» Failing Beautifully by Ami Bogin: Pole dance taught me to embrace myself—even what I'd seen as my failures.

» Figuring it Out by Nabeel Rooshan: Falling in love with figure drawing in Pakistan.

» Mama Is… by Katia Wish: A sweet reflection on all the roles a mother plays.

✨ Special discount code just for newsletter readers: This weekend only, get 10% off all Crucial classes and workshops! Use the discount code ICANREAD. This discount expires Dec. 1st so… get on it!

• Portland - Design and Bind Your Own 2026 Planner: For our first-ever in-person workshop, amateur book-binder and professional list-maker Audra McNamee will walk you through designing and binding a custom planner. You’ll leave with the tools and know-how to bind your own books in the future. This workshop will be held at Portland’s new Northwest Museum of Cartoon Arts. Three meetings over December 2025, details here.

• Facing the Blank Page - Creating Comics When You’re Afraid of Drawing: Are you interested in comics but think you could never draw your own? Join the club! This extremely encouraging, low-stakes class starts with drawing blobs to help you face anxiety around drawing. January 24 – March 14, on Saturdays from 10am-12pm PST/1pm-3pm EST.

• Making Memoir Comics: This seven-session memoir comics class will focus on telling real-life stories about your life, identity, and family. Artist Shay Mirk guides participants through writing and draw a 20-panel personal story, and everyone also creates many shorter comics to practice different techniques and find their visual voice. February 10 – March 24th, on Tuesdays from 5pm-7pmPST/8pm-10pm EST.

• Telling Trans Stories: Let’s make trans comics! In this two-hour workshop, artist Al Benbow will talk about some of their favorite trans comics and cartoonists, discuss trans character-building, and different ways of exploring trans identity and experiences in comics. Thursday, February 26, 2026 from 4-6pm PST/7-9pm EST.

• Draw Your Feelings: Whether it’s impostor syndrome, creative anxiety, or wider worries about the world, comics are a great way to face and move through big emotions. Artist Cassy Lee leads this two-hour workshop about illustrating your feelings as a tool for emotional regulation. Saturday, March 21st, 10:30am-12:30pm PST (1:30pm-3:30pm EST).

Give the gift of creativity!

Do you know someone who wants to make their own comics? Gift them a comics workshop! We made cute downloadable gift certificates to cover the cost of either a one-off workshop or multi-week class. People can join our classes from anywhere in the world, so this is a great gift for a friend who lives far away—or right nearby.

Ben Passmore has made a big impact on readers with his punchy, anarchist political comics and Ignatz Award-winning comic collection Your Black Friend: and Other Strangers. His new book, Black Arms to Hold You Up, is a graphic history of Black armed resistance in the United States. In the book, Ben falls backward through time to New Orleans in 1900, where he witnesses Black resistance to a racist police force, and tumbles forward, talking to activists over the next 100 years. I talked with Ben, who now lives in Philadelphia, about what kept him going during his years of working on the book.  

This book deals with really difficult and violent histories. What sustained you while writing it? I mean that both mentally (how did you stay focused on your goal?) and physically (what snacks kept you alive?). 

It’s maybe very edgy to say this, but I think the difficult parts to read in the book were not the hardest part for me personally. I think a fortunate thing for me, if you can use the word “fortunate,” is that political violence and the general contradictions of Black liberation struggle was a part of my life long before I took the book on. I sort of talk about that towards the end of Black Arms when I describe reading Black Power books (Look Out Whitey by Julius Lester, for example) at a troubled teen school I was probated to as a kid. I’ve just been in this stuff for a minute, for better or worse. One of the big drives from me when I was pitching a book on the subject of Black liberation was that I needed to find some direction after experiencing a mix of frustration and hope during the 2020 rebellion. I came home bloody and full of questions, you know?

The actual hardest part of making this work was just the physicality of it. I’ve never made something this ambitious in my whole ass life and my entire body started to give out while making it. I was having serious back problems, the screen on my drawing tablet started the burn the skin off my hand, and my drawing arm developed all these crazy pains. I was fortunate though that I had already been very locked in on training Muay Thai, which is a kind of kickboxing from Thailand. I’d go to the gym four or five days a week and do regular runs, so my body was strong enough to manage the physical torment of drawing the book. The rhythm of going to the gym also gave me this air to process what I was working on too. I’d sit on the train with a copy of As Black As Resistance or some study on anti-lynching movements and just mull over stuff. Being a boxer really rubs hard against the normal vision of cartoonists, but I’d probably be bedridden if I didn’t take care of my body this whole time. 

I did eat a lot of pretzels though. I live in Philly, you gotta hit the pretzels.

Upcoming Festivals

We’re tabling at a few more festivals until the end of 2025. Come say hi and snag some zines!

November 29th & 30th → Portland, OR - Geek the Halls, a nerdy craft fair at Portland’s Doubletree Hotel December 5th and 6th → Boston - MICE, the Massachusetts Independent Comix Expo at Boston University December 13th and 14th → Los Angeles - Comic Arts LA, an amazing indie comics festival at 3000 Dolores Street (Glendale)

• Anyone looking to publish a graphic novel: Fieldmouse Press is now open for submissions! This nonprofit comics publisher prints a small selection of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry comic books each year. Submissions are open until Nov. 30.

• People who love drawing plants and animals: The Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District in Oregon is looking for an illustrator to create original work portraying native habitat and rural land conservation practices for a publication called the Rural Living. The budget is $5,000 and applications are due December 10th. Download the full request for proposals here and feel free to email alex.hale@tualatinswcd.org for more info.

• Are you working on a sci-fi comic? The Otherwise Fellowship offers two $500 grants to support “creators from communities that have been historically underrepresented in the science fiction and fantasy genre and those who are working in media other than traditional fiction.” The deadline to apply is December 15.

💚 Love this newsletter? Support us on Patreon to help Crucial publish more comics!

Crucial Comix is supported by the Sequential Artists Workshop. Thanks friends!

This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at smirk@crucialcomix.com. 💌

» Swapping Genders with my Ex: We saw our future in each other—one where both of us would change.

» Bras: What Are My Options? A humor writer and a cartoonist try to solve the problem of uncomfortable bras once and for all.

Catch Crucial at these Fall Festivals!

We’re slinging nonfiction comics these indie comics festivals. Stop by and say hi! Tell us you’re a newsletter subscriber and we’ll happily give you a free sticker. ✑ November 1 - Seattle - Short Run Comix Festival ✑ November 9 - Portland - Portland Zine Symposium! ✑ November 15 - Burlington - Nonfiction Comics Fest ✑ December 6-7 - Boston - MICE  ✑ December 13-14 -  Los Angeles - Comic Arts LA

All of our classes are sliding-scale and we have free spots available for people who can’t afford the price—get in touch if you’d like to request a free spot!

• Queer Economies of Care with Gili Rappaport and Joaquin Golez // How do queer folks keep each other alive, fed, housed, and laughing—especially when the system isn’t built for us? This six-week class blends queer theory and comics with creative writing and drawing, transforming stories of queer survival and care into comics and zines. Sundays, Nov. 2 - Dec 7, from 10am-12pm PST/1pm-4pm EST

• Autobio Comics Workshop with Al Benbow // Want to make a comic about your life? Al will go over examples of autobiographical comics, the process of making authobio comics, how to ethically include other real people in your comics, and discuss the self as a character. By the end of the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to create and share a short autobio comic of their own. Thursday, November 13, 4-6pm PST/ 7-9pm EST

• Intro to Digital Drawing with Procreate: Do you have an iPad but feel intimidated by drawing on it? This workshop led by Audra McNamee will support you in learning tips and tricks to illustrate in the app Procreate. Saturday, November 15 from 9-11am PST/12-2pm EST.

• Facing the Blank Page - Creating Comics When You’re Afraid of Drawing: Are you interested in comics but think you could never draw your own? Join the club! This extremely encouraging, low-stakes class starts with drawing blobs to help you face anxiety around drawing. January 24 – March 14, on Saturdays from 10am-12pm PST/1pm-3pm EST.

Gift a Workshop!

Do you know someone who would love to make more space for creativity in their life? Gift them a comics workshop! We made cute downloadable gift certificates to cover the cost of either a one-off workshop or multi-week class. People can join our classes from anywhere in the world, so this is a great gift for a friend who lives far away—or right nearby.

Aubrey Hirsch got started creating comics about systemic sexism and feminist frustration back at The Nib in 2017. Since then, she’s created illustrated essays on important issues for outlets like Vox and The New York Times and won a National Endowment for the Arts grant, all while also publishing her own work in a very popular newsletter. Now, Aubrey is celebrating the release of her first book, Graphic Rage: Comics on Gender Justice and Life as a Woman in America. This week, Aubrey discussed how the book came together in an online talk Crucial hosted on the topic of “drawing resistance.”  

How are you feeling about the release of your book at this particularly horrible political moment? 

Aubrey: I'd had people asking me for a while, “When are you gonna have a book?” It took me some time to figure out how to do it right. I'm just really pleased with the book. I've been hearing from a lot of people who've said it made them feel more validated in their anger or made them feel empowered with things that they could do in their own lives, which is exactly what I'm trying to do. In these dark times, we really all need to rage out together. This is my contribution to that goal.

Crucial’s publisher Shay Mirk is heading out on book tour in November to celebrate the release of a new book called Making Nonfiction Comics: A Guide to Graphic Narrative. The book, which Shay co-authored with Eleri Harris, details how to create your own nonfiction comics, from journalism to memoir. You can preorder the book through Crucial to support our work!

• Anyone looking to publish a graphic novel: Fieldmouse Press is now open for submissions! This nonprofit comics publisher prints a small selection of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry comic books each year. Submissions open Nov. 1.

• People of Boston who love food! Super rad artists Mariah Rose Marie and Shaina Lu are leading a series of free cooking, comics, and collage workshops on the Boston University campus in November. Eat up this opportunity to make zines about tasty food.

• Are you working on a sci-fi comic? The Otherwise Fellowship offers two $500 grants to support “creators from communities that have been historically underrepresented in the science fiction and fantasy genre and those who are working in media other than traditional fiction.” The deadline to apply is December 15.

• Australian literary magazine Island is looking for pitches for its 2026 graphic narratives issue. The pay rate for eight-page comics is $1600 (nice!). The magazine takes submissions from people in Australia and New Zealand and Australians living abroad. The deadline is November 5.

Crucial Comix is supported by the Sequential Artists Workshop. Thanks friends!

This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at smirk@crucialcomix.com. 💌

» The Mother: In an excerpt of her new graphic memoir, Rachel Deutsch explores the messy reality of being a new mom—bruised boobs and all.

» Swapping Genders with my Ex: We saw our future in each other—one where both of us would change.

All of our classes are sliding-scale and we have free spots available for people who can’t afford the price—get in touch if you’d like to request a free spot!

• Queer Economies of Care with Gili Rappaport and Joaquin Golez // How do queer folks keep each other alive, fed, housed, and laughing—especially when the system isn’t built for us? This six-week class blends queer theory and comics with creative writing and drawing, transforming stories of queer survival and care into comics and zines. Sundays, Nov. 2 - Dec 7, from 10am-12pm PST/1pm-4pm EST

• Autobio Comics Workshop with Al Benbow // Want to make a comic about your life? Al will go over examples of autobiographical comics, the process of making authobio comics, how to ethically include other real people in your comics, and discuss the self as a character. By the end of the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to create and share a short autobio comic of their own. Thursday, November 13, 4-6pm PST/ 7-9pm EST

• Intro to Digital Drawing with Procreate: Do you have an iPad but feel intimidated by drawing on it? This workshop led by Audra McNamee will support you in learning tips and tricks to illustrate in the app Procreate. Saturday, November 15 from 9-11am PST/12-2pm EST.

Free Events

• Talk: Drawing Resistance — Graphic Rage and Making Nonfiction Comics: Authors Aubrey Hirsch, Shay Mirk, and Eleri Harris celebrate the release of their new graphic nonfiction books with a talk about how making comics is an act of political participation and essential self-expression. Monday, October 27 from 4-5pm PST/7-8pm EST

• Chronic Illness Comics Club - Our very chill monthly meetup to make art about experiences with chronic illness meets this Sunday to draw on the theme of body horror. Oooo! Sunday, October 26 from 11am-12:15pm PST/ 2pm-3:15pm EST

Gift a Workshop!

Do you know someone who would love to make more space for creativity in their life? Gift them a comics workshop! We made cute downloadable gift certificates to cover the cost of either a one-off workshop or multi-week class. People can join our classes from anywhere in the world, so this is a great gift for a friend who lives far away—or right nearby.

Rachel Deutsch's memoir The Mother lays bare the messy reality of being a new mom. The book is honest about the strain that parenting put on her body, her mind, and her relationship with her husband. In addition to her often political and provocative work as a cartoonist, Rachel has also worked for over fifteen years in the field of social work. She lives in Montreal and now has two young children.

How did you want this memoir to be different from other books about pregnancy and parenting? 

I guess as with any memoir, I wanted this book to be authentic to me and to tell my story in all its weird and vulnerable nuances. I wanted my voice to come across because I think that stories about pregnancy, birth and early motherhood are so important and different voices matter. I knew, in many ways, my story was not universal, while in other ways, it was. I think it's relatable in its uniqueness. Becoming a mother is a crazy thing!  I went through a kind of identity crisis, relationship tumult, and a lot of depression and anxiety during pregnancy. Then, I had an explosion of euphoria after the baby was born and felt the most love I'd ever felt in my life. I was overjoyed, but also exhausted and lonely. I hope that by being true to that story, it will be true and meaningful for others. I think there's room for all kinds of motherhoods stories, not just a few. We should all tell our stories loudly! How courageous of us to do this kind of insane, beautiful, and terrifying thing! 

What are you proud of about this book? 

I'm proud that I wrote a graphic novel! I'm so proud that I was confident enough to finally call myself a cartoonist. 

And finally, what's the number one best gift for a parent of a newborn? Besides time and money? 

My book! haha... Also, give new mothers so much appreciation. Tell them: You did this incredible thing. I see how hard this was. I see how magical this is. This is work, so much work. You are now qualified to be the president or the boss of any job that exists. You are also qualified to be wrapped in the softest cotton, placed in a tree nook for a year, and fed little berries and ice cream. You can stay longer than a year if you want! You are now allowed to walk naked in the middle of the street, dipping your hands into a jar of Nutella and then licking it all off, making fierce eye contact with any man you pass by. You are now permitted to roam shirtless, never cut your hair again (or cut it all off now!) and bleed into moss. 

Love what we do? Support us on Patreon.

Crucial is a cartoonist-run comics press—our whole job is creating comics community and publishing the work of independent artists. Since we launched last year, we’ve published 70 comics! If that sounds like it’s worth supporting, pitch in on Patreon. Plus you’ll get a free hat. Who can say no to a hat?

Support Crucial on Patreon

Building on our monthly Chronic Illness Comics Club meetups, we’re publishing a zine! It’s called Tired AF: Comics About Chronic Illness.  We are looking for memoir & nonfiction comics about chronic illness. Learn more here!

• People of Boston who love food! Super rad artists Mariah Rose Marie and Shaina Lu are leading a series of free cooking, comics, and collage workshops on the Boston University campus in November. Eat up this opportunity to make zines about tasty food.

• Are you working on a sci-fi comic? The Otherwise Fellowship offers two $500 grants to support “creators from communities that have been historically underrepresented in the science fiction and fantasy genre and those who are working in media other than traditional fiction.” The deadline to apply is December 15.

• Australian literary magazine Island is looking for pitches for its 2026 graphic narratives issue. The pay rate for eight-page comics is $1600 (nice!). The magazine takes submissions from people in Australia and New Zealand and Australians living abroad. The deadline is November 5.

• These are some big grants: The Bobby Anspach Foundation is offering two $50,000 grants and three $8,000 grants to visual artists from anywhere in the world whose “whose practices expand empathy, nurture connection, and respond to the ecological and social challenges of our time.” The deadline to apply is December 30, 2025. Get in there!

Crucial Comix is supported by the Sequential Artists Workshop. Thanks friends!

This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at smirk@crucialcomix.com. 💌

» Cranberry Juice - Sobriety has been a lonely road, but I made it out okay. 

» Connecting Through Closed Doors - How I’m learning to embrace the beauty, complexity, and humanity of mental health research.

» Birds of Los Angeles - LA is a beautiful city because of migration—both human and otherwise.

» Ravioli Unraveled- The comic essay no one asked for about that commercial where the can of raviolis follows that little girl home.

News: Fighting back against book bans

Illustrations by Maia Kobabe

“Stories tell us who we are and who we can become,” says PEN America’s new Banned Books Report, released for Banned Books Week. “This right – the right to discover – is being taken from students under the guise of their ‘protection.’” The group tracks book bans every year, but what’s new this year is the scale of federal orders to restrict books in schools. Trump’s executive orders have targeted books that explore racism, inequality, and LGBTQ issues. Book bans have also ignited across Canada. Over the summer, the Alberta regional government passed a new restriction on books in schools that harkens back to a 1950s fight over “objectionable publications.”  But many groups are organizing to support students, parents, teachers, and librarians to push back against the book bans.  Authors Against Book Bans, Publishing Professionals Against Book Bans, and the freshly formed Canadian Authors and Illustrators Against Book Bans are all organizing to speak up against bans and to support authors whose work is targeted. If you’re an author or artists who cares about book bans, join up!

The Top Five Most Challenged Books of 2025: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, Breathless by Jennifer Niven [tie], Sold by Patricia McCormick [tie], Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo, A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

Crucial’s publisher Shay Mirk is about to head out on book tour in November celebrate the release of a new book called Making Nonfiction Comics: A Guide to Graphic Narrative. The book, which Shay co-authored with Eleri Harris, details how to create your own nonfiction comics, from journalism to memoir. You can preorder the book through Crucial to support our work! On October 27th, we’re also hosting a free talk with Shay, Eleri, and cartoonist Aubrey Hirsch.

All of our classes are sliding-scale and offered online, so they’re affordable and you can join from anywhere. We also have free spots available in every class and workshop for people who can’t afford the price—get in touch if you’d like to request a free spot!

Classes

Breena Nuñez

Raising (and Drawing) Our Kids Through Chaos - Caregivers of young children are invited to come to attend this class to learn the fundamentals of comics creation while drawing our family stories. Each week will involve discussion, drawing, and writing from prompts offered by teacher Breena Nuñez. Wednesdays, 10/22 – 11/19 , from 5pm-7pmPST/8pm-9pm EST

Queer Economies of Care—Comics Edition: How do queer folks keep each other alive, fed, housed, and laughing—especially when the system isn’t built for us? Co-taught by Gili Rappaport and Joaquin Golez, this six-week class blends queer theory and comics with creative writing and drawing, transforming stories of queer survival and care into comics and zines. Sundays, 11/2–12/7, from 10AM–12PM PST/1pm-3pm EST

Workshops 

Teaching Comics: How to Design Your Own Comics Workshop - Are you interested in running a comics class at your local library, community center, or online? Sarah Maloney leads this essential workshop about designing a workshop! Sunday, October 12 at 11am-1pm PST/2pm-4pm EST

Intermediate to Digital Drawing with Procreate: Get to know Procreate for real! This workshop led by Audra McNamee will challenge you to use new Procreate tools and settings as you make an illustration. Saturday, October 18 from 9-11am PST/12pm-2pm EST

Free Events

Drawing Resistance: Graphic Rage and Making Nonfiction Comics - In this one-hour talk, authors Aubrey Hirsch, Shay Mirk, and Eleri Harris talk about how making comics is an act of political participation and essential self-expression. This one-hour talk by all three authors will be followed by an audience Q&A. Monday October 27 from 4-5pm PST / 7-8pm EST

Chronic Illness Comics Club: This free, low-key meetup is a place for people with chronic illnesses to connect and create art. Artist Zareen Choudhury will lead the group through a writing and drawing prompt, then everyone is given the chance to share their work. Next meetup is this Sunday, October 29 from 11am-12:15pm PST/2pm-3:15pm EST

Irish cartoonist Pan Cooke takes on difficult topics in his short comics. In just a few Instagram-size panels, his comics tell stories of police brutality, systemic violence and reproductive justice. Pan started off as a portrait artist and illustrator. But during COVID lockdown, he shifted to drawing comics about real-world violence. "One of the main [pieces of] feedback that I get is that, through the comics, you can kind of get more of a visual idea of the story without having to view the violence directly," he told NPR in 2023. We asked Pan about his approach to creating the comic, below, that reflects on the response to the shootings of Charlie Kirk compared to two Minnesota representatives.

What feelings were you sorting through as you made this comic? 

PAN COOKE: The idea for this comic was sparked by an argument I had with a Trump supporter in my life after Charlie Kirk’s assassination. They were parroting Trump’s line that the left is solely responsible for the rise in political violence, with the right being the only ones targeted. But when I mentioned Melissa Hortman, they had no idea who she was. That stuck with me. So when an Instagram follower later messaged me asking if I’d consider making a comic about Hortman, it felt like the right moment to finally put those thoughts into panels.

One of our new comics this week is by Joyce Gao, who works as a neuroscience research assistant at Brown University. “Connecting Through Closed Doors” is her first published comic! She created it through our volunteer editing process—Crucial linked Joyce up with editors Xenon Honchar and Matteo Farinella to complete the comic.

Why did making this comic feel important to you? 

JOYCE GAO: I think this is important to me because I felt a sense of disconnect between the human experience of mental illness and the academic study of it when I first started working as a research assistant at my current lab. It was hard to link my day-to-day work back to the people I care about, so creating this comic became a way to process those feelings, spark conversations with others who have gone through similar things, and hopefully humanize mental health research for readers outside the field.

What was it like working with Crucial's  editors? How did the comic change with their guidance? 

JOYCE GAO: I loved working with them! Xenon and Matteo were both incredibly supportive and generous with their time. They really helped me refine the visual language and clarify the overall message. I had a lot of last-minute doubts about the ending, but they were very patient with me and helped me walk through the decisions. I’m really grateful for their time and effort.

Building on our monthly Chronic Illness Comics Club meetups, we’re publishing a zine! It’s called Tired AF: Comics About Chronic Illness.  We are looking for memoir & nonfiction comics about chronic illness. Learn more here!

This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at smirk@crucialcomix.com. 💌

» Birds of Los Angeles: My city is beautiful because of migration—human and otherwise.

We just finalized our workshop and class lineup for the fall! All of our classes are sliding-scale and we have free spots available for people who can’t afford the price—get in touch if you’d like to request a free spot!

Editing Comics with Shay Mirk This hands-on class focuses on editing other peoples’ nonfiction work while also improving your own. Over five sessions, we’ll focus on both practical editing skills and reflect on personal topics such as dealing with conflict and communicating well with collaborators. Tuesdays, Sept 30-Oct. 28 from 4-5:30pm PST/7-8:30pm EST

Raising (and Drawing) Our Kids Through Chaos with Breena Nuñez Caregivers of young children are invited to learn the fundamentals of comics creation while drawing our family stories. This class is designed for us to reflect, release, and illustrate our solidarity with families across the world who are oppressed and being silenced for speaking the truth about ongoing forms of colonialism. Wednesdays, Oct. 22 - Nov. 19, 5pm-7pmPST/8pm-9pm EST

Fall workshops:

• How to Get an Agent: In this two-hour workshop, cartoonist Al Benbow will cover the basics of how to get an agent for a graphic novel project: preparing your pitch, querying agents, and how to know when you’ve found an agent that’s right for you. Thursday September 18, 4-6pm PST/7-9pm EST.

• Intro to Digital Drawing with Procreate: Do you have an iPad but feel intimidated by drawing on it? This workshop led by Audra McNamee will support you in learning tips and tricks to illustrate in the app Procreate. Wednesday, September 24 from 5-7pm PST/8-10pm EST

• Teaching Comics: How to Design Your Own Comics Workshop - Get support in designing a one-hour comic workshop that you can teach online or in person. Artist Sarah Maloney will go over warm ups, writing prompts and exercises, timing, and writing a workshop outline. Sunday, October 12 at 11am-1pm PST/2pm-4pm EST

Our bags are packed full of comics for the Small Press Expo this weekend, kicking off three months of independent comics festivals. We’re excited to bring the work of many creators to the Crucial Comix table at all these festivals:

• Small Press Expo, September 13-14 — Bethesda, MD
• Comic Arts Festival of Eugene, October 4 — Eugene, OR
• Short Run Comix Festival, November 1 — Seattle, WA
• Portland Zine Symposium, November 9 (Sunday only) — Portland, OR
• Nonfiction Comics Fest, November 15, Burlington, VT
• MICE, December 6-7, Boston, MA

News: What’s Going on in Washington, D.C.?

A massive protest against the deployment of the National Guard in D.C. on Sept 6th, 2025. Photo by Geoff Livingston (CC)

The nation’s biggest independent comics festival, the Small Press Expo, will bring hundreds of cartoonists to the suburbs of Washington, D.C. this weekend. This is a particularly dicey time to be in D.C., writes comics journalist Josh Kramer in a dispatch from his home city. Since Trump deployed National Guard squads across the city, “Common, everyday stuff, like not paying the bus fare—which kind of became the norm in the pandemic—might be enough reason for you to end up in jail now if you’re Black or brown.” Josh has lived in D.C. for the past twenty years and writes in his newsletter:

“Every day we find out a little more, just how bad it can be. When the police pull someone over now, it is indeed the same policemen, but now there might be an ICE agent riding in the back seat, pulling the immigration status of the resident they pulled over and detaining them on the spot. Or, a half dozen masked, plainclothes agents might leap out of a van and pull someone off a moped. After detaining someone, they sometimes leave their truck running, door ajar, in the middle of the street, as if they have been raptured up to heaven.”

Read Josh’s whole essay here.

• Wild Ramp publishing is offering $250 grants to people who want to make zines about disability justice! The deadline to apply is September 12. 

• Are you making a comic about anything medieval? The Newberry Library is offering $250 grants to cartoonists working on minicomics about medieval culture. A great opportunity for anyone obsessed with knights. Applications close October 17.

• Artists in Los Angeles County! Check out the Lightning Fund, which offers $6,000 to visual artists producing work outside of museums and traditional galleries. That sounds like a comics project for sure! Applications close October 5th.

• Artists in Oregon! A $5,000 Community Storytelling Fellowship from Oregon Humanities supports writers and artists working in any medium who want to create a story about a community they’re a part of. Applications close October 1.

Crucial Comix is supported by the Sequential Artists Workshop. Thanks friends!

This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at smirk@crucialcomix.com. 💌

We launched Crucial Comix in September 2024—one year ago! Over the past year, we’ve created a home for nonfiction comics. We’ve worked to expand the reach of independent cartoonists, built a mutually supportive comics community around the world, and led classes that empower people of all backgrounds with the skills to powerfully write, draw, and share their own stories. 

Huge news: the idea works! Since we launched a year ago, we’ve run 33 workshops and classes, published 64 comics, paid cartoonists $6,473 for their work, and paid artists a whopping $18,000 to teach comics classes. We also published the anthology Cartoonists for Palestine and donated over $3,000 to Palestinian medical aid. 

What next? We’re starting a Patreon to cover the cost of running the site, to pay our editors, and to have a larger budget for publishing more nonfiction comics. We’re in this for the long haul. In prioritizing payments to artists, we haven’t been paying our editors (Audra and Shay) for running the publication. We want Crucial to be a sustainable site and not flame out like so many independent media outlets have. All the comics on our site will remain free and not behind a paywall, people who join our Patreon support that work and get fun extra perks (like a hat!).

Comics are rooted in collaboration and community-building, in sharing your weird, wild voice without censorship or corporate control. The funding comes from our community—that’s you. Pitch in to support independent artists and keep building a future where comics are crucial. 

» Creative Spark: As an artist, I use all kinds of technological tools. So why does AI feel so distinctly repulsive?

» Dear Diary: After my mother died, reading her diaries helped me connect with who she was before dementia.

Back in Stock: Cartoonists for Palestine

We sold out of the first print run of 1,000 copies of the Cartoonists for Palestine anthology! We’re working with a printer in Beirut to publish a second edition that incorporates new art. But until that edition is available (hopefully this fall), we just got more copies of the sold-out anthology back in stock. We donate 100% of the profits from this book to four Palestinian medical aid groups listed here. 

The anthology was featured this week in the new issue of In These Times. In the article, anthology co-editor Yazan al-Saadi said, “Fascism, dictatorship or totalitarianism tries to remove the imagination, so you can’t see the horizon. Those in power want us to narrow our thoughts. Art allows us to reimagine our futures, rather than just accept evil.”  

All of our classes are sliding-scale and offered online, so they’re affordable and you can join from anywhere. We also have free spots available in every class and workshop for people who can’t afford the price—get in touch if you’d like to request a free spot!

• Comics Editing: Want to learn how to edit comics? This hands-on class focuses on editing other peoples’ nonfiction work while also improving your own. Over five sessions, comics creator Shay Mirk and guest teacher Whit Taylor will focus on both practical editing skills and reflect on personal topics such as dealing with conflict and communicating well with collaborators. Tuesdays, September 30-October 28 from 4-5:30pm PST/7-8:30pm EST

• How to Get an Agent: In this two-hour workshop, cartoonist Al Benbow will cover the basics of how to get an agent for a graphic novel project: preparing your pitch, querying agents, and how to know when you’ve found an agent that’s right for you. Thursday September 18, 4-6pm PST/7-9pm EST.

• Intro to Digital Drawing with Procreate: Do you have an iPad but feel intimidated by drawing on it? This workshop led by Audra McNamee will support you in learning tips and tricks to illustrate in the app Procreate. Wednesday, September 24 from 5-7pm PST/8-10pm EST

What’s Your Favorite Pen?

We asked five artists to share the most precious item in their drawer: a favorite pen.

Maia Kobabe is the author of graphic memoir “Gender Queer” and the artist of the educational book “Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding.”  // At the moment my favorite pen is the Mildliner double-ended marker which has a brush tip and a writing tip and comes in a ton of fun colors. I bought about 10 of these last summer and they've been my go-to for sketchbook drawing ever since! You can buy them in 5-packs that are already very nice limited color palettes. ✑ @redgoldsparks

Zareen Choudhury is the facilitator of Crucial’s Chronic Illness Comics Club. // I've recently enjoyed playing with the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen. It's not the easiest to control, but I love the bold, unexpected line-width variation it produces. When I'm writing or drawing more fine details, I can always rely on my Micron pens which are conveniently waterproof! ✑ @catch.some.zees

Ren Strapp is the author of the zine “Heavyweight Desk Jockey World Champ” and YA graphic novel “How Could You?” // My actual favorite pen (Pilot Multi Ball Rollerball Pen, LM-10F-B) has been discontinued, which makes me soooo sad because I've been using them for literal years and years. It writes so smoothly, doesn't bleed through my planner, doesn't spit extra ink, and the ink is so even across the strokes. Pilot Juice Up Gel Pen is a good backup, though. We use it for our grocery list, and it makes grocery shopping fun because the ink flow is so smooth and juicy. ✑ @renstrapp

Kane Lynch is the author of the graphic memoir Reel Life and the teacher of Crucial class Make Your Dang Comic!  // My favorite pen is the Zebra Brush Pen (medium tip). It's flexible both literally and figuratively—the tip bends, so you can vary line width for dynamic cartoon art, but it's also easy to use like a "regular" pen without a lot of practice. They're great for professional 'tooning, but also everyday tasks where you need a pen. In classes, I give them to six year olds and to adults and everyone seems to enjoy them. ✑ @kaneicaruslynch

Audra McNamee is Crucial’s editor and the author of many zines. // My favorite pens are very me, for better or worse. My long-time favorite pen is a decently priced fountain pen, a Hongdian A3 with a Long Blade nib. This has an architect nib type effect, where horizontal strokes are thick and vertical strokes are thin. It's easy to write and draw with, and makes lines a bit more interesting than just a standard pen. It's what I do a lot of my scribbly daily comics with. ✑ @audmcname

• Wild Ramp publishing is offering $250 grants to people who want to make zines about disability justice! The deadline to apply is September 12. 

• Queer comics fest Pride in Panels is open for applications! The San Francisco festival highlighting LGBTQ artists will take place February 15. Applications close September 8. 

• Artists in Los Angeles County! Check out the Lightning Fund, which offers $6,000 to visual artists producing work outside of museums and traditional galleries. That sounds like a comics project for sure! Applications close October 5th.

• Artists in Oregon! A $5,000 Community Storytelling Fellowship from Oregon Humanities supports writers and artists working in any medium who want to create a story about a community they’re a part of. Applications close October 1.

Crucial Comix is supported by the Sequential Artists Workshop. Thanks friends!

Illustration at the top of this newsletter is by Casper Mayberry. This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at smirk@crucialcomix.com. 💌

» Fighting Loneliness With Dragons: Artist Joy Alicia Raines thought curing her loneliness would require something grand. But it was a pile of clay and a group of strangers that helped her reconnect.

» A Trip to Minsk: Artist Victoria Lomasko shares an excerpt from her new book The Last Soviet Artist that documents the bravery of Belarusian protests in 2020.

» Yield: To survive as a disabled person, I have to give away so much of myself to this dehumanizing bureaucracy. 

OCD and Me: Artist Scott McCormick documents his daily struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder in this beautifully illustrated, horror-tinged memoir comic.

Making Memoir Comics Zine: Since 2020, Shay Mirk has taught the class “Making Memoir Comics.” This zine collects 10 thought-provoking exercises on storytelling and comics-creation from that class.

Heavyweight Desk Jockey: Is your back hurting right at this moment? Check out this practical and playful comic about staying strong when you have a desk job. A must-read for any artist who’s hunched over their desk like a gremlin!

All of our classes are sliding-scale and offered online, so they’re affordable and you can join from anywhere. We also have free spots available in every class and workshop for people who can’t afford the price—get in touch if you’d like to request a free spot!

• Comics Editing: Want to learn how to edit comics? This hands-on class focuses on editing other peoples’ nonfiction work while also improving your own. Over five sessions, comics creator Shay Mirk and guest teacher Whit Taylor will focus on both practical editing skills and reflect on personal topics such as dealing with conflict and communicating well with collaborators. Tuesdays, September 30-October 28 from 4-5:30pm PST/7-8:30pm EST

• How to Get an Agent: In this two-hour workshop, cartoonist Al Benbow will cover the basics of how to get an agent for a graphic novel project: preparing your pitch, querying agents, and how to know when you’ve found an agent that’s right for you. Thursday September 18, 4-6pm PST/7-9pm EST.

• Intro to Digital Drawing with Procreate: Do you have an iPad but feel intimidated by drawing on it? This workshop led by Audra McNamee will support you in learning tips and tricks to illustrate in the app Procreate. Wednesday, September 24 from 5-7pm PST/8-10pm EST

What We’re Reading

Three comics from Latin America

Mercedes Campos Lopez is a cartoonist who’s passionate about using comics for education and science communication. Her comic about Mexico’s complicated anti-smog policy “Hoy No Circula” has absolutely blown up on Instagram. We asked Mercedes, who was born in Mexico and raised in Virginia, to recommend three comics from Latin America. 

• Mafalda by Quino (Argentina) - The best way I’ve heard Mafalda be described is: Peanuts if Charlie Brown was socialist. I grew up hearing my Dad talk about Mafalda and hearing many of the jokes and setups second hand.  A few years ago my dad gifted me the complete set of Mafalda strips and my goal is to read all the strips. It recently got an English translation so this is a good time to give it a try!

• The Eternaut by Héctor Germán Oesterheld and Francisco Solano López (Argentina) - I was introduced to this comic during my MFA and quickly became obsessed with it! It’s difficult to explain the plot but it’s a science fiction mystery with aliens and time travel. I love the art and as someone who leans very heavily on color, I am amazed by how much López achieved with black and white, not even any grey.  My dad and I are re-reading it right now before watching the TV show that came out this year!

• Los Agachados de Rius by Rius (Mexico) -  This is another comic that my father introduced me to and talked about since I was very young. It’s a political cartoon written by a socialist cartoonist that offers social commentary and a glimpse into the daily lives of Mexicans in the 60s and 70s. I love the art— it’s loose and expressive in a way that really captures the rich cultural tapestry and colorful archetypes of Mexican society.  You can see one issue covers the Mexican movement of 1968 and the resulting Tlateloco massacre that my grandparents narrowly escaped. In particular I love this panel in it that I think shows his confrontational spirit perfectly. The text says, “I’m leaving this space empty so you can insult me freely.”

• Queer comics fest Pride in Panels is open for applications! The San Francisco festival highlighting LGBTQ artists will take place February 15. Applications close September 8. 

• Are you a scientist? Do you want to collaborate with a cartoonist to make a comic about your work? Biologist and cartoonist Caroline Hu is looking for scientists at any career stage who want to work with student artists to make comics about their research! Info here. 

• It would be amazing to live in London so I could apply for this job as the director of the Cartoon Museum! Applications close September 4th.

Crucial Comix is supported by the Sequential Artists Workshop. Thanks friends!

This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at smirk@crucialcomix.com. 💌

» Character Bleed: Creating characters for role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons helped me realize I'm trans.

» Hoy No Circula: To fight pollution, in 1989 Mexico City passed a law to limit the number of cars on the road. How did that turn out?

» Yield: To survive as a disabled person, I have to give away so much of myself to this dehumanizing bureaucracy. 

» It’s Not Everyday: A personal reflection on inpatient treatment for depression and anxiety—it didn’t heal me, but it stabilized me.

What We’re Reading

Dan Archer is a British comics journalist and author of Voices from Nepal, a graphic novel about human trafficking and the efforts taken to stop it in Nepal. The book is also a guide for how comics journalism can be used in awareness-raising campaigns. It holds up a mirror up to the ways that international and local NGOs study and combat trafficking, reflecting on both the positive and negative impacts they can have. Through a combination of live sketches, illustrated reportage, and visual testimonies, Dan champions the use of graphic journalism in human rights reporting and emphasizes the need for a survivor-centric approach to this work. We asked Dan to share three nonfiction comics he loves. 

Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco - This work couldn't be more urgent reading these days. But what truly sets it apart is how Sacco blends different strands of history to chronicle the catastrophic suffering of the Palestinian people. 

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton - This is a slow-burn masterpiece about underreported parts of Canada I had no idea about, as well as the toxic culture surrounding it.

March by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell - Powell's fluid panel layouts spill out of the fixed panel grid and really elevate this to another level.

Postcard print: We printed up the title panel from Ree Artemisa’s gorgeous comic “The Land Is an Ancestor We Refuse to Abandon” as a print that can either be hung on your wall or mailed as a postcard. We’re donating $1 from every sale to life-saving migrant support group No Más Muertes.  

Top Surgery Care Zine Pack: Do you know someone who’s getting top surgery? Maybe this person is you! We put together an adorable pack of three zines about top surgery experiences, plus a holographic Gender Euphoria sticker. 

Normalize Crying in Public: The perfect sticker for our times.

All of our classes are sliding-scale and offered online, so they’re affordable and you can join from anywhere. We also have free spots available in every class and workshop for people who can’t afford the price—get in touch if you’d like to request a free spot!

Flyer illustration by Casper Mayberry.

• Pleasure is Powerful: A Sex-Positive Zine-Making Workshop: Whether you’re a seasoned sex educator, or you’re just beginning to unlearn the culture of sex negativity, come join artist Caitlin Chow-Ise for some low-stakes reflection and creation! Saturday, August 23rd at 10am-noon PST/1pm-3pm EST

• Make Your Dang Comic! Cartooning Fundamentals: Artist Kane Lynch’s popular class on kickstarting your creativity returns for a new eight-week session in August. Whether you’re an experienced artist or a total beginner, this class will put you on track to create a finished comic you can be proud of. Tuesdays from 5pm-7pmPST/8pm-10pm EST from August 12th – September 30 

• Intermediate to Digital Drawing with Procreate: Get to know Procreate for real! This workshop led by Audra McNamee will challenge you to use new Procreate tools and settings as you make an illustration. Monday, August 18 from 5-7pm PST/8-10pm EST

Free Meetup 

Chronic Illness Comics Club: This free, low-key meetup is a place for people with chronic illnesses to connect and create art. Artist Zareen Choudhury will lead the group through a writing and drawing prompt, then everyone is given the chance to share their work. Next meetup is this Sunday, August 10, at 11am-12:15pm PST/2pm-3:15pm EST

Project Spotlight: Drawing Resistance

Portraits of Palestinian journalists and healthcare workers

Over the past year, Italian artist Gianluca Costantini has devoted himself to a difficult task: creating portraits of journalists and healthcare workers who have been murdered by the Israeli military in Palestine. Gianluca especially focuses on people where there are no photographs available. “My illustrations are not mere portraits; they are activist testimonies that seek to restore dignity and humanity to those who are often reduced to statistics or erased by major international media,” writes Gianluca. “With an essential but intense line, I aim to give a human face to those brutally erased by violence, turning these images into a living memorial and an urgent call to defend freedom of information.” Gianluca began this project as a collaboration with the Committee to Protect Journalists—since 2023, 186 journalists have been killed in Israel and Occupied Palestinian territories. He makes all the portraits available to download, print, and share, so they’ve been displayed at vigils and protests across the world.

Read the series

• The Nonfiction Comics Fest in Vermont just extended its application for artists. This is a free festival in November that’s on the smaller side, but every single artist is amazing. It’s a great festival for first-time tablers, so if you’re a slightly anxious artist… get in there! Applications are due August 10.   

• The Black Zine Fair is a very cool festival of Black zine makers and they’re hosting a mini-festival in Detroit, Michigan on August 9th. If you’re near Detroit, check it out! 

• Portland, Oregon artists! Applications are open for Regional Arts and Culture Council grants for projects with budgets ranging from $1,000-5,000. This is the perfect grant for funding a comic! Applications close September 24. 

• A ton of zines are currently looking for submissions. These are unpaid, but contributing to a group zine is a great way to get a comic published and connect to community. Here’s just a sampling of zines looking for art right now: Bird’s Nest zine out of Spokane, Washington is looking for submissions on the theme of “analog,”  Junk Drawer is a zine out of Nebraska (cool!) that’s looking for artists with any connection to the state to submit, the Twin Cities Collage Collective is looking for queer and trans artists to submit to a new issue (make a collage comic!), and Austin’s Sherwood Forest zine library is looking for downloadable zines to feature in their archive. 

This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at smirk@crucialcomix.com. 💌

» The Land Is an Ancestor We Refuse to Abandon: The bats didn’t come back to our garden this year. I think it’s because of the mines.

» OCD and Me: Sometimes I feel like my brain is only half mine.

Meet the Artist: Ree Artemisa

Ree Artemisa created the stunning comic The Land is an Ancestor We Refuse to Abandon about their family’s relationship to the land of Rio Rico, Arizona, and the grassroots efforts to protest the construction of new mines in the area. Ree paints zines and comics that often center on magic, nature, and queer identity, but taking on the creation of a 50-panel reported story took months of work. This comic was edited and published as a collaboration between Crucial and The Revelator.  

What was your process for creating this comic? 

I paint and draw all my comics and also like to use walnut ink for the words. Since I don't smoke like I used to, I need to frantically chew on a little toothpick while working. I usually like to sit alone with my window open, just listening to the birds outside and staring at a blank page for a little while before things start pouring out. I like to draw the most in the early morning because it's beautifully quiet and it’s the best lighting I get at my desk all day. 

How did making this comic feel? It's different from a lot of your previous work! 

This comic is definitely different than my previous work! I heavily relied on colored pencils to create a backdrop of the land. Rio Rico sometimes feels like it's been drawn in colored pencil IRL, the land is vast and airy and the colors of the earth and sky smudge together in a way I haven't seen anywhere else. I was also heavily inspired by the colorful ways my people paint retablos and build road shrines down here. There are a lot of little shrines for loved ones who have passed or shrines for La Virgen. People often paint the religious and their personal iconography in simple, accessible and colorful ways that I find beautiful. Making this felt like a form of love and devotion to the land here and to all the people who take care of it and respect it. My roots are humble but they're strong and deep.

Read Ree’s comic

We’re excited to feature some very fun new zines and stickers in our store, all made by independent artists whose work we want to support. Check out what’s new. 

• OCD and Me Zine: The response to Scott McCormick’s comic OCD and Me was so strong and positive that we printed it up as a 20-page zine. 

• Top Surgery Care Zine Pack: This collection of two mini-zines documenting trans experiences with top surgery plus a holographic “Gender Euphoria” sticker by artist Leif J. Lee makes a perfect gift for anyone who’s considering top surgery. 

• Making Memoir Comics Zine: Since 2020, Shay Mirk has taught the class “Making Memoir Comics.” This zine collects 10 thought-provoking exercises on storytelling and comics-creation from that class.

• Normalize Crying in Public sticker: Unfortunately, Los Angeles artist Sandy Lopez created the absolutely perfect sticker for our time. 

All of our classes are sliding-scale and offered online, so they’re affordable and you can join from anywhere. We also have free spots available in every class and workshop for people who can’t afford the price—get in touch if you’d like to request a free spot!

• Intro to Digital Drawing with Procreate: Just picked up a new iPad? Want to get into drawing digitally? This beginner-friendly workshop led by Audra McNamee will go over a basic comics-making workflow in Procreate. Monday, July 14 from 5-7pm PST/8-10pm EST

• Make Your Dang Comic! Cartooning Fundamentals: Artist Kane Lynch’s popular class on kickstarting your creativity returns for a new eight-week session in August. Whether you’re an experienced artist or a total beginner, this class will put you on track to create a finished comic you can be proud of. Tuesdays from 5pm-7pmPST/8pm-10pm EST from August 12th – September 30 

• How to Never Get Writer’s Block Again: Berlin-based animator and comic artist Ami Bogin will share a series of prompts and practical techniques to blow away the brain fog and help you develop a creative practice that works for you. This is a two-part online workshop in the Central European Timezone. Saturdays August 9th and 16th from 2pm-4pm CET.

Pleasure is Powerful: A Sex-Positive Zine-Making Workshop: Whether you’re a seasoned sex educator, or you’re just beginning to unlearn the culture of sex negativity, come join artist Caitlin Chow-Ise for some low-stakes reflection and creation! Saturday, August 23rd at 10am-noon PST/1pm-3pm EST.

Free Meetup

Chronic Illness Comics Club: Do you make or read comics about chronic illness? Come hang out and share your work! This is a very chill, low-key monthly meetup. Arielle Duhaime-Ross is facilitating July’s meetup. Sunday July 27th at 11am PST/1pm EST.

• Bay Area artists! The San Francisco library is looking for an illustrator who has published a children’s book to feature for a citywide literacy campaign. The stipend is $5,000. If that sounds like you, applications are open until July 14.

• Utah, Texas, and St. Louis artists! A project called Local Artist Sticker Machine is looking for work to turn into stickers that they sell from cute vending machines. Featured artists are paid royalties for their work. Apply here!

• Are you looking for places to pitch a graphic novel? The newsletter Tea Goblin Cafe put together a very helpful spreadsheet of publishers and anthologies currently looking for submissions.

This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at smirk@crucialcomix.com. 💌

» Coming Out of the Storm by Nie Dos - The Pulse nightclub was the first place that felt like home for me as a queer person—then the shooting happened.

» Hotel Dieu by Emma Akins - Freshly sober, trying to sleep in the same room as a fridge full of alcohol was like trying to sleep in a room with a monster.

» Young Love by Sadie Levine - A playful memory of my first crush: a second-grader who loved to pick his nose.

Behind the Comic

“Coming Out of the Storm” is artist Nie Dos’s first-ever published comic. She created the memoir comic reflecting on the joy she found at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub before the 2016 shooting. After Nie pitched the comic in March, Crucial paired her up with volunteer editors Mattie Lubchansky and Audra McNamee. “Over the past nine years, I’ve read and watched so much about the Pulse nightclub shooting. It felt rare to read stories that captured what Pulse was like before the tragedy,” says Nie. “Pulse was a place where I could just be as a queer, gender-nonconforming, mixed-race Latina. It was also the first space where I truly felt the power and importance of community. Creating this comic was both challenging and cathartic. The visual storytelling came most naturally and old journal entries helped me reconnect with specific memories. But articulating how I felt in words was hard. This is where I’m especially grateful for Crucial Comix’s editing support. With Audra and Mattie’s help, I was able to clarify the narrative, improve the pacing, and make room for emotional honesty. I’m proud to have this story be my first published comic. Pulse really was so much more than a nightclub, and I hope this piece honors that.”

Read Nie’s comic

✨Drink and Draw!✨ We’re hosting a chill in-person drink and draw in Portland on June 26th outside “best comics shop in the world” Books With Pictures (1401 SE Division). Come hang out, draw, and meet some new people!

June 22nd: Summer Story Fest in Portland, Oregon - Stop by this adorable little festival celebrating zines, riso printing, and illustration. Plus there will be ice cream.  

June 28-29: Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (CAKE) - We’ll be at this very fun gathering of cartoonists in the great Midwest. It’s free, come hang!

All of our classes are sliding-scale and offered online, so they’re affordable and you can join from anywhere. We also have free spots available in every class and workshop for people who can’t afford the price—get in touch if you’d like to request a free spot!

• Intro to Digital Drawing with Procreate: Just picked up a new iPad? Want to get into drawing digitally? This beginner-friendly workshop led by Audra McNamee will go over a basic comics-making workflow in Procreate. Monday, July 14 from 5-7pm PST/8-10pm EST

• Make Your Dang Comic! Cartooning Fundamentals: Artist Kane Lynch’s popular class on kickstarting your creativity returns for a new eight-week session in August. Whether you’re an experienced artist or a total beginner, this class will put you on track to create a finished comic you can be proud of. Tuesdays from 5pm-7pmPST/8pm-10pm EST from August 12th – September 30 

• How to Never Get Writer’s Block Again: Berlin-based animator and comic artist Ami Bogin will share a series of prompts and practical techniques to blow away the brain fog and help you develop a creative practice that works for you. This is a two-part online workshop in the Central European Timezone. Saturdays August 9th and 16th from 2pm-4pm CET.

News

In a heartbreaking blow to trans teens and their families, the Supreme Court ruled this week that state bans on gender-affirming care for trans teens can remain in place. While every major medical and mental health organization in the US has found that gender-affirming care can be evidence-based and medically necessary, since 2021, 26 states have passed bans on gender-affirming care for minors. Cartoonist Al Benbow wrote about the hypocrisy of this manufactured controversy in their Crucial comic “Why Wouldn’t I Want That?” Many people receive gender-affirming healthcare without controversy—when cis people receive hormonal and surgical treatments, it’s just called “healthcare.” As a teenager, Al was prescribed hormonal acne treatment Spironolactone. In college, they learned that the drug is a hormonal anti-androgen and is often taken by trans women. “I’ve mostly just been thinking about how this Supreme Court decision is going to make so many trans kids in red states feel so hopeless,” says Al. “I want to emphasize to them that regardless of whether you’re able to medically or socially transition as a teen, it’s still so possible to grow up and have an incredibly fulfilling and happy life as a trans person. It wasn’t possible for me to transition until I was in my 20s, and I made it. Trans futures are always possible!”

Read Al’s comic

Joaquin Golez is an illustrator, teacher, tattoo artist, and “mixed-race unsortable gender goblin” who is currently teaching Crucial’s very fun class Sexy Comics for Shy People. We asked Joaquin to share three scintillating queer comics he loves.

💜 Cuckoos Three by Cassandra Jean + MossKat ~ This has become one of my comfort comics. A friend lent it to me during yet another one of my post-breakup depressive slumps and I truly didn't want the story to end. Despite being a sweet and wholesome romance, the characters have some very real mental health challenges that get me right in my good cry zone every time. Not to mention the art style is gorgeous.

💜 When I Arrived at the Castle by E.M Carroll ~ I literally just purchased and eagerly consumed this deliciously sexy and BEAUTIFULLY executed horror comic from master of queer horror, E.M Carroll. GODDAMN it's like this was MADE FOR ME. Big titty furry girl + menacing sapphic vampiress bathed in blood and visual decadence = my freaky niche.

💜 Hanamonogatari by Schwinn ~ I really like reading stories about older queer people because, well, I'm getting older. As queer people, we often find ourselves without the guidance of community elders so I find myself very comforted by these kinds of perspectives. Hanamonogatari is a subtle, sexy and beautifully crafted slice of life Yuri manga, that emphasizes queer resilience and the infinite ability to reinvent ourselves.   

• Fall comics festivals are taking applications now for tablers. Check out the applications for Short Run (Seattle), Ann Arbor Comic Arts Fest (Ann Arbor, Michigan), and a very sweet sounding youth comics festival in Massachusetts for artists ages 8-18. 

• Create a comic about fat liberation for the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. Their community blog is looking for submissions and pays $125 for accepted pieces—they’re encouraging comics artists to submit work! 

• Are you looking for places to pitch a graphic novel? The newsletter Tea Golbin Cafe put together a very helpful spreadsheet of publishers and anthologies currently looking for submissions.

This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at smirk@crucialcomix.com. 💌

» Why Wouldn’t I Want That? by Al Benbow: Gender-affirming care for trans people is hotly debated, but for cisgender people, it's just called "healthcare.”

» Pride and Pelicans by Mariah-Rose Marie: My first queer date didn’t go quite as planned. 

» Queer Uprisings by Hazel Newlevant: Stonewall was an important turning point, but by no means were the riots the first act of queer resistance.

» Why Did I Think I Was Straight? By S. Mirk: In my mid-thirties, all my friends seem to be asking the same question. Why did it take us so long to feel certain in our bodies?

Check out the new nonfiction comics we’ve published in the past month. 

» In Lieu of Flowers by Kayte Young: As an abuse survivor with no living parent, I'm haunted by a question that can never be answered. 

» Naked and Afraid of Long Covid by Bryn Adams: I started thinking of my long COVID as a survival reality show.

» Keeping Secrets by Judy Powell: It was thirty years before I told my sister about the sexual assault.

» On a Walk With Mom by Sandra Grbic: A memory from growing up in Serbia offers a child's understanding of political violence.

All of our classes are sliding-scale and offered online, so they’re affordable and you can join from anywhere. We also have free spots available in every class and workshop for people who can’t afford the price—get in touch if you’d like to request a free spot!

• Pitching a Graphic Novel: In this two-hour workshop, cartoonist Al Benbow will go over the key components of a successful graphic novel pitch. Thursday June 12, 5-7pm PST/8-10pm EST

• Chronic Illness Comics Club: This free, low-key meetup is a place for people with chronic illnesses to connect and create art. Artist Zareen Choudhury will lead the group through a writing and drawing prompt, then everyone is given the chance to share their work. Next meetup is Sunday, June 15, at 11am PST/2pm EST

• Make Your Dang Comic! Cartooning Fundamentals: Artist Kane Lynch’s popular class on kickstarting your creativity returns for a new eight-week session in August. Whether you’re an experienced artist or a total beginner, this class will put you on track to create a finished comic you can be proud of. Tuesdays from 5pm-7pm PST/8pm-10pm EST from August 12th – September 30

June 7-8: Toronto Comics Arts Fest (TCAF) - Canadians! Come revel at this beloved, long-running comics festival that takes over Toronto for two days. We’re table 192. June 22nd: Summer Story Fest in Portland, Oregon - Stop by this adorable little festival celebrating zines, riso printing, and illustration. Plus there will be ice cream.   June 28-29: Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (CAKE) - We’ll be at this very fun gathering of cartoonists in the great Midwest. It’s free, come hang!

Artist Spotlight: Ronna Raz

Ronna Raz is a 24-year-old comics artist from California’s Bay Area who just finished up an internship making nonfiction comics for San Francisco newspaper Mission Local.  She started making comics while in school at The Animation Workshop, where she was inspired by the work of teacher and comics journalist Andy Warner. Besides making comics, Ronna likes to spend her time running Dungeons & Dragons games and laying in the sun. 

How did you get into making nonfiction comics?

I always knew I wanted to do art, but I’ve also always really liked natural sciences. When contemplating which one to build a career in, an art teacher asked me, “Why not both?” I’m very happy to say I found a way to mix art and research!

What's exciting to you about comics journalism? Why do you think you're drawn to this focus? 

Comics can be such an honest medium, it can be both direct, and show the hidden meaning and importance behind the scenes. I like the challenge that drawing what I report brings to the table. What elements do I focus on? What pacing do I give different scenes? What will be drawn versus written, and why? It makes me examine my work through a new lens, and I think that brings so much nuance to a story. I want to continue giving unique voices the spotlight they deserve.

You're part of a younger generation of comics journalists, so where are you excited to go from here? What's your dream story to work on? 

I want to find where comic journalism fits into the current media landscape. Through my work with Mission Local I’ve learned what a struggle it can be to make comics accessible to the general public. By publishing in small-presses, collaborating with journalists in larger newspapers and possibly even publishing myself, I want to find how to make the niche genre of comic journalism more accessible to the general public! I think part of reporting about these stories is having a fascination with weird, specific topics. Right now, my fixation is on the experience of menopause. I know, it’s not the normal topic for a 24-year-old to focus on! But why not? It's a huge phase in the lives of women and gender-nonconforming people, and I want to open the discussion between the younger generation who will go through this, and the generation who already is. I want to change the perception we have of aging, and especially aging women.

Read Ronna’s comic: Catching sight of San Francisco’s urban wildlife

• Fall comics festivals are taking applications now for tablers. Check out the applications for Short Run (in Seattle) and MICE (in Boston). 

• Want to go to Antarctica?! Polar STEAM sends artists to Antarctica along with researchers and educators. All travel costs are covered and you get to work with a cohort of interesting people. Applications for the 2026-2027 season are open now for U.S. residents over age 21, so why not give it a shot? 🐧

• Create a comic about fat liberation for the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. Their community blog is looking for submissions and pays $125 for accepted pieces—they’re encouraging comics artists to submit work! 

• GRRRL Zine Fair is taking submissions for a new zine they could feature at their feminist zine festival and online, plus offer mentoring to the artist. Submit a zine idea and a plan for how you’ll make it—the winner gets an artist fee of £500 and a materials fee of £100 and an online mentoring session. Deadline to apply is June 22.

This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at smirk@crucialcomix.com. 💌

We recently published three comics featuring fresh perspectives on ecology:

We Can’t Kill Our Way Out of a Problem: As ecologists debate what to do about “invasive” swans in New York City, volunteers fight to keep them alive. 

The Queer Ecology of Pigeons: Pigeons remind me that I can create my own feral life in a big city.

Catching Sight of San Francisco’s Urban Wildlife: Wildlife is everywhere, you just need to know where to look.

Plus two very interesting pieces reflecting on politics and history:

“It Was Our Place”: Looking back at the vibrant Japanese American community of Los Angeles’s Crenshaw neighborhood. Artist Sam Nakahira created this history comic through our editing program, developing the comic over several months of working with volunteer editors. 

The Rabbit’s Scream: A dispatch from artist Aleksandar Zogrof in Serbia, where massive youth-led protests have been taking over the streets as hundreds of thousands of people reach a breaking point with government corruption. 

Seattle-based artist Madeleine Jubilee Saito is known for her poetic and profound four-panel grid comics. This spring, she’s marking the release of a gorgeous new book, You Are a Sacred Place: Visual Poems for Living in Climate Crisis, and is co-teaching a compelling workshop for Crucial: Navigating Climate Anxiety and Grief Through Comics. 

I love the visual rhythm of your comics. Do you draw them intuitively or do you work through many drafts of each idea? 

I work through many, many drafts, and I’m always trying to get the best possible rhythm. For my new book, I worked with each spread as a group in Photoshop, and I’d constantly reread the section by making each spread visible to make sure the whole section worked rhythmically. Alongside trying for perfect balance within each four-panel comic and within each spread. 

A spread from “You Are a Sacred Place”

How did you start making your four-panel grid comics? I love the form! 

I’ve been using the four-panel grid since I started doing 30 days of comics in November 2014. I printed out four squares on printer paper and drew everything straight in ink, then photographed it with my busted iPhone 4.  I remember being really inspired by other people making four-panel comics on Tumblr. I remember Alyssa Berg in particular. The four-panel format is just the right length for a single thought, and there are so many possibilities for vertical symmetry, horizontal symmetry, and radial symmetry. You can make the pacing super fast with no words, or you can make the pacing super slow with lots of text. 

Here’s a comic from that first November that I still really like:

What feeling do you hope readers take away from this book?

There are a lot of emotions in this book—despair, rage, sadness, hope. I hope that this book helps people be more present with whatever is already going on within themselves. Emotions that maybe have been buried, haven’t had space to breathe because everyone is working so hard just to survive. I hope this book helps people start to access their own feelings, and their own wisdom, more deeply.

All of our classes are sliding-scale and offered online, so they’re affordable and you can join from anywhere. We also have free spots available in every class and workshop for people who can’t afford the price—get in touch if you’d like to request a free spot!

May 

Intro to Digital Drawing With Procreate: Just picked up a new iPad? Want to get into drawing digitally? This beginner-friendly workshop led by Audra McNamee will go over a basic comics-making workflow in Procreate. Saturday, May 3 from 10-12am PST/1-3pm EST

Big Fat Comics:  Do you find yourself gravitating towards drawing one type of body image in your work? This two-hour workshop led by Nicole Testa LaLiberty playfully examines fatphobia in comics art and offers a couple fat-positive prompts to explore.  Wednesday, May 14th at 4pm-6pm PST/7pm-9pm EST

Chronic Illness Comics Club: This free, low-key meetup is a place for people with chronic illnesses to connect and create art. Artist Zareen Choudhury will lead the group through a writing and drawing prompt, then everyone is given the chance to share their work. Next meetup is Sunday, May 18th at 11am PST/2pm EST

Navigating Climate Anxiety and Grief Through Comics: Artists Denali Sai Nalamalapu and Madeleine Jubilee Saito team up to lead this timely and reflective two-hour workshop.  Tuesday, May 20th, 2pm-4pm PST/5pm-7pm EST

June

Sexy Comics for Shy People: Are you a lover of steamy little pictures but are maybe afraid to make eye contact? This sex-positive, neurodivergent-friendly comics class centering queer and trans erotic art is four sessions stuffed with flirty prompts to get your creative juices flowing. Perfect for Pride month! Taught by Joaquin Golez. Wednesdays in June 2025, 5-7pm PST/8pm-10pm EST  

Pitching a Graphic Novel: In this two-hour workshop, cartoonist Al Benbow will go over the key components of a successful graphic novel pitch.  Thursday June 12, 5-7pm PST/8-10pm EST

Shay tabling at Comic Arts Maine Portland. Hi!

Over the next two months, Crucial is tabling at two comics festivals in Europe, one in Canada, and one in the Midwest! If you live in any of these places, come say hi! 

May 3rd: Comic Invasion Berlin - A very fun, free, volunteer-run festival celebrating indie creators at Berlin’s Museum for Communication. The theme this year is dis_ability. 

May 16 and 17: Fanzineist Vienna - We’re excited to table at this rad gathering of independent publishers from over 33 countries, all coming together for this free three-day festival. 

June 7-8: Toronto Comics Arts Fest (TCAF) - Canadians! Come revel at this beloved, long-running comics festival that takes over Toronto for two days. 

June 23rd: Summer Story Fest in Portland - This small hometown showcase of cartoonist and zine-makers is perfect for meandering around.

June 28-29: Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (CAKE) - We’ll be at this very fun gathering of cartoonists in the great Midwest. It’s free, come hang!

• Scholarships are now open for the Center for Cartoon Studies’ summer workshops. These merit-based scholarships cover the cost of tuition for one summer session at the Vermont-based comics school. It’s open to applicants living in the United States and the deadline to apply is May 8th. 

• For artists in the U.K. and Ireland, there’s a competition to get a short (maximum four-page) comic published in the Observer New Review. Winners receive £1000. The deadline is September 8th. 

• Solstice Magazine is offering a $500 award and print publication for a new piece of graphic fiction or nonfiction. If you’ve got a 1-6 page comic, consider submitting it before June 1! 

• Ignatz Award submissions are now open! The Ignatz Awards are the biggest small-press award for comics in the United States. Winners receive a literal brick. It’s totally okay to submit self-published work!

This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at smirk@crucialcomix.com. 💌

» Creating Space for Trans Joy and Rage by Teddie Bernard - During my first Trans Day of Visibility after starting hormone replacement therapy, I’m feeling like being trans is such a gift.

» Lake Erie Was Dead, Now We’re Fighting for Its Life  by Kelci D. Crawford - Everyone deserves clean water to drink and swim in. But agricultural waste turns the water of the Great Lake toxic. What can we do about it? 

» Uprooted: Voices of Student Homelessness - Over one million students in the United States don’t have a stable home to return to at the end of the day. 

» Toxic Excellence - As vaccine-skeptic RFK now holds immense power in U.S. health policy, a public health worker looks back on what we can learn from 2020. 

» Crying at the Orgy by Laura M. - I felt comfortable being polyamorous. But diving into my first play party filled me with anxiety.

All of our classes are sliding-scale and offered online, so they’re affordable and you can join from anywhere. We also have free spots available in every class and workshop for people who can’t afford the price—get in touch if you’d like to request a free spot!

• Comics for Grief: Grief is different for everyone. Sometimes comics can help you process. In this 3-hr workshop, led by teacher Ali Holmes, we will be focused on how comics artists process grief through the creation of comics.This workshop will include reading portions of several comics and drawing your own comics through prompts and exercises. Saturday, April 12, 10am-1pm PST/1pm-4pm EST

• Forms and Folds: Innovative Shapes for Zines: Unfold new possibilities for storytelling in this hands-on, two-hour workshop exploring the art of forms and folds in comics! Jillian King leads this workshop on how to reimagine the single-page zine, experiment with accordion folds, and dive into the basics of pop-up techniques to transform your comics into interactive and tactile experiences. Wednesday April 23rd, 5-7pm PST/8-10pm EST

• Big Fat Comics:  Do you find yourself gravitating towards drawing one type of body image in your work? This two-hour workshop led by Nicole Testa LaLiberty playfully examines fatphobia in comics art and offers a couple fat-positive prompts to explore.  Wednesday, May 14th at 4pm-6pm PST/7pm-9pm EST

• Navigating Climate Anxiety and Grief Through Comics: Artists Denali Sai Nalamalapu, author of Holler: A Graphic Memoir of Rural Resistance, and Madeleine Jubilee Saito, author of You Are a Sacred Place: Visual Poems for Living in Climate Crisis, team up to lead this timely and reflective two-hour workshop.  Tuesday, May 20th, 2pm-4pm PST/5pm-7pm EST

Over the next two months, Crucial is tabling at two comics festivals in Europe and one in Canada. If you live in any of these places, come say hi! 

May 3rd: Comic Invasion Berlin - A very fun, free, volunteer-run festival celebrating indie creators at Berlin’s Museum for Communication. The theme this year is dis_ability. 

May 16-18: Fanzineist Vienna - We’re excited to table at this rad gathering of independent publishers from over 33 countries, all coming together for this free three-day festival. 

June 7-8: Toronto Comics Arts Fest (TCAF) - Canadians! Come revel at this beloved, long-running comics festival that takes over Toronto for two days.

Shout out!

Artist Maya Escobar, author of the beautiful comic Skin, shouts out the upcoming Black Zine Fair in Brooklyn. This group is running a couple online workshops in April and then the big, in-person event is on May 3rd. The festival is free (though donations are welcome) and centers and celebrates the work of Black zine-makers, saying, “Despite the rich influence Black people have had on publishing, there aren’t enough Black exhibitors at publishing events.” Check it out!

The title of Cara Gormally’s new graphic memoir Everything is Fine, I’ll Just Work Harder hits close to home. Cara describes themselves as “a former badass”—someone who used to pride themselves on getting everything done (career! exercise! family!!) but that comes to a crashing halt as they takes time to deal with grief and trauma. 

I resonate a little too deeply with the title of your book. Can you tell us how your internal monologue shifts over the course of the book? What phrase do you try to keep in mind now? 

CARA: My inner monologue changed tremendously over a few years in therapy. In the beginning, I had such a harsh inner critic—always pushing myself to do more. Between radical acceptance and compassion, I got to a place of deep care and kindness for myself and others. We’re all doing the best we can in every moment. Shit happens—we can’t control everything. What is the grace we can offer ourselves and others? I believe another world is possible—both inside ourselves and outside.

What was the hardest part of writing this book? 

CARA: The hardest part of writing this book was trusting the process. It’s long. It’s lonely. Yet I found everything I needed inside of me and from loved ones and the comics community. It just wasn’t always on the timeline I “expected”—it was on the timeline I didn’t know I needed. Trusting that is challenging.

You have a distinctive drawing style—how do you describe your own style and what do you like about your own drawings? 

CARA: I’d describe my drawing style as simple clean line drawings. Two things come to mind when I think about what I love about my drawings: they feel like a gift of time and play and wonder for myself; and I love that my style continues to evolve—just as I as a human continue to evolve.

Check out the book: Everything is Fine, I’ll Just Work Harder.

• A huge and prestigious prize for people working on graphic nonfiction books is open for applications: The Whitting Creative Nonfiction Grant is $40,000 to work on a “book-length work of deeply researched and imaginatively composed nonfiction for a general adult readership.” Tantalizing. 

• Solstice Magazine is offering a $500 award and print publication for a new piece of graphic fiction of nonfiction. If you’ve got a 1-6 page comic, consider submitting it before June 1!

• Want to make a zine about disability justice? Wild Ramp publishing is offering four $250 micro-grants to creators who want to make disability-focused zines. Applications due April 18.

• Ignatz Award submissions are now open! The Ignatz Awards are the biggest small-press award for comics in the United States. Winners receive a literal brick. It’s totally okay to submit self-published work! 

This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at smirk@crucialcomix.com. 💌

This week, we published two excerpts from graphic memoirs recently published by Graphic Mundi.

» Bald - When I lost all my hair due to alopecia, my perspective on relationships and work—and myself—radically changed.

» Shrink: Story of a Fat Girl - My experiences inhabiting a large body in a world that is constantly warning me about the medical and social dangers of being "too fat."

Panels from the zine “Piss Off, Python!” by Meg Lentz and Carly Shooster.

Last Summer, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis decided to not just cut arts funding, but to cut all arts funding. He chose to veto the entire budget, impacting 700 local organizations, because he didn’t like that some funding went to two festivals that host drag shows. Or, as DeSantis put it, “too much into the DEI, into the woke stuff.” This budget decision based on racism, homophobia, and transphobia gutted arts and cultural organizations which (just FYI) the state’s own analysis found generate $6 billion in economic activity for Florida. Now, DeSantis is considering restoring some of the funding, but only to organizations and events that the governor’s office deems “appropriate for all age groups.” That means organizations celebrating BIPOC, queer, and trans artists would likely be left out. 

“It was a gut punch,” says Carly Shooster, assistant director of the Sequential Arts Workshop, a comics school based in Gainesville which instantly lost $25,000 in funding. The school has helped build a comics community around the country by running free Friday night comics workshops every week since 2020. With writer Meg Lentz, Carly created the zine featured above to help raise both awareness of the cuts and money for the school. 

In the face of the budget cuts, Florida artists are staying resilient and turning toward helping each other, says Carly. “DeSantis can’t take away our culture and beauty. What I'm noticing is Florida communities being like, ‘Fuck this!’ and a lot of volunteers coming through.” It’s important to recognize that while Florida is known nationally for its conservative politics and ridiculous headlines (see: the Florida Man meme), it’s also home to vibrant arts communities, environmental activism, punk scenes, and legendary LGBTQ culture that has thrived for decades—regardless of who’s in political power. 

“I want everyone to know that queer people live here and love it here. Florida isn't some evil place. People think of Florida as a joke and write it off. You know, it's not just ‘Florida Man,’ DeSantis, and hurricanes. There's a huge culture of mutual aid and community care. The arts are not dead here, if anything, we're all rallying with each other.”

Upcoming festivals

Come say hi in person! Crucial is tabling at two Portland comics and zine festivals over the next month… on opposite coasts.

March 29th: Reed Zine Fest is a free, one-day event with tables for over 100 student and community artists. It’s 11am-5pm at Kaul Auditorium on the Reed College campus, Portland, Oregon. 

April 5th: Comic Arts Maine Portland is a brand-new, free festival at the public library in downtown Portland, Maine. Dozens of amazing artists will be at the event and Crucial publisher Shay will be running a queer zine workshop. 11am-5pm at the Portland Public Library, Portland, Maine.

The comics review website Broken Frontier published a glowing write-up of the Cartoonists for Palestine anthology. The book was “undoubtedly one of the year’s most important comics projects,” writes Andy Oliver: “It is powerful and deeply affecting material, and no review can do the voices to be heard here and the stories to be told full justice. In that regard it’s important not just to read and absorb but also to spread the word about the project.” People just keep buying the Cartoonists for Palestine anthology, so this month we were able to donate $1,600 to Palestinian aid groups. This brings our donation total for the book to $2,915.

Sales benefit Medical Aid for Palestinians, ANERA, the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, and the Ghassan Abu Sittah Children’s Fund.

All of our classes are sliding-scale and offered online, so they’re affordable and you can join from anywhere. We also have free spots available in every class and workshop for people who can’t afford the price—get in touch if you’d like to request a free spot!

Workshops

Forms and Folds: Innovative Shapes for Zines: Unfold new possibilities for storytelling in this hands-on, two-hour workshop exploring the art of forms and folds in comics! Jillian King leads this workshop on how to reimagine the single-page zine, experiment with accordion folds, and dive into the basics of pop-up techniques to transform your comics into interactive and tactile experiences. Wednesday April 23rd, 5-7pm PST/8-10pm EST

Big Fat Comics:  Do you find yourself gravitating towards drawing one type of body image in your work? This two-hour workshop led by Nicole Testa LaLiberty playfully examines fatphobia in comics art and offers a couple fat-positive prompts to explore.  Wednesday, May 14th at 4pm-6pm PST/7pm-9pm EST

Navigating Climate Anxiety and Grief Through Comics: Artists Denali Sai Nalamalapu, author of Holler: A Graphic Memoir of Rural Resistance, and Madeleine Jubilee Saito, author of You Are a Sacred Place: Visual Poems for Living in Climate Crisis, team up to lead this timely and reflective two-hour workshop.  Tuesday, May 20th, 2pm-4pm PST/5pm-7pm EST

Free Meetup 

Chronic Illness Comics Club: This very chill monthly meetup facilitated by Zareen Choudhury is all about building community through art. The workshop begins with a drawing prompt reflecting on living with chronic illness, then participants are encouraged to share their work. Sunday, April 6 at 11am PST / 2pm EST

Banned Together pulls together 15 artists responding to book bans across the United States. Graphic novels, especially ones centering on LGBTQ characters, have faced fierce challenges in schools and libraries. 

Cry When the Baby Cries collects the darkly hilarious and way-too-relatable parenting comics of artist Becky Barnicoat, who wallows and revels in the wobbly roller-coaster of raising a young child. 

In her On Making a Book series, Madeleine Jubilee Saito beautifully reflects on the process of creating her upcoming book, You Are a Sacred Place. It’s gorgeous work.

• Absolutely delightful comics newsletter The Gutter is open for submissions to their annual print anthology, Riff Raff. The theme is “cycles.” Contributors will be paid and the deadline for submissions is April 1.  

• Video game fans! An anthology called Free to Play is looking for comics about video games. Comics are paid $25/page and submissions are open now through March 31. 

• Want to make a zine about disability justice? Wild Ramp publishing is offering four $250 micro-grants to creators who want to make disability-focused zines. Applications due April 18.

• For artists who need time to work on a longer project, applications are now open for the Center for Cartoon Studies Cornish Fellowship. This is a month-long, paid solo residency next fall in a rural spot in New Hampshire. If you’re looking to get away from the distractions of city life, applications are open through April 1.

This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at smirk@crucialcomix.com. 💌

» The Role We Play: Artist Amy Churchwell made the first draft of this comic about reckoning with a past relationship during a Crucial memoir comics class. We’re proud to publish this beautiful work.

» Saline Intrusions: This deep dive from Indian artist Nikhil Chaudhary digs into the complicated story of Mumbai's salt pans. Even though the salt pans are Mumbai’s last line of defense against climate-change induced floods, the government and developers want to build on them.

All of our classes are sliding-scale and offered online, so they’re affordable and you can join from anywhere. We also have free spots available in every class and workshop for people who can’t afford the price—get in touch if you’d like to request a free spot!

We call this work: “Taxes for Artists”

✨ Tomorrow! Taxes for Artists: Anxious about how to do your taxes? You're not alone. During this donation-based workshop, tax advisor Elisabeth Parker from Brass Taxes will talk about common questions, problems, and issues that come up for freelancers doing their taxes in the United States, then take questions from participants. Thursday, Feb. 20th, 1pm-2pm PST/4pm-5pm EST

Making Memoir Comics: This seven-session memoir comics class led by Shay Mirk focuses on telling real-life stories about your life, identity, and family. We will aim to write and draw a 20-panel personal story, and participants will also create shorter comics to practice different techniques and find their visual voice. Wednesdays, March 5 – April 16th from 5pm-7pmPST/8pm-9pm EST 

How to Get an Agent: In this two-hour workshop, cartoonist Al Benbow will cover the basics of how to get an agent for a graphic novel project: preparing your pitch, querying agents, and how to know when you’ve found an agent that’s right for you. Thursday March 6, 5-7pm PST/8-10pm EST

Forms and Folds: Innovative Shapes for Zines: Unfold new possibilities for storytelling in this hands-on, two-hour workshop exploring the art of forms and folds in comics! Jillian King leads this workshop on how to reimagine the single-page zine, experiment with accordion folds, and dive into the basics of pop-up techniques to transform your comics into interactive and tactile experiences. Wednesday April 23rd, 5-7pm PST/8-10pm EST

• An anthology about the recent fires in LA is looking for local cartoonists to submit short story ideas. This is a fundraiser anthology from Oak Tree Comics and artists will be paid $200/page. 

• Do you make funny comics? Humor-writing residency St. Nells has a residency running for three women, nonbinary, or genderqueer cartoonists in April. Unclear when applications close, so here’s the application form! 

• Video game fans! An anthology called Free to Play is looking for comics about video games. Comics are paid $25/page and submissions are open now through March 31. 

• Want to make a zine about disability justice? Wild Ramp publishing is offering four $250 micro-grants to creators who want to make disability-focused zines. Applications April 18.  

• Eisner Award submissions are now open. It’s free to submit your work to the prestigious award decided upon by comics industry professionals.

This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at smirk@crucialcomix.com. 💌

» Toypurina - Artist Lindsey Danae Perez tells the historical story of how Tongva medicine woman Toypurina rallied her people to fight Spanish colonizers.

» A Richer Picture - When asked to describe a person in a photo, Al Benbow wound up reflecting on assumptions about gender presentation.

Things are feeling bleak. But here’s some good news: Crucial was able to make our first donation to Palestinian aid groups from Cartoonists for Palestine book profits. We donated a total of $1,315 in January to Palestinian aid, and will continue to donate all future profits from the book. This upcoming weekend, contributors are hosting a book launch party in San Francisco. If you’re in the Bay Area, come say hi, buy a book, and meet new friends! Saturday, Feb. 8th, 7-9pm at Silver Sprocket (1018 Valencia Street)

Donation-based workshop: Taxes for Artists

Anxious about how to do your taxes? You're not alone. We’re running a donation-based workshop where tax advisor Elisabeth Parker from Brass Taxes will talk about common questions, problems, and issues that come up for freelancers doing their taxes in the United States, then take questions from participants. This is not a time to help individual people with their personal tax returns, but a great place for working artists to bring general tax questions. Such as: How the heck do I do my taxes?! This one-hour workshop will get you started with some helpful knowledge. Thursday, Feb. 20th, 1pm-2pm PST/4pm-5pm EST

Register for Taxes for Artists

All of our classes are sliding-scale and offered online, so they’re affordable and you can join from anywhere. We also have free spots available in every class and workshop for people who can’t afford the price—get in touch if you’d like to request a free spot!

Intro to Clip Studio for Personal Comics: Clip Studio is a sophisticated and useful software specifically designed for making comics. Buuuut it can also be pretty intimidating to new users. Artist Kane Lynch leads this two-hour workshop about Clip Studio basics. Wednesday, February 19 from 4-6pm PST/7pm-9pm EST

Making Memoir Comics: This seven-session memoir comics class led by Shay Mirk focuses on telling real-life stories about your life, identity, and family. We will aim to write and draw a 20-panel personal story, and participants will also create shorter comics to practice different techniques and find their visual voice. Wednesdays, March 5 – April 16th from 5pm-7pmPST/8pm-9pm EST 

How to Get an Agent: In this two-hour workshop, cartoonist Al Benbow will cover the basics of how to get an agent for a graphic novel project: preparing your pitch, querying agents, and how to know when you’ve found an agent that’s right for you. Thursday March 6, 5-7pm PST/8-10pm EST

Free Meetup

Chronic Illness Comics Club: This very chill monthly meetup facilitated by Zareen Choudhury kicks off with a drawing prompt, then participants are encouraged to share their own work dealing with chronic illness. Sunday, February 16 at 1pm PT / 4pm ET

• The Comics Advisory Group is offering mini-grants of $500 to people making comics. This is open to comics of all genres, and creators around the world (hell yeah!). Applications are open now through February 12th. 

• Want to make a zine about disability justice? Wild Ramp publishing is offering four $250 micro-grants to creators who want to make disability-focused zines. Applications April 18.  

• Trailer Blaze is a comics residency at the Sou’wester Lodge on the Washington coast run by Seattle comics festival Short Run. The “women-centered” residency is open to comics creators who are cis or trans women, nonbinary, or genderqueer. Applications are open through February 28th. 

This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at smirk@crucialcomix.com. 💌

Drawing through wildfire

In 2017, a ring of fire encircled my California hometown. As the enormous blaze burned night after night, I felt powerless. I felt like all I could do was lay on the floor of my apartment, far away, frantically reloading a tiny pixelated fire map to see if my parents’ home had burned down. Their house survived, but many people lost their homes… and all of us felt the grief and rage of a place we fiercely love going up in smoke.

I felt that fear and fury return to my body all week, as deadly fires cut through Los Angeles. Here are two comics I worked on in response to 2017’s fire seasons and new work several cartoonists created this week amid LA’s fires. — Shay Mirk

Powerless: How Pacific Gas & Electric is leaving California residents in the dark. Art by Joyce Rice.

What We Saved from the Fire: We asked 11 people what they took with them as they evacuated from the Thomas Fire. Art by Andy Warner.

• ND Stevenson: This is the only place that has ever felt like home
• Ellen O’Grady: “We really only have each other in our ability to care for one another.”
• Jett Allen: LA is on fire! 
• Laura Chow Reeve: Los Angeles has been on fire for days 

» Jackie Ormes and the Red Scare: Artist Taina Cunion delves into how the groundbreaking Black female cartoonists used her powerful platform—and caught the attention of the FBI.

» Operation Ulusy: Cartoonist Ami Bogin’s grandparents fled their Soviet Union home. If they hadn't, the family would have been forcibly relocated during World War II.

The copies of Cartoonists for Palestine have arrived! Crucial Comix is the publisher of the U.S. edition of this 250-page fundraiser anthology, which collects comics from over 50 artists from around the world. If you live in Portland, Oregon, and want to help us ship the 600 or so copies that very nice people have preordered, come by our volunteer shipping party this Sunday, January 12, from 1-4pm.

A good goal for 2025: Make more art! All of our classes are sliding-scale and offered online, so they’re affordable and you can join from anywhere. We also have free spots available in every class and workshop for people who can’t afford the price—get in touch if you’d like to request a free spot!

January Classes

Facing the Blank Page: Drawing Comics When You’re Afraid of Drawing with Ali Holmes // Are you interested in comics but think you could never draw your own? Join the club! This extremely encouraging, low-stakes class starts with drawing blobs to help you face anxiety around drawing. Saturdays from 10am - noon PST/1pm-3pm EST, January 18 – February 22

Finding Your Visual Voice: Experimental Storytelling in Comics with Joaquin Golez // Get weird. Find your visual style and unique voice in this class focused on experimental approaches to comics. The six-session class uses lots of creative exercises and playfulness to help creators of all backgrounds and skill-levels to develop strong narratives, characters, and emotions even in very short stories. Sundays from 10am – noon PST/1pm-3pm EST, January 19th – February 23 

One-off Workshops 

How to Get an Agent with Al Benbow // In this two-hour workshop, cartoonist Al Benbow will cover the basics of how to get an agent: preparing you pitch, querying agents, and how to know when you’ve found an agent that’s right for you. Al will share examples from the query and graphic novel pitch that they used to get their agent, and cover best practices for querying. Thursday, March 6th from 5pm-7pm PST/8pm-10pm EST

Free Meetup 

Chronic Illness Comics Club facilitated by Zareen Choudhury // Do you make or read comics about chronic illness? Come hang out and share your work! This is a very chill, low-key monthly meetup. Zareen will offer a reflective drawing prompt for the first 30 minutes of the time, then the second half will be about sharing work and experiences. Sunday, Jan 19 at 1pm PT / 4pm ET

• Paper Rocket Press is looking for their next mini-comic to publish. They’re looking for unpublished comics between 30-90 pages and offer $500, a publishing contract, and space at their MoCCA 2025 table. Applications close January 15.

• Makes More Comics’ 2025 grant is now open! They offer $1000 to comics artists to help them publish new work in print. Applications are open now through March 31st.

The Comics Advisory Group is offering mini-grants of $500 to people making comics. This is open to comics of all genres, and creators around the world (hell yeah!). Applications are open now through January 15th.

• Secret Riso Club is offering mini-grants of $250 for people looking to create political zines. They’ll also riso print 100 copies of each zine. Applications close January 18th. 

This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at smirk@crucialcomix.com. 💌

Our goal with Crucial is to build a comics press and community that helps people create their own nonfiction comics. So we’re starting up an exciting new project in 2025: a space to discuss and share comics about chronic illness. This is something that several members of our community asked for. There’s a rich history of comics dealing with health and bodies (check out the website Graphic Medicine), but there are not a lot of places for people to share new work and personal experiences relating to chronic illness. 

We’re going to be running a free, very low-key Chronic Illness Comics Club meetup monthly on Zoom. During this one-hour session, an artist will offer a reflective drawing prompt for the first 30 minutes of the time, then the second half will be about sharing work and experiences. Everyone who registers is also invited to join our Discord, where we have a Chronic Illness Comics Club channel. If that sounds like something you’re interested in, register for the January meetup here! The winter 2025 meetups will be facilitated by cartoonist Zareen Choudhury. Thanks, Zareen!

Need a last-minute gift for a creative person in your life? Want to support independent artists instead of billionaires? Awesome. We’re selling print-at-home gift certificates for Crucial classes and workshops. These beautifully illustrated gift certificates are good for either a multi-week class or one-off workshop any time during 2025. If you know someone who wants to be making more comics, give them the gift of time and space to create their work. All of our classes are offered online, so you can join from anywhere.

Computer science zine pack: Check out this adorable pack of three zines by Allia Service and Audra McNamee about why they love computers (or really: why they love yelling about how annoying computers are when they don’t work right). Each pack comes with a niche RSS-feed fan sticker reading “move slow and become obsolete.”  

Queer zine pack: Queer zines are the best zines. It’s a fact! This perfect pack of three zines by Shay Mirk includes a reflection on coming to identify as queer, new ideas for Pride flags, a gender-feelings zine template, and a rainbow holographic sticker.

January Classes

Facing the Blank Page: Drawing Comics When You’re Afraid of Drawing with Ali Holmes // Are you interested in comics but think you could never draw your own? Join the club! This extremely encouraging, low-stakes class starts with drawing blobs to help you face anxiety around drawing. Saturdays from 10am - noon PST/1pm-3pm EST, January 18 – February 22, 2025 

Finding Your Visual Voice: Experimental Storytelling in Comics with Joaquin Golez // Get weird. Find your visual style and unique voice in this class focused on experimental approaches to comics. The six-session class uses lots of creative exercises and playfulness to help creators of all backgrounds and skill-levels to develop strong narratives, characters, and emotions even in very short stories. Sundays from 10am – noon PST/1pm-3pm EST, January 12th – February 16 

January One-off Workshops 

Intermediate Digital Drawing With Procreate with Audra McNamee // If you’ve drawn in Procreate a bit, but still feel a bit confused or know you have more to learn, this two-hour project-based workshop will challenge you to use new Procreate tools and settings as you make a four-panel comic.Wednesday, January 29 from 5-7pm PST/8pm-10pm EST

Read the Cartoonists for Palestine Book

We’re publishing the print edition of the Cartoonists for Palestine anthology, which collects comics from over 60 artists around the world as a fundraiser for Palestinian aid. The first edition of these 250-page, full-color books will ship in January. But the free digital version is now available online! You can read through the PDF of the book on the Cartoonists for Palestine website, and you’re welcome to use it for free in educational and noncommercial settings. We’re hoping this book will be helpful for teachers, educators, and activists.

Want to know what’s next for Crucial and to share your own ideas? Audra and Shay are running a (fun, interesting) open meeting this Thursday, December 19th, from 4pm-5:30pm PST to reflect on how our launch went, share details of our budget, and talk about what we have planned for 2025. Our goal is to be transparent about Crucial’s finances and get community input for planning our next year, so we can be a resource to you all. 😎

• Fieldmouse Press is looking to publish print copies of comics between 16-56 pages. You don’t need an agent and they accept various genres. Submissions are open until the end of December.

• The Comics Advisory Group is offering mini-grants of $500 to people making comics. This is open to comics of all genres, and creators around the world (hell yeah!). Applications are open now through January 15th.

• Secret Riso Club is offering mini-grants of $250 for people looking to create political zines. They’ll also riso print 100 copies of each zine. Applications close January 18th. 

• Librarians! First of all, you are wonderful. Secondly, the American Library Association is offering grants to two libraries to help build their graphic novel collections and programming. Applications close January 12.  

• Anarchists! Anarchist Studies is offering grants ranging from $500-1000 to fund intersectional art projects, including visual comics. Applications are open now through March. 

This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at smirk@crucialcomix.com. 💌

» Working Like a Dog - Yifan Luo explores all the time, energy, and care it takes to train a service dog.

» How Do Textbooks Discuss the U.S. Trying to Overthrow Foreign Governments? Heavy hitter Nate Powell shares this excerpt from his graphic adaptation of the groundbreaking book Lies My Teacher Told Me.

Computer science zine pack: An adorable pack of three zines by Allia Service and Audra McNamee about why they love computers (or really: why they love yelling about how annoying computers are when they don’t work right). Each pack comes with a niche RSS-feed fan sticker reading “move slow and become obsolete.”  

Queer zine pack: Queer zines are the best zines. It’s a fact! This perfect pack of three zines by Shay Mirk includes a reflection on coming to identify as queer, new ideas for Pride flags, a gender-feelings zine template, and a rainbow holographic sticker.

🎁 Gift a workshop! We created print-at-home gift certificates for our upcoming roster of workshops and classes, so you can give the gift of creativity—and support comics artists while you’re at it!

One-off Workshops 

Drawing Family Stories // This Thursday! Drawing comics about family is complicated. In this two-hour workshop, cartoonist Sanika Phawde will help offer prompts and examples to guide participants through drawing a one-page comic about their own families. Thursday, December 12th from 3pm-5pm PST/6pm-8pm EST

January Classes

Facing the Blank Page: Drawing Comics When You’re Afraid of Drawing with Ali Holmes // Are you interested in comics but think you could never draw your own? Join the club! This extremely encouraging, low-stakes class starts with drawing blobs to help you face anxiety around drawing. Saturdays from 10am - noon PST/1pm-3pm EST, January 18 – February 22, 2025 

Finding Your Visual Voice: Experimental Storytelling in Comics with Joaquin Golez // Get weird. Find your visual style and unique voice in this class focused on experimental approaches to comics. The six-session class uses lots of creative exercises and playfulness to help creators of all backgrounds and skill-levels to develop strong narratives, characters, and emotions even in very short stories. Sundays from 10am – noon PST/1pm-3pm EST, January 12th – February 16 

Artist Sanika Phawde is running this week’s workshop on drawing family stories—a timely way to process the big feelings that come up around the holidays.  We asked her to recommend three comics about families. 

One! Hundred! Demons! by Lynda Barry // I really love how in this book, Lynda writes and draws her family exactly as she sees them as a child. She seamlessly inhabits her younger self. She allows space for her demons and the ones of her loved ones and embraces her difficult complicated feelings for the people in her life without trying to fix them. She writes in a way that anyone can connect with. What a superhero. And in spite of the sometimes dark storylines, there is so much joy in her drawings and collage work. This book is an object brimming with love. 

Scenes from an Impending Marriage and Loneliness of a Long Distance Cartoonist by Adrian Tomine // I love Adrian Tomine’s comics. In these two works in particular, I thought it was really clever how he uses simple techniques to anonymize the characters in his stories. Safety first!

What Is Home, Mum? by Sabba Khan // I have never read a better and more human description of Post-Partition Kashmir, India, and Pakistan. Sabba Khan explains how the legacy of Partition continues to haunt our communities to this day. She is documenting her past while trying to reconcile with it, processing what forced migration has meant for every generation in her family leading up to her, and how it has shaped her understanding and relationship with her religion and identity. She does all this while questioning her own intentions in writing this book and and while extending the deepest compassion and kindness towards the people in her life. Reading this graphic memoir is like watching Sabba Khan find her home within herself.

News

Photo by Guinevere Fullerton

Strand Books is on strike! Workers at the New York City bookstore famous for its “18 miles of books” went on strike this week amid the busy holiday season. One of the main demands of the union is to increase the base pay from $16 an hour (minimum wage in NYC) to $18 an hour. The Strand is owned by Nancy Bass Wyden, whose husband Ron Wyden is the senior U.S. senator of Oregon, and the store hosts frequent author events by cartoonists. “Historically, whenever unions win, ALL workers win, including part-timers and seasonal workers,” says Niccolo Pizarro, a cartoonist who works part-time at The Strand and supports the strike. “Booksellers are on the ground and can be the key to putting comics and graphic novels in the hands of readers. It is beneficial that the people who are passionate about printed media are not in poverty so that they can continue to share the work of creatives.”

• The Comics Advisory Group is offering mini-grants of $500 to people making comics. This is open to comics of all genres, and creators around the world (hell yeah!). Applications are open now through February 12th. 

• Secret Riso Club is offering mini-grants of $250 for people looking to create political zines. They’ll also riso print 100 copies of each zine. Applications close January 18th. 

• Librarians! First of all, you are wonderful. Secondly, the American Library Association is offering grants to two libraries to help build their graphic novel collections and programming. Applications close January 12.  

• Anarchists! Anarchist Studies is offering grants ranging from $500-1000 to fund intersectional art projects, including visual comics. Applications are open now through March. 

• Queer people! Galactic Comics is looking for pitches to publish five-page standalone sci-fi, horror, or fantasy stories by LGBTQ creators. They’ll pay 400 Euros per piece. Get in there!

This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at smirk@crucialcomix.com. 💌

» Heavyweight Desk Jockey World Champ:  Ren Strapp shares tips for staying strong and active when you're hunched over your desk like a goblin.

» The Accident: A cartoonist remembers the strangers who helped her after an accident, and what she wishes she'd told them.

» When You Can’t Control the Future: As my anxiety spirals over the next Trump presidency, trying to calm my racing mind.

Look, we know that capitalism is a trap. We’re out here trying to support each other as we also figure out our own ways to survive. Americans say they’re going to spend an average of $1,000 on holiday gifts this year. So if you are buying gifts, put that money toward independent artists rather than egomaniacal billionaires. Here are some nice things you can buy from Crucial to support our work of paying cartoonists to make comics that help create human connection.

Crucial workshop gift certificate!

Queer zines pack

Fashionable hat

Adult ADHD zine

News

Last week, the House passed a bill that’s raising red flags for how it could destroy nonprofits across the country. H.R. 9495, dubbed the “nonprofit killer bill,” allows the Treasury secretary to unilaterally declare any nonprofit is a “terrorist supporting organization” and revoke its tax-exempt status. You might be thinking: Isn’t it already illegal to provide money to terrorist groups? Yes, yes it is. But the new law has such vague language that many organizers fear the Trump Administration will use it as a tool to go after politically focused groups supporting things like racial justice, environmental activism, and Palestinian aid. As Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said on Tuesday, “The road to fascism is paved with a million little votes that slowly erode our democracy and make it easier to go after anyone who disagrees with the government. Donald Trump says you’re a terrorist, so you’re a terrorist.” 

This could impact Crucial Comix because we’re the publisher of the anthology Cartoonists for Palestine, which is a fundraiser for three Palestinian aid nonprofits. We’re donating all profits from the book—which goes to press this week—to organizations like the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund. If the Trump administration uses this law to declare any of those nonprofits a “terrorist supporting organization,” it would not only be devastating for those groups, it could potentially put us as donors in hot water. As Beth Gazely writes at PBS NewsHour “The lack of a clear definition in the legislation would leave room for interpretation. It’s not clear who would be held liable—it might even be the nonprofits’ donors.” The good news is this bill still needs to pass the Senate, so there’s still time to speak out against it by contacting your senators. In the meantime, we are absolutely committed to publishing Cartoonists for Palestine and donating the proceeds—no matter what.

All of our classes are sliding-scale and offered online, so they’re affordable and you can join from anywhere. We also have free spots available in every class and workshop for people who can’t afford the price—get in touch if you’d like to request a free spot!

One-off Workshops 

Decolonize the Superhero: New Approaches to Writing Superhero Comics // The history of superheroes has long been dominated by capitalist narratives that glorify masculinity, imperialism, and colonial narratives, particularly from U.S. points of view. Syrian-Canadian comics writer Yazan al-Saadi leads this workshop on exploring how to subvert this U.S.-centric idea of superheroes. Sunday, December 1 from 10am-12pmPST/1pm-3pm EST

Drawing Family Stories // Drawing comics about family is complicated. In this two-hour workshop, cartoonist Sanika Phawde will help offer prompts and examples to guide participants through drawing a one-page comic about their own families. Thursday, December 12th from 3pm-5pm PST/6pm-8pm EST

January Classes

Facing the Blank Page: Drawing Comics When You’re Afraid of Drawing with Ali Holmes // Are you interested in comics but think you could never draw your own? Join the club! This extremely encouraging, low-stakes class starts with drawing blobs to help you face anxiety around drawing. Saturdays from 10am - noon PST/1pm-3pm EST, January 18 – February 22, 2025 

Finding Your Visual Voice: Experimental Storytelling in Comics with Joaquin Golez // Get weird. Find your visual style and unique voice in this class focused on experimental approaches to comics. The six-session class uses lots of creative exercises and playfulness to help creators of all backgrounds and skill-levels to develop strong narratives, characters, and emotions even in very short stories. Sundays from 10am – noon PST/1pm-3pm EST, January 12th – February 16

New nonfiction comics we recommend. 

Lebanon is Burning: A must-read new collection of comics from Yazan Al-Saadi (who’s leading an upcoming workshop for Crucial!) reflects on recent political and social unrest in the Middle East. 

Djuna: The Extraordinary Life of Djuna Barnes: We’ve heard lots of praise for this new graphic biography of Djuna Barnes, the legendary writer, artist, and queer radical known for her sapphic Jazz Age novel Nightwood. 

Halfway There: Our team is very excited to check out this new graphic memoir by cartoonist Christine Mari about her biracial Japanese-American identity and how it felt to spend a year in Japan as a teen.

• How to Touch Grass is a new comics anthology from Power & Magic Press that’s looking for submissions of comics about connection, isolation, and accessibility. Accepted artists are paid $125/page. Submissions are open until January 12th. 

• Have an idea for an anarchist comic? Anarchist Studies is offering grants ranging from $500-1000 to fund intersectional anarchist projects, including visual arts (like comics!). Applications open November 30th.

• Queer creators with a sci-fi or fantasy story: Galactic Comics is looking for pitches to publish five-page standalone sci-fi, horror, or fantasy stories by LGBTQ creators. They’ll pay 400 Euros per piece. Get in there.

Have you ever seen a more perfect sticker?

This newsletter is written by Shay Mirk. If you have comics or opportunities you think we should feature, email Shay at smirk@crucialcomix.com. 💌