As some of you know, I’ve working on a long form memoir project about the time leading up to and in Germany. This past month, I reached a milestone: a fully inked chapter! It’s called “Ich Bin Ein Berliner” and it’s about some of the challenges of the early pandemic. Here’s a little teaser page

My plan is to self-publish it in time for my zine & comic fest appearances this fall. It’s been a full year since I launched this substack, and as a little thank you, I’m sending a copy to my paid subscribers for their support. If that’s you, please send me your mailing address within the next month to gracedcorndog(a)gmail.com. It'll also be available via my website next month if you’d just like to purchase it.

As always thanks so much for following me - more updates soon!

I’ve got the Drawing Yips pretty bad, so instead of a full comic, here’s this. Today my paper seemed to precious, my pen felt weird in my hand, my hand felt weird on my body, and the only way to get over that feeling is to just jump in, to give myself an entire page to do a silly drawing like this one. Then the blank page gets a little less intimidating.

The groundskeeper at the University of Kansas has been planting more native flowers on campus and today I spent a few minutes smelling the lavender and echinacea (or purple coneflower) while some bumblebees and honeybees spun dizzy paths around them. I’ll probably stare at them some more on my way home.

Hello! I’m back with another not-quite a new comic. It’s an old draft of a comic zine that I’ve needed to finish. Yesterday, I drew a cover for it based on classic “clinch” romance novel covers - it’s a more detailed exploration of a panel I drew in this draft. When I drew the illustration the first time, I was giggling the entire time. For context, in order to protect my ex-partner’s identity, I’ve made his character a polar bear (not a furry).

The events of this took place six years ago, almost exactly to the day. I’m hoping that posting work that is half-finished will lightly shame motivate me to finish it properly. That’s how writing works, right?

Anyway, here’s another playlist I made. Some of my behavior during the course of that relationship feels a little unhinged to me and writing about it makes me feel a little sad for that version of myself. I’ve been thinking of burning these playlists onto CDs - I’ve intentionally kept them to an hour or under, to keep true to form. Stay tuned?

I swear I’m working on comics! Unfortunately they’re not all pieces that I’m comfortable sharing just yet. It’s weird working in memoir, because I think a lot of the impulse to create is driven by this need to be seen, acknowledged (some might call it exhibitionism), but at the same time it’s hard to feel perceived, even if I’ve got just a handful of readers here.

It’s also just a weird time to be a human in these United States and I find a lot of comfort in making these playlists. Maybe it’s regression, but it takes me to a familiar place to lose myself in illustrating a track list. Since writing something about it here, I’ve seen at least two other people pointing out the return of the collage/handmade aesthetic of Rookie Magazine specifically. Weird to find yourself part of the zeitgeist without intending to be.

Does anyone else remember the themed playlists that Rookie Mag’s website used to put out? I used to love those; it was the only reason I had an 8tracks account. Even before that though, I used to love making mix CDs. They were usually tweaks on the previous mix CD I’d made, so I’d end up with a pile of CD-Rs that were mostly the same, with only a track or two switched up. I miss those days, before streaming made us all “consume” music instead of experiencing it in the same ways.

Anyway, I’m returning to my roots! I need to do more research on alternatives to Spotify that are less evil, but still good tools for making playlists.

Last year, the idea of yearning seemed to be on everyone’s mind, and I was reluctant to embrace it. This spring though, I’m really feeling it. Something about that mix of hopefulness for the future, nostalgia for something that hasn’t been, and restlessness/desire for something that could be - all feels right. It’s a kind of romance. After a personally difficult winter, I’m embracing that longing feeling. These were all songs that felt like my personal experience of yearning (though I had to whittle it down from like 30 tracks). Honestly, I could have just made a list of Mitski songs, but tried very hard to keep it limited.

If you have any suggestions for songs to listen to that feel like yearning, I love to hear them!
Until next time,
Corndog

For context: Dave is Wonder Fair’s (art & stationery store) store cat, and Jammy is an anthropomorphized risograph and the mascot of the Paper Plains Zine Fest, which was founded by Wonder Fair. I went to my first Zine Club meeting last month, which was centered around fanzines and had an absolute blast. Rachel “She Draws So Good” Gibson has done such a fantastic job of curating a ~vibe~ there. Zine people are the best.

I’m pretty stoked for this and hope people show up <3 See you so soon for another update!

This is my life plan for this year - I’ve kept lists of resolutions before, but this time I wanted to make something I would enjoy looking at from my desk. Instead of having a list of things that feel like homework, maybe I could create something that would feel more like a window into a possible world.

I’ve also kept this image of this cool faience piece from the Kunstgewerbemuseum (Decorative Arts Museum) in Berlin in my back pocket. I’ve always thought this would be an interesting format to explore in comics, à la Chris Ware. Something about this object tickles my brain in just the right ways. I wish I’d written down the label info (I’ll edit this once I find out more about its provenance). *** this piece is faience, not porcelain, and it’s a tabletop! It was made by the Cornelius Funcke Faience Manufactory of Berlin circa 1725.

I ended up feeling really pleased with the final result. It made me remember that I really do enjoy drawing, which is so fricking helpful while I’m applying to residencies and grants.

In case you forgot to click the link to Allyson’s 23 years of life plans, here it is again:

I May Never Answer Your Email and This Is Why

Life Plans, 2003–2026

Every January since 2003, I’ve made a drawing called a Life Plan. Except for years when I didn’t do it at all. My nearest and dearest know all about this practice of mine. I never thought that I would be sharing these but here they are. Ta dah…

Read more

8 months ago · 9 likes · 6 comments · Allyson Mitchell

Thanks for reading; see you next time I draw something good!

For context: Franz, is an anonymized version of my German ex-partner. He is represented here as a polar bear. All names have been changed in this and most comics I write.

Thank you for reading

It’s been a minute, but my new goal is three updates a month - I promise to limit the number of cat comics but please know that my heart has yearned for a pet cat for 20 years, so I’m a little obsessed. I’ve never had an animal take such an immediate liking to me, how could a person resist?

During art school, for whatever reason, I started drawing swamps (bogs, quagmires, I wasn’t too scientific about my approach), usually with people and things stuck in them.

*the podcast was This American Life, because of course it was (episode 821, Embrace the Suck)

Hey everyone, thank you so much for all the support for my silly comics! Sometimes writing graphic memoir can be weird, because I end up showing so much of my messy life (that balance is something I’m still figuring out), but it’s cathartic to write about it. See you next time I draw something good!

I’m aiming for weekly updates, but more realistically, it’ll be bi-weekly! I’m making 95% of the content free, because I don’t want the subscription to be a barrier for anyone. Thank you to anyone who decides to subscribe, and for those who can’t at the moment, trust me, I get it!