Hourly comic day is technically February 1st, I think. It started back in 2006 when John Campbell, who once drew the comic Pictures for Sad Children (and then later set a bunch of stuff on fire and maybe quit the internet, I don’t know anymore) would draw an hourly comic every day for the month of January, and then invite other artists to join them on the last day of the project. The only rule is typically that you have to draw one panel for every hour you’re awake depicting something that happened during that hour. Technically you’re supposed to draw them AS THEY’RE HAPPENING but I never manage that. These were done during naps. Here I have in some cases done multiple panels in order to provide more of a narrative. Unfortunately it didn’t scan as well as I would have liked. I used to draw them on index cards (1-2 panels per card per hour). Perhaps I’ll try that again.
I’ve actually drawn these before (in Thai too), but not for quite a while. This one happens to cover last Sunday, which was the 4th of February. It was an atypical day around here in a lot of ways… we were recovering from a party the night before and B was struggling with a stomach virus that had been bugging him for a few days, so I did maybe more baby care than I might usually have and also we ate lunch at three in the afternoon. I think I maybe left out one wake up with Henry at 2ish? I don’t remember. Sunday is currently the day that I don’t run, so that’s also different from the quotidian, but that’s probably why I had time to draw this. Oh, and Henry spit up (on me) a few times more than usual. I have only depicted some of the bodily-fluid-related events here. It turns out that as babies get older, they tend to spit up less. Except when they’re fussy, they can swallow air that can lead to more spit ups. Henry got his first tooth last week. So you can maybe guess. Anyway. The lucky part is I didn’t give him the bright red Tylenol until after the last spit up. (Pro tip: If you are holding a baby and you feel his tummy suddenly kind of rumble in a bad way, point him away from you.)
Also, ignore Henry’s skepticism about Night Vision. It really is an excellent book. He is too young to really understand poetry.
File this one under PS3612.U686Z46 2018 for American literature—Individual authors—2001-—L—Biography and Criticism—Autobiography, journals, memoirs. By date.
Emily,
Total Bravo for your managing to draw this. Mazel Tov to Henry on his first tooth! H. may not understand all the words yet, but growing up surrounded with poetry (by Aunt Claire) and great language is terrific. Monumental changes for H. during his first year, but, as you say, time seems to go so slowly sometimes. Wishing all of you more and better sleep. Thank you for this wonderful update.
Love,
Aunt Barb
For me, you are a master (mistress?) of layered narrative. I see the actual narrative and then go back through for the images that seem to present a very different and voiceless narrative. Thank you for listening. (Reading, visualizing, etc.) 🙂
Also, what is this font? The question marks are beautiful).
Based on the CSS, I believe the typeface you’re looking at is called Merriweather. However it’s possible that if your computer doesn’t have that available, you’re seeing the blog in Georgia. I think it must be the former though, since the question marks in Merriweather are much more graceful than the ones in Georgia.
Also, thank you. 🙂