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Computer science zine pack: An adorable pack of three zines by Allia Service and Audra McNamee about why they love computers (or really: why they love yelling about how annoying computers are when they don’t work right). Each pack comes with a niche RSS-feed fan sticker reading “move slow and become obsolete.”  

Queer zine pack: Queer zines are the best zines. It’s a fact! This perfect pack of three zines by Shay Mirk includes a reflection on coming to identify as queer, new ideas for Pride flags, a gender-feelings zine template, and a rainbow holographic sticker.

🎁 Gift a workshop! We created print-at-home gift certificates for our upcoming roster of workshops and classes, so you can give the gift of creativity—and support comics artists while you’re at it!

One-off Workshops 

Drawing Family Stories // This Thursday! Drawing comics about family is complicated. In this two-hour workshop, cartoonist Sanika Phawde will help offer prompts and examples to guide participants through drawing a one-page comic about their own families. Thursday, December 12th from 3pm-5pm PST/6pm-8pm EST

January Classes

Facing the Blank Page: Drawing Comics When You’re Afraid of Drawing with Ali Holmes // Are you interested in comics but think you could never draw your own? Join the club! This extremely encouraging, low-stakes class starts with drawing blobs to help you face anxiety around drawing. Saturdays from 10am - noon PST/1pm-3pm EST, January 18 – February 22, 2025 

Finding Your Visual Voice: Experimental Storytelling in Comics with Joaquin Golez // Get weird. Find your visual style and unique voice in this class focused on experimental approaches to comics. The six-session class uses lots of creative exercises and playfulness to help creators of all backgrounds and skill-levels to develop strong narratives, characters, and emotions even in very short stories. Sundays from 10am – noon PST/1pm-3pm EST, January 12th – February 16 

Artist Sanika Phawde is running this week’s workshop on drawing family stories—a timely way to process the big feelings that come up around the holidays.  We asked her to recommend three comics about families. 

One! Hundred! Demons! by Lynda Barry // I really love how in this book, Lynda writes and draws her family exactly as she sees them as a child. She seamlessly inhabits her younger self. She allows space for her demons and the ones of her loved ones and embraces her difficult complicated feelings for the people in her life without trying to fix them. She writes in a way that anyone can connect with. What a superhero. And in spite of the sometimes dark storylines, there is so much joy in her drawings and collage work. This book is an object brimming with love. 

Scenes from an Impending Marriage and Loneliness of a Long Distance Cartoonist by Adrian Tomine // I love Adrian Tomine’s comics. In these two works in particular, I thought it was really clever how he uses simple techniques to anonymize the characters in his stories. Safety first!

What Is Home, Mum? by Sabba Khan // I have never read a better and more human description of Post-Partition Kashmir, India, and Pakistan. Sabba Khan explains how the legacy of Partition continues to haunt our communities to this day. She is documenting her past while trying to reconcile with it, processing what forced migration has meant for every generation in her family leading up to her, and how it has shaped her understanding and relationship with her religion and identity. She does all this while questioning her own intentions in writing this book and and while extending the deepest compassion and kindness towards the people in her life. Reading this graphic memoir is like watching Sabba Khan find her home within herself.

• The Comics Advisory Group is offering mini-grants of $500 to people making comics. This is open to comics of all genres, and creators around the world (hell yeah!). Applications are open now through February 12th. 

• Secret Riso Club is offering mini-grants of $250 for people looking to create political zines. They’ll also riso print 100 copies of each zine. Applications close January 18th. 

• Librarians! First of all, you are wonderful. Secondly, the American Library Association is offering grants to two libraries to help build their graphic novel collections and programming. Applications close January 12.  

• Anarchists! Anarchist Studies is offering grants ranging from $500-1000 to fund intersectional art projects, including visual comics. Applications are open now through March. 

• Queer people! Galactic Comics is looking for pitches to publish five-page standalone sci-fi, horror, or fantasy stories by LGBTQ creators. They’ll pay 400 Euros per piece. Get in there!

This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at [email protected]. 💌