Get Seen, Party Style

When I was starting, I made stories with characters. I didn’t really know what a story

was, or what a character was, so I just made it up as I went along. 

It worked ok.

I was concentrating on Getting SEEN.

I put out mini-comic after mini-comic of nutty work 

I never need a reason to make a comic, but if there was one, it would spur me on. My favorite reason was when Julie Doucet moved to town, I made this comic...

Inspired by her, it featured 4 different stories in different styles. I wasn’t really good at
any of them. That’s ok. I was saying “I am here!” 

So in that mini-comic, for instance, a few stories came from dreams.

One was just letting my mind create a dialogue between a sad, vulnerable version of
myself and someone smarter than me but I couldn’t trust. I liked that comic. 

I also tried to know if I hit my limit. Most stories I had a terrible time ending.

I tried and tried to get the joke (which I also dreamed) on the last page to fit in a story, or extend past one page, but I couldn't. I put it on the inside back cover.

Getting Seen for me, was about saying "I am here" but also, "this is a gift."

This last part is important.

In my work, even at its silliest, I tried to be truthful... I tried to be honest, and I tried to go far, at least into my own humanity (I didn't know "getting good" would help at this.) 


We can't always know if our gifts will be accepted. 

I showed up at a party welcoming Julie to town, I had copies of my comic in hand and gave them to everyone.

I wanted to be seen by the cool kids (at the party). Who doesn’t? 

I don’t know if I made an impact on them at all, except the one time I took over the stereo and was reprimanded. 

The people I really needed to be seen by were my peers. 

My fellow cartoonists.There were plenty of those in the 90s in Seattle. They became my friends and we saw each other, we saw each other’s work, we excitedly pushed each other forward.

Thanks for reading. More soon.

PS - interested in the reprint of all these early mini comics (250+ pages!) It's here:

Amazong

Lulu