Spring Has Sprung! Are you tired?

Well well, it’s been nonstop since Korea! I haven’t talked about this on Substack, but Whereabouts won a gold medal for the Society of Illustrators 68th Annual. It’s a huge honor, and it didn’t fully hit me when it was announced, but now I feel like I can talk about it! :0)

Two days after I landed, I did a talk at the SOI with my fellow gold medalists, Sakshi Jain and Jeremiah Dickey. The talk was moderated by Michael Knapp, an animation veteran, jury member for this year’s Annual, and super sweet man! Jetlagged and nursing a coffee, this “go-go-go” mindset set the tone for the next couple of weeks… haha.

I haven’t been able to travel to too many screenings / Q&As for Whereabouts, so it was nice to share my work and get inspired. Getting to talk about your film isn’t always a guarantee, so I’m always grateful I get a chance to share. Something we noticed is that all three of us had films revolving around a physical medium — maybe a reaction to the way tech has taken over our lives… but I’m sure you know all about that, and I don’t need to rant about it further!

It was also an honor to be alongside Sakshi and Jeremiah for the talk. Sakshi’s film is 100% analog, all drawn in a tiny sketchbook with a micron. There is nothing to hide behind, and the control freak in me couldn’t be that brave! Jeremiah’s piece was a part of Animation Community for Palestine (@ac4pal), organized to support Haneen Koraz’s education and animation efforts in Gaza. All animated in TV Paint and then lovingly watercolor painted on paper, Jeremiah’s film is both haunting and beautiful. Please go check out their work:

• Sakshi Jain: https://saksij.com/

• Jeremiah Dickey: https://jeremiahdickey.com/

Personal projects the last few months were full of lots of small experiments. I made a fanzine, photo zine, political zine, and eventually a 20 page proof of concept zine for the big Korea comic. I don’t ever really plan on selling these projects, and it’s been nice to make stuff with lower stakes.

The proof of concept zine, Long Distance, includes journal excerpts from the trip accompanied with spot illustrations. I’m aiming to expand on this though, and have vignettes from travel interspersed with comic strips throughout the book. The goal is to make a comic that’s longer than 12 pages (finally). Honestly, I’m very terrified and wary of doing something autobio, and it’s a large reason why the proof of concept was important for me to do first. Would the story be compelling enough, is it going to be cringe, etc. The desire and urge to process and hold onto these memories is stronger than these doubts, and also… isn’t that why we do any of this at all? Please keep me to it, dear reader, don’t let me give into that fear!

Last month, a couple friends and I also exhibited at the Kingston Independent Comics Expo! We wanted an excuse to get out of the city and see some nature. It turned out to be one of the most darling trips Upstate. I made some new bookmarks for the event, but otherwise kept the prep pretty minimal. Everyone at the fair was so nice, and we had a lot of fun exploring the different towns along the valley. The best part is setting up the fire pit after the fair and debriefing, DUH!

So what else am I up to? In addition to the Korea comic, I have some fun illustration opportunities. I am also slowly but surely working on printing the second edition of Whereabouts! Yes — the book is almost sold out, there is probably one copy left, so do with that what you will!

Before making too much stuff though, I am really looking forward to organizing and purging things. Do some serious spring cleaning haha. I am not allowed to order more paper until I do so… LOL.

As always, I am feeling torn between all my interests… but I’m excited for the summer. :)

Things I enjoyed in March + April:

• Cram #5 - The latest comics anthology from Cram! Lots of artists here are new to me, really enjoyed reading.

• Caught Lookin’ #1 by Andrew Alexander - Andrew is so good at drawing, so much appeal in his characters and it’s just good old fashioned inking. His sketchbook spreads on instagram are amazing and I just knew I had to grab a copy of this!

• ExMag Vol. #6 - The latest comics anthology from Peow2! This one is Space Exploration themed, really awesome and great work. :)

• Mousepad from Fisk - I spilled coffee all over my beloved Mangotown mouse pad… luckily I found this one from fisk to replace it and she’s perfect!

• Adore by I:Cube - This whole album is just great to throw on while I’m working. House, electronic, downtempo vibes.

• Cléo from 5 to 7 - Caught this at Film Forum for the Agnès Varda retrospective. So so good.

And that’s all for this update! Thanks for reading, ‘Til next time~

~Suejee