Meanwhile, the mould spores start a cult, and when a jealous feud between self-proclaimed leader Stachybotrys and genuine chosen one, Mucor, breaks out, Sylvie spirals from motherhood into something else entirely..."
Here's the cover; I'll share more as we get closer to July!
This month...
I tabled at Plymouth Comic and Zine Fair; As always, it was a fantastic weekend, great to catch up with familiar faces and meet some new ones, too. This is always such a fantastic community-focused event that celebrtes comics, zines, and DIY culture in a way that others rarely capture.
Massive thanks to Laura (@lauraholeillustration) and Sam (@_samdraws) for making it such a great one. Here's my little haul!
Current Projects:
It's doesn't make for the most interesting blog post, but, much of my time has been spent working on MOTHER. I'm almost done with the inking and have coloured a few of my favourtie pages as a treat when my brain has wanted to switch off. Here's what that pencils > inks > colour process looks like:
This has been a really fun book to draw, and I've really realised how much pattern plays a role in what I do. I've had to study a lot of petri dishes and photos of mould (thank you, mould-specific subreddits!) to get it right. As you can probably guess, it's unbelieveably theraputic to colour; As of Friday I've finished inking, so it's chill vibes from here on out.
To answer a FAQ; I pencil in red 'cause it's easier to see what I'm doing! This comic is inked digitally, but even with traditional work I'll do pencils in red on my iPad, then print them off. I like the ritual of it!
I'm also working on an anthology comic; It's early days right now, but here are some character sketches. As you can see, I was really struggling to get her shape consistent to begin with!
Sketchbook
Here's an achievement: I finished a sketchbook for the first time EVER this month. I'm not too far into the next one yet (comics are taking up all of my time!) but here are my favourite spreads so far.
I'm finding my flow a bit now; Things are getting more journal-y (although I have just brought a Hobonichi Techo, so we'll see how that changes things next month). My practice feels more introspective, and less pressured to look good for other people, which is great, even if it does make it less photogenic! I've been referencing some practices in Lynda Barry's 'Syllabus' and have really enjoyed how much it's been pushing my brain back into a space I've felt considerably rusty in.
Sketchbook is a blank traveller's notebook insert from JBLeather on Etsy, tools used: Pilot Vball 0.7, Noor-I-Kor Graphite stick, Tombow HB Pencil, Spectrum Broad felt tips.
Daily Drawings
Here are my daily 2x2-inch drawings for March! Had a bit of a wobble motivation-wise at the end of the month, but I suppose this is why it's an endurance challenge! It's nice to remember that when I'm struggling for inspiration I can always draw Pokemon.
Dairy Comic:
Here's one from the ol' sketchbook:
Things I read/saw/enjoyed...
Butter by Asako Yuzuki: I haven't finished this yet, but it's fanstastic so far, totally get the hype. I was so entranced by the food descriptions that I made the rice, butter, and soy sauce dish from chapter 1... INCREDIBLE. It reads like butter on hot rice, too; Incredible translation work.
Catalyst by Oliver Woodiwiss: A lovely comic I picked up at Thought Bubble in November. Quiet, inquisitive, gently flowing visuals that creep in and hit you right in the core.
Fox Flight Market Night by Beatrijs Brouwer/Beastly Worlds: A beautiful, heartfelt comic - So colourful and full of lovely textures alongside some wonderful, energetic cartooning.
Making Bears by Ky Lawrence: I’m totally, utterly obsessed; The freeing, scrunky visuals, great cartooning, relateable coffee poops, everything! Could read comics about this little (bear? Dog?) guy all day every day. I love a good one-sheet foldy zine!
Return to Twin Peaks: While it didn't instantly capture my soul like the original series (I think the tone there was more my speed), I did enjoy this, it was fun to see more Gordon/Albert antics. This show also plays with pacing in a way you don't often see these days; Long, drawn out scenes without much happening, long, overwhelming segments of sound and visuals... Yes please!
Youtube: We don't actually have any streaming services and I'm out of DVDs (although I think I'm going to track down The Sopranos next) so I've been watching a TON of YouTube. Other than binging 'How It's Made' compilations I've been enjoying some journalling content from Adri's Log and The Common Corner, as well as more art-y stuff from AppleCheeks.
Looking Back...
As it turns out, I like to turn anthology submissions into self-indulgent opportunities to make comics about weird old wizards. There's probably something to unpack there, but let's look back on my comic from BOSH! Lawless Edition instead, shall we?
This comic is one I really love. Looking back, I squeezed an awful lot into those 12 pages - Possibly at the expense of some more playful page layouts, but the energy and humour here was something I'd been chasing for a long time. The entire anthology is full of weird, wonderful, high-energy comics goodness and on a break right now, but you can see some of it on Intsagram at @boshzine.
I had a big burnout during the lockdowns (that resulted in not making anything for like, 3 years) and this was the first thing I made that actually felt like my work again. Winky, Boggle, Egg, and Wormbag the Naughty are all characters that feel much deeper than I intended to make them, and I'd love to revisit them one day so I can dive further into their lore. I tried really hard to improve my writing and make better use of backgrounds here (which I kind of questioned after choosing to set the entire story in front of a bookshelf, but I'm a glutton for punishment), and I'm pretty proud of it, all in all.
That's all for this one - As always, if you have any questions, queries, or topics you want to hear more about, email me at the address below.
Okay bye!
Abs
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