Killian's Blog/Website/Whatever

I was reading Lucy Knisley's newest comic today, and when I got to the middle, I started crying. I called Daniel, but his phone was busy. I wanted to share my happiness with someone who gets it, with someone who reads Lucy's comics with my same enthusiasm (D and I read almost all the same comics, so this is easy for us to do). I've been reading her autobio and travel comics for so long, it feels like I know her personally. I am invested in her life like a friend. This is the strange thing that webcomics--which are released with a regularity not afforded to printed mediums--and Twitter can lead to: a feeling of friendship with people who don't know you. It's complicated, but I wouldn't trade the intimacy of Twitter (something I try, myself, to employ because I understand how powerful it can be) for the real-acquaintance reality of Facebook ever. Ever. Sometimes it feels a bit like being in high school, like admiring the Cool Kids from the sidelines*. This se...

Glyn Dillon’s The Nao of Brown (SelfMadeHero, 2012) The Nao of Brown is so close to being good. Dillon’s art is phenomenal. It carries the story. The prose is occasionally stilted, very ellipses-heavy in both dialogue and narration, which draws away from the story more than once. However, that art! --absolutely beautiful. And Dillon’s illustrative skills are no one-trick pony; the story takes place in both the real world (narrated by protagonist, Nao Brown) and in the pages of a fictional Manga series-- Ichi --by a fictional author by a similar name. A comic within a comic: very meta. Both sections are illustrated in separate, distinct styles. Both are beautiful. image from The Guardian's review The exciting part of Nao is that the protagonist has obsessive-compulsive disorder. As far as most people understand, OCD is an excessive hand-washing and organizational problem. It’s disheartening that, even now, most mental disorders are still commonly viewed as on...

Thinking about ethics, thinking about my personal beliefs, thinking about how much I hate anything phony. Thinking about applying for an office job again, thinking about how I might be judged for this (from both sides), thinking about my "image." Thinking about personal brands, thinking about the hard-won pride I have in my personal identity, thinking about how these things could be perceived as counter in a more conservative workplace. Thinking about how I am still out of touch with the culture of this place, thinking about how I want to be involved in the writing/publishing community but have had no luck thus far, thinking about how I wish I could open a comics shop here. Thinking about money, thinking about the tens of thousands of dollars of debt I am accumulating in pursuit of my graduate degree, thinking about priorities. Thinking about how much I love my Masters program, thinking about the love I get from that community, thinking about how much I want to move to Michig...