Before we get into the art-talk and updates, I want to take a moment in this newsletter to share my day with you. I’ve been traveling to back-to-back-to-back conventions this spring, and while I love my time in Seattle and Chicago, I am so ready to be home for a little bit and enjoy my favorite season (spring) in my favorite place (Portland).

Today I walked to my short opening shift at the print shop. My bike is in the shop for repairs (totally popped tire, bent fender, derailleur acting foolish) and En took the car for their shift and errands today. So instead of paying nearly $3 to take the bus and wait on my feet on some boring intersection, just to ride a bus for 20 minutes, I walked. I love walking to work. It’s about 40 minutes one way, and 40 minutes back. It gives me time to appreciate my neighborhood, and this morning I called my sister with my camera on so she could see all the flowers (it’s still winterish where she lives).

The print shop was a cool three hours of printing, laminating, and notarizing. Someone tipped me very generously, and I got to get some updates on my regulars’ lives. On my walk home, I stopped to eat my lunch that En had packed for me, and I did some mountain gazing. The mountain (Wy’east) isn’t visible for most of the year, either due to clouds or smoke, and I love it most this time of year when it’s completely covered in snow. For those reasons, I take every opportunity to just look at that thing.

I took a different path home and found a yard sale, where I got a cute cupid necklace for only $1 (cheers to the generous tipper from earlier), and I got to see bikers and joggers and families and dogs and Easter egg hunts. Now I’m home to do some work before concluding this Saturday with orange wine and a sunset on the balcony.

It is important to appreciate these things. It is important to cherish them and value them and fight for them. I write this because there is a 13-year-old version of me who wanted this and only this so badly (a nice, modest adult life in a walkable city and good friends) and I’m 31 and I have it. I don’t have much besides that, but I have $1 to give for a winged baby on a necklace!!

I love my beautiful neighborhood, and all the trees. I love this time of year where Forest Park turns two-toned green, and I appreciate being able to walk and see gardens and spiderwebs and berry bushes. We’re all here for a short and indeterminate amount of time. If this was your last spring in your city, what would you do to make the most of it? What would you do to make sure future generations can appreciate it, too?

Anyways… Here’s the TL;DR on what’s next!

Hello to new newsletter subscribers from C2E2! I loved being in Chicago so much. There will be a blog post coming Monday at 11am PST recapping my C2E2 adventures. I had such a great time getting to meet you all, and I hope to see you there next year :)

Since I’ve been traveling so much, I don’t have a big announcement of a complete project in this newsletter. I have lots of things that are coming to completion (or beginning) all at once, which is exciting and terrifying, so please be on the lookout for those announcements coming soon! Here’s a sneak peek of what you can expect:

1. Amira the Van Life Cunt, issue 2, “Amira in Barrel’s Bottom” — this comic is inked and lettered and 2/3 complete! You can read issue 1 right now on Patreon and get a print copy in my shop. Issue 2 will be a Patreon/print exclusive once it’s complete, so there’s no better time to join the Horn Dog tier and catch up on Amira’s van life antics. Issue 2 will be coming this spring.

2. The Shepherd’s Sword, volume 1 — chapter 5 is complete! That means we are half way through this story, so I will be printing the first five chapters all together as a volume. The pre-orders for this will be coming this summer. Read all of chapter 5 right now on Patreon or start reading on theshepherdssword.com 

3. I have two just-for-fun side projects I’m working on right now. I’m doing these at a leisurely pace to remind myself of the joys of art. One project is the lesbian knights story I’m working on with my bestie (iykyk, they’ve been the subject of this month and last month’s mail club rewards). The other project is something people have been asking for every convention, and now that I’m no longer doing my Autostraddle series, I have a little bit more time to start working on it… You’re gonna love this, butch4butch fans, I do not disappoint.

4. I have a book out on submission right now! I also have two other pitches in the wings that I’m supposed to be working on once I recover from all my travels. If you’re an editor and you’re curious about these, hit up my girl Stephanie Winter ;)

5. Next stop: TCAF! I’ll be in Toronto for TCAF for the first time ever!! I’ll be doing a panel Friday morning before the festival, and then catch me that weekend at their new location June 7-8. I’ve always wanted to do TCAF, and I’m so excited to be there. Since there’s no VanCAF this year, this might be my only time in Canada. Hope to see you there!

Spring semester HURTS

All that talk about appreciating spring and a little bit about mortality and the passage of time at the beginning of the newsletter? Yeah, that’s basically what How Could You is rooted in. How Could You is my college-age romance drama about a group of friends and frenemies and exes and loser lesbians in a springs semester that ends in graduation for some and heartbreak for most.

While there are officially 10 years between me and my college graduation now, I have friends and siblings graduating college this semester, and this season always takes me back to the complete tomfoolery and buck wild fucked-up-ness that comes with the impending doom of “something is ending, something is beginning” in the spring.

If you like the heightened emotions of a pollen-ridden emotional rollercoaster, check out How Could You and get a copy for you and the 21-year-old in your life!

The Shepherd’s Sword

Like I mentioned above, Chapter 5 is COMPLETE!! Well, that’s kind of true. Once I finished Chapter 5 as I had scripted it, I decided that instead of printing another staple-bound zine of chapter 4+5 and calling it “part 3,” it would be more economical and fun to just combine all of chapters 1-5 together in a perfect bound volume. We’re half way through the story, after all!

So for pacing reasons and to have a really satisfying cliffhanger end for volume 1, I’m drafting up four bonus pages. That said, Patreon will get first dibs on the PDF of volume 1, first dibs on pre-orders for the print copy, first dibs on these bonus pages, and first dibs on any book-exclusive content that I’ll be including in Volume 1. I can’t thank you enough for your support of this series, and I hope you enjoy what comes next!

Here’s a link to read the latest public page on The Shepherd’s Sword dot com.

April Patreon Rewards

April is my birthday month, so I chose to do something self indulgent for the mail club rewards! The print is Princess Ayasha from the lesbian knights story I’m working on with my friend Jessie. The sticker is the tattoo I’m going to get on my upper back on Friday. (Shoutout to Willis!!! She’s the greatest!) Choose your tier and get the sticker, or the sticker + print mailed to you next month!

For Horn Dog tiers and up, here’s a reminder of last month’s NSFW illustration. April’s is still in the works, so sign up so you don’t miss it 🥵

What else did I do this month, hmm…

Man, I don’t even know. My bike lights got stolen off my bike because some genius in our building loves to leave the bike room unlocked. I’m normal about it, though, because in all my years here in Portland, I have only had my lights stolen twice now. That said, like I mentioned at the top, my bike is in the shop for some repairs, which sucks. I love my local bike shop, though, so really it’s a blessing to be able to get my bike tuned up and support them :)

OH YEAH AND my debit card information got stolen while we were in Anaheim for WonderCon. Someone tried buying crypto with it, which is very uncool and unsexy and ugly, too. My bank caught it, which is good, but that meant that my debit card was out of commission right before leaving town for Chicago.

It’s my freakin birthday month, bro, give me a break! The upside is I’m getting my back tattooed on Friday, which I wanted to do while I’m in my early 30s. It’s my birthday gift to myself, and again, I love Willis! I want to give her money and spend several hours laying down getting hurt by her!!

I made a plan of attack to address my credit card debt. It’s all business expenses, thankfully, but I’m aiming to take care of it all by the end of the year. It’s the cost of switching to full-time art job. Ordering inventory ain’t cheap, but I’m getting into a much better position now, so hopefully in the next year or two, I won’t be in the negative so much lol I have you all to thank for that, so thank you!!! Your support means there will be more dykey art in the world, and that rules. You rule.

Oh, and I’ve been playing hella R.E.P.O. It’s so fun and the rounds are so short, and I get to play with friends. This is my ideal type of game!

Here’s some sweet treats for you to check out:

• Samidoon: Comics for a Free Palestine comic anthology

• Since I’m getting tattooed soon, I’ve been really upping my water intake. I love my long hiking straw that fits in my hydroflask. I use it on walks to work or while sitting at my desk! I got this to replace my water bladder after it popped last summer (boooo) and I’ve been in love ever since. One Bottle Hydration is low key the greatest. NOT SPONSORED BTW it’s literally just some guy in the northeast who makes these.

• Latinx Comics Studies: Critical and Creative Crossings edited by Fernanda Díaz-Basteris and Maite Urcaregui

• Let's Print a Comic (And Not Screw It Up) by Rhiannon Rasmussen-Silverstein. I really gotta read this before printing The Shepherd’s Sword volume 1…